Privatising human rights: what happens to the state`s human rights duties when services are privatised?

Human rights law has traditionally focused on the obligations of states in fulfilment of human rights - how a state-focused approach fits in a world where social services are frequently privatised or contracted out - examples of social service provision, health, education and prisons, and inquiries into the obligations of the state and the private operators in relation to these services - private providers of social services have certain human rights obligations within their respective spheres of activity - the state retains an obligation to guarantee the protection and realisation of human rights of everyone under its jurisdiction, regardless of the character of the service provider.

Transnational feminism, globalisation, human rights and education

The article demonstrates how neo-liberal ideologies and market forces of
globalisation have produced new discourses in education, which have created new sites of political action and require a radical rethinking about feminist theorizing concerning gender equity in education. The article, in analysing the transformation of the social relations of gender and social stratification, draws from feminist, poststructuralist and postcolonial theories. The author concludes that there is need for redefining
feminist paradigms in global pedagogies. Such a new paradigm in feminist pedagogy, based on discourses of power, human rights and social justice should provide a foundation for improving the equity for girls and women in education and society globally.

Saving human rights from its friends : a critique of the imaginary justice of Costas Douzinas

Costas Douzinas has argued that human rights arise from a universal but unconscious need for recognition of oneself by others as unique and whole. According to Douzinas, humans' activities and interrelationships are determined by their desires and human rights are a manifestation of those same deep characteristics. Because the basic desires are by their nature incapable of being satisfied, the aspiration for human rights is likewise doomed to frustration. Douzinas' analysis of human nature is derived from a reading of Jacques Lacan's theory of psychoanalysis in which an imaginary and a symbolic realm of experience are defined. Douzinas attempts a synthesis between the Lacanian imaginary and the ethical arguments of Emmanuel Levinas. It will be argued here that the synthesis proposed by Douzinas is itself doomed to failure and that Douzinas' negative approach to human rights and to justice should be rejected in favour of a positive approach.

Limiting the list : human rights and intangible cultural heritage

UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage came into force in April 2006, signalling a major expansion of the global system of heritage protection from the tangible to the intangible. It is an expansion that some heritage professionals see as opening up a Pandora's box of confusions and complexities. The conservation of inanimate objects tangible sites and monuments and artefacts - is difficult enough; but the protection of heritage embodied in people raises new sets of ethical and practical issues. The paper canvasses these concerns and focuses on how the notion of human rights must be used as a way of limiting and shaping the Intangible List. In particular it outlines the ways in which the protection and preservation of cultural heritage is linked to 'cultural rights' as a form of human rights. This linkage is not clearly recognised by cultural heritage practitioners in many countries, who view their work merely as technical, or even by human rights workers, despite the abundance of opportunities around the world to witness people struggling to assert their cultural rights in order to protect their heritage and identity.

A review of international human resource management : integration, interrogation, imitation

International human resource management (IHRM) represents an important dimension of international management. Over the past three decades, there has been considerable growth in research and practice in IHRM. While there have been extensive developments in this field, numerous scholars have identified aspects requiring review and revision. Hence, this paper reviews and interrogates the progress in IHRM's theoretical development. The review leads to the conclusion that research in IHRM has tended to emphasize integration over other forms of progress. In response, and in provocation, imitation rather than integration is suggested as an approach for the development of future theoretical and conceptual directions in IHRM.

Human rights and the treatment of sex offenders

Human rights create a protective zone around persons and allow them the opportunity to further their own valued personal projects without interference from others. All human beings hold human rights and that includes sex offenders, although some of their freedom rights may be legitimately curtailed by the State. In this paper we apply the concept of human rights to sex offenders. First we briefly analyze the concept of human rights, their structure, and justification. Second, we apply our own model of human rights to the assessment and treatment of sex offenders. We conclude that a significant advantage of a human rights approach is that it is able to integrate the value and capability aspects of offender treatment.

Think global, act local: from naive comparison to critical participation in the teaching of strategic international human resource management

In this paper, we examine the implications of ethnocentrism and paternalism in teaching approaches for the field of strategic international human resource management (SIHRM), as an example of management studies. We argue that the teaching of SIHRM has been approached in a colonizing fashion, joining and extending the territories of human resource management and organizational strategy through the definition and teaching of a new language and conceptual vocabulary. We explore philosophical approaches and processes involved in teaching SIHRM, and consider implications of pedagogical developments in this field of management education.