Human Rights and the Third World: Issues and Discourses deals with the controversial questions on the universalistic notions of human rights. It finds Third World perspectives on human rights and seeks to open up a discursive space in the human rights discourse to address unresolved questions, citing issues and problems from different countries in the Third World: 1. Whether alternative perspectives should be taken as the standard for human rights in the Third World countries? 2. Should there be a universalistic notion of rights for Homo sapiens or are we talking about two diametrically opposite trends and standards of human rights for the same species? 3. How far these Third World perspectives of human rights can ensure the protection of the minorities and the vulnerable sections of population, particularly the women and children within the Third World? 4. Can these alternative perspectives help in fighting the Third World problems like poverty, hunger, corruption, despotism, social exclusion like the caste system in India, communalism, and the like? 5. Can there be reconciliation between the Third World perspectives and the Western perspective of human rights?
| Acknowledgments |
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| Introduction: Human Rights and the Third World: Issues and Discourse |
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1 | (16) |
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Part I Global Human Rights Standards and the Third World |
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1) Universal Claim and Postcolonial Realities: The Deep Unease over Western-Centered Human Rights Standards in the Global South |
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17 | (14) |
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2) The Impossible Dream: Global Realization of the Human Right to Development---Now! |
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31 | (28) |
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3) Development and Environmental Issues vis-a-vis Current Perspectives of Human Rights |
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59 | (22) |
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4) Human Rights and Corruption: Indonesian Case for Reconciling Universalism and Relativism |
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81 | (18) |
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Part II Politics of Human Rights from Third World Perspectives |
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5) Human Rights and Indigenous Self-Government: The Taiwanese Experience |
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99 | (24) |
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6) Colonial Continuities, Neoliberal Hegemony and Adivasi (Original Dweller) Space: Human Rights as Paradox and Equivocation in Contexts of Dispossession in India |
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123 | (22) |
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7) Hindutva Politics -- Impact on Human Rights |
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145 | (20) |
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Part III Rights of the Marginalized |
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8) Human Rights Violations in India: Exploring the Societal Roots of Marginality |
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165 | (14) |
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9) Media, Cultural Rights and the Third World |
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179 | (14) |
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10) The Fault Lines in Soviet-Style Accommodation of Minority Rights in Ethiopia |
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193 | (22) |
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11) Human Rights and the Third World Other |
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215 | (20) |
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Part IV Rights for Children and Genders |
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12) Culture and Issues of Rights to the Eyes of the Indians with `Other' Self-Identities of Sexuality and Gender |
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235 | (30) |
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13) Roots and Shoots of Female Feticide in Pockets of India---Lending Voice to the Voiceless |
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265 | (22) |
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Part V Rights of the Disabled and Health |
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14) The Rights of People Living with Disability from the Third World Perspective: The Zimbabwean Context |
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287 | (22) |
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15) Disability in the Third World: A Critical Mapping of the Indian Scenario |
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309 | (22) |
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16) "People's Health in People's Hands"---A Goal Ever-Elusive? |
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331 | (22) |
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Part VI Expanding Frontiers of Human Rights |
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17) Human Rights and Information Society: Problematizing India |
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353 | (18) |
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18) Biotechnology and Human Rights |
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371 | (22) |
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| Index |
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393 | (22) |
| Notes on Contributors |
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415 | |
Subrata Sankar Bagchi is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Bangabasi Evening College, University of Calcutta, India. He is also teaching postgraduate courses of anthropology and human rights in the University of Calcutta, West Bengal State University, and Jadavpur University.
Arnab Das is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta. He also teaches postgraduate courses in human rights, museology, human resource management, anthropology, and rural development in West Bengal, India.
