国际人权保护与尊重国家主权

国际人权保护是现今国际人权活动中的一项重要内容。以美国为首的西方国家把国际人权保护同尊重国家主权的原则对立起来,为其干涉别国内政制造借口。其实,国际人权保护与尊重国家主权是一致的。国家主权没有过时,国际人权保护以尊重国家主权为前提,不能以人权为借口干涉别国内政,国际干预也不能单方面地进行。     

The Rehnquist Court and Indigenous Rights: The Expedited Diminution of Native Powers of Governance

The U.S. Supreme Court has long played a prominent role in defining,critiquing, and, in some cases, rearranging the political relationshipbetween indigenous peoples and the states and the federal government,and in enlarging or reducing the inherent sovereign status ofnative peoples. This article assesses the most recent SupremeCourt opinions that are systematically, and without referenceto judicial precedent, redefining the political status of tribalnations by reducing their heretofore acknowledged sovereignauthority from an internal perspective and especially from anintergovernmental standpoint. Although the U.S. Congress stilladheres to a policy of tribal self-determination, the Courtis dramatically and permanently minimizing the rights of tribesto practice political, economic, and cultural self-determinationbecause in the opinion of a majority of the justices, thereare only two sovereigns in the United States: states and thefederal government.     

Human Rights and Sovereignty in the ASEAN Path Towards a Human Rights Declaration

Sovereignty and non-interference principles are trademarks of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional approach. Starting from 1993, ASEAN has been developing a process aimed at creating a human rights system. This process reached its acme in August 2013 when the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) was formally launched. In the frame of the tension between sovereignty and human rights, the paper firstly analyzes the roots of the ASEAN path towards the creation of the regional human rights system grounded on the Vienna World Conference debate. Next comes an analysis of the political commitments assumed by ASEAN in the last 20 years in the process of creating a human rights body in the region. Furthermore, the paper presents an in-depth analysis of the most problematic issues connected with the nature, functions, mandate, and purposes of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission (2009). This is followed by an analysis of the AHRD.     

Democratization,International Knowledge Institutions,and Global Governance

The central problem of democracy has long been theorized as how to place appropriate constraints on the responsible exercise of power. Today, this problem is most acute in global governance. This article examines the rapid rise in the creation of international knowledge institutions, arguing that these institutions reflect a growing effort by nations and publics to assert democratic constraints on the on the global exercise of power through their ability to structure processes of reasoning and deliberation in global society. Specifically, the article argues for the need to attend carefully to processes of knowledge‐making in international institutions, including the roles of international institutions in setting standards for the exercise of reasoning, their contributions to the making of global kinds through their work in classifying and reclassifying the objects of international discourse, and through their roles in opening up and constraining participation in international deliberation. The article concludes that the construction and deployment of policy‐relevant knowledge are a significant source of power in their own right in global governance that need to be subject to their own democratic critique.     

Multilevel Governance and Shared Sovereignty: European Union, Member States, and the FCTC

The Westphalian idea of sovereignty in international relations has undergone recent transformation. "Shared sovereignty" through multilevel governance describes the responsibility of the European Union (EU) and its Member States in tobacco control policy. We examine how this has occurred on the EU level through directives and recommendations, accession rules for new members, tobacco control campaigns, and financial support for antitobacco nongovernmental organizations. In particular, the negotiation and ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the participation in the FCTC Conference of the Parties illustrates shared sovereignty. The EU Commission was the lead negotiator for Member States on issues over which it had jurisdiction, while individual Member States, through the EU presidency, could negotiate on issues on which authority was divided or remained with them. Shared sovereignty through multilevel governance has become the norm in the tobacco control policy area for EU members, including having one international organization negotiate within the context of another.     

Denying Citizens Their Rights? Indigenous People,Mining Payments and Service Provision

Indigenous Australians have a growing capacity to extract monetary payments from mineral development on their traditional lands. Considerable controversy surrounds the possible use of these payments to fund services such as health, housing and education for the Indigenous groups concerned. Critics of such an approach argue that government should provide basic public services to all citizens, and that use of 'mining payments' for service provision denies Indigenous people specific compensation for the negative impacts of mining and an important opportunity to enhance their economic status. There is also a danger that government may reduce its existing spending on services, leaving Indigenous people no better off as a result of allowing mining to occur. This article argues that while there are certainly risks involved in using mining payments to fund services, Indigenous groups can generate substantial net benefits by doing so. Mining payments can leverage additional government spending; fund services at a level or of a sort that government will not provide; give Indigenous people greater control over service provision; and help develop Indigenous organisational skills and governance capacity. A strategic approach is required to minimise risk and maximise the available benefits, and the article identifies policy principles that can be applied to secure such an outcome.     

A Comparative Analysis of Indigenous Rights in Fennoscandia

The historic claim of the Sami to lands that they have traditionally used and occupied – an issue that has long been dormant – is emerging as a significant public issue in Finland, Sweden and Norway. This article develops a control-consociationalism typology to analyze bow each of the three states responds to Sami claims to their historic rights. Under a control situation, the cultural identity of a minority is almost exclusively determined by the laws, regulations and administrative procedures of the state. Under a consociationalism model, there would be a continuing dialogue between a stale and a minority within an administrative framework that the minority has had a major role in developing. The typology traces more than two centuries of administrative control by the three states and examines how existing institutions deal with the Sami minority. Interviews indicate that most authorities see collective minority rights as a component of human rights and, furthermore, that the Sami constitute an indigenous minority. However, the concept of aboriginal land title divides politicians and administrators; many oppose it or maintain that it is not really necessary. Many Sami rights activists, on the other hand, see it as a fundamental issue – even one of moral justice – that ultimately must be addressed by each state.     

Global Governance: Prospects and Problems

The 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995 occasioned a widespread international discussion of 'global governance'. This term is understood to denote not just conventional bodies of international security and economic management but the overlapping and interlocking of institutions found in all issues and regions, and the increasing body of non-state actors, broadly termed 'international civil society'. This article discusses the functions and reform of global governance, and then examines these in the light of five central issues of the 1990s: the role of the great powers, peace-keeping, economic nationalism, a crisis of NGOs, and global values. It argues that advocacy of global governance must be matched by political realism on the one hand, and the recognition of the need for difficult ethical choices on the other.