Human Rights at 60: early retirement or another chance?
As the time comes to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the West has lost its moral authority and seems incapable of offering any hope of future dignity to the rest of the world. Guantanamo, ‘extraordinary rendition’ and Abu Ghraib will be just some of the words launched in the face of the West to deny its self-assigned role as the champion of human rights. Many despotic regimes, previously so used to being the accused, are now careful not to miss an opportunity to point out the fact that, when the circumstances are exceptional, all countries, whether they are run as democracies or not, are quite prepared to set aside human rights when it suits them.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was approved by the United Nations’ General Assembly on 10 December 1948 with 48 votes in favour and 8 abstentions (Soviet Union, and its allies, South Africa and Saudi Arabia).
60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 10th marks the 60th anniversay of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN is celebrating, with an entire website dedicated to the anniversary and the declaration itself.
My Notre Dame colleague Deb Rotman sent me the “Simplified Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” So here it is:
Human rights in action at the European Court
Today the whole world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you want to see protection of human rights in action, you will have to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. A number of leading Dutch legal experts choose their favourite rulings.
BBtv WORLD + WITNESS.org: 60 Years of Declaration of Human Rights, and Rights of The Mentally Disabled
(Warning: the video embedded in this post contains graphic content that viewers may find disturbing.)
Boing Boing tv commemorates the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week in partnership with WITNESS. Have you read the declaration lately? You can do so here. It is as timely and essential to our world today as it was on December 10, 1948, just after the end of World War II.
Merriam-Webster’s 2008 Word of the Year
by David Pescovitz
Merriam-Webster has announced its 2008 "Word of the Year." The winner? "Disemvowel" "Bailout," which "received the highest intensity of lookups on Merriam-Webster Online over the shortest period of time." And the next four in the Top Ten list:
2. vet
3. socialism
4. maverick
5. bipartisan
Protestors from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demonstrate outside an Armani store in Hong Kong Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. They are urging Armani fashion designers stop using fur as their new items are featuring rabbit fur including outfits for babies.
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
The Revenge of the Local, the Horror of the Provincial, and Western Cosmopolitanism at Risk
by Maximilian Forte
MAIN FOCUS: 60 years of human rights | 10/12/2008
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 60 today. The European press comments on the significance of the declaration, and calls its success into question.
Universities, the Cloud and E-Scholarship
by francis
After building out mostly idiosyncratic, departmental-level IT solutions for specific, outside-funded research projects, universities and other institutions of higher learning are now grappling with the expanding and changing demands put on them by their constituents: the academic research community.
Havel to Habermas
by Edward Lucas
Central Europe’s missing political philosophy
THEY gripped the world, but left political philosophers yawning. According to Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher, the revolutions that overturned decades of totalitarian rule in central and eastern Europe in 1989 were marked by a “total lack of ideas that are either innovative or orientated towards the future”.
Cognitive Therapy is as effective as anti-depressants in chronic depression
by Cory Doctorow
A study published today in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology concludes that Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is as effective as anti-depressants in controlling long-term depression.
Religion and nanotechnology
Religious people seem to have a more negative view of nanotechnology than others, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Life Sciences Communication rated 11 countries in Europe and the US on "religiosity" and then looked at their attitudes on nanotechnology. Professor Dietram Scheufele and his colleagues presented their results in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology. (From the BBC News:
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