Human rights currently constitute an issue of great concern. Several conditions, resulting from cumulative postwar developments and the current political situation, account for the present change in attitude toward human rights. They are (1) institutional developments of the past forty years; (2) the growth of citizen human rights organizations; (3) decline in superpower involvement in international and regional military conflicts; (4) the current focus of national leaders on human rights; and (5) significant political changes in the most abusive nations. This article focuses on the change in the conceptualization of human rights in Latin America and the Soviet Union and the current priority given in these areas to the issue of human rights. It also focuses on the utility of the human rights issue for these countries. The dynamics in the human rights arena have changed in the 1980s, but there is no guarantee that the present conditions will continue.
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References
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1. Tom J. Farer, “The United States and Human Rights in Latin America: On the Eve of the Next Phase,”International Journal, 43(3): 473 (1988).
2.
2. Warren Lee Holleman, The Human Rights Movement (New York: Praeger, 1987), p. 1.
3.
3. I. F. Stone, “The Rights of Gorbachev,”New York Review of Books, 16 Feb. 1989.
4.
Louise B. Sohn and Thomas Buergenthal, International Protection of Human Rights (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973).
5.
5. Robertson, Human Rights in the World, p. 82.
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6. “Inter-American Court Finds Honduras Responsible for Disappearance,”Human Rights Watch, no. 3, p. 1 (July-Aug. 1988).
7.
7. Tom J. Farer, “United States and Human Rights in Latin America,” pp. 475-476.
8.
8. “Vienna Breakthrough: Human Rights in the USSR,”Moscow News, no. 13, p. 10 (1989).
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9. Natan Sharansky, “Rights Parley — or Sham,”New York Times, 22 Jan. 1989.
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10. Margaret E. Crahan, “Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy: Realism versus Stereotypes,” in The United States and Latin America in the 1980s, ed. Kevin J. Middlebrook and Carlos Ricos (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 1986), p. 417.
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Dan Southerland , “Chinese Police Stop Dissident,”Washington Post, 27 Feb. 1989.
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12. Abdul Aziz Said, “Human Rights and Islam,” in Understanding Human Rights: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives, ed. Adamantia Pollis and Peter Schwab (New York: Praeger, 1979), p. 87.
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13. Yu. Kudriatvsev, “We Learn Democracy: Restructuring and Human Rights,”Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 39(42):6 (1987).
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14. Paul Lewis, “Soviets to Accept World Court Role in Human Rights,”New York Times, 9 Mar. 1989.
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15. Guillermo O'Donnell, “The United States, Latin America, Democracy: Variations on a Very Old Theme,” in United States and Latin America in the 1980s, ed. Middlebrook and Rico, p. 363.
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16. James Billington, The Icon and the Axe (New York: Knopf, 1967).
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17. Richard Wortman, The Development of a Russian Legal Consciousness (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976).
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18. Holleman, Human Rights Movement, p. 22.
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19. V. N. Kudriavtsev and Y. A. Lukasheva, “Socialist Legal State,”FBIS Daily Reports, 20 Sept. 1988, p. 5 annex.
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20. Crahan, “Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy,” p. 419.
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21. Ibid., p. 418.
22.
22. Comite internacional de la cruz roja and Instituto interamericano de derechos humanos, Seguridad del estado, derecho humanitario y derechos humanos (San José, Costa Rico: Educa, 1984).
23.
23. Rafael Braun, “The Human Rights Question in U.S.-Latin American Relations,” in United States and Latin America in the 1980s, ed. Middlebrook and Rico, p. 392.
24.
24. This point was made very forcefully by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick in a piece that contributed to her rise to prominence in the Reagan administration. See Kirkpatrick, “Dictatorship and Double Standards,”Commentary, Nov. 1979, pp. 34-35.
25.
25. “Vienna Breakthrough,” p. 10.
26.
U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe , Concluding Document of the Vienna Follow-Up Meeting (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1989).
27.
27. Stone, “Rights of Gorbachev.”
28.
28. “Ukaz Presidiuma Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR,”Izvestiia, 10 Apr. 1989, p. 2. The provision on insulting and defaming state organs and public organizations is so broad as to threaten glasnost.
29.
29. I was recently part of the juridical commission of Helsinki Watch that visited the USSR with an official invitation. Our hosts arranged talks with highlevel Soviet legal officials on human rights questions. This visit was unusual but not totally unprecedented, as an American journalist had been permitted to visit a camp for political prisoners and American psychiatrists had been given access to psychiatric patients.
30.
30. For a discussion of this, see Howard J. Wiarda, “Democracy and Human Rights in Latin America: Toward a New Conceptualization,” in Human Rights and U.S. Human Rights Policy: Theoretical Approaches and Some Perspectives on Latin America, ed. Howard J. Wiarda (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1982), pp. 30-52.
31.
31. Argentine National Commission of the Disappeared, Nunca más (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986).
32.
32. Shirley Christian“Uruguayans Vote, at Ballot Box and in the Streets,”New York Times, 17 Apr. 1989.
33.
33. See U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, submitted to U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations and U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Feb. 1989.
34.
34. James Atlas, “Thatcher Puts a Lid On,”New York Times Magazine, 5 Mar. 1989, pp. 36-38, 97.
35.
35. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, pp. 2-3.
