International Human Rights by Jack Donnelly

International Human Rights

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CHAPTER ONE

1.	Participation in the league's Minorities System, however, was forced upon a defeated Germany and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe as the price of international recognition. The victorious powers refused to be covered, even in their European territories, let alone in their colonial empires. The countries of Latin America also refused to join. And the United States was not a member of the League of Nations.

2.	Although no negative votes were cast, the Soviet Union and its allies ab- stained, claiming that insufficient emphasis was given to economic and social rights. South Africa abstained, because of the provisions on racial discrimination, as did Saudi Arabia, because of the provisions on gender equality.

CHAPTER TWO

1.	This is not exactly correct. Although children are human beings, they usually are not thought to have, for example, a right to vote, on the grounds that they are not fully developed. But once they reach a certain age, they must be recognized to hold all human rights equally. Similarly, those who suffer from severe mental ill- ness are often denied the exercise of many rights -- but only until they regain full use and control of their faculties. Furthermore, both children and the mentally ill are denied the protection or exercise only of those rights for which they are held to lack the necessary requisites. They still have, and must be allowed to enjoy equally, all other human rights. And in the case of children, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child seeks to clarify this special status, including rights to special protections.

2.	Some other languages stress a different multiplicity of meaning in their par- allel terms. For example, Spanish, French, and German all use terms -- derechos hu- manos, droits de l'homme, Menschenrechte -- that contain words meaning both law and rights. Were we working in one of these languages, our discussion at this point might take a slightly different route.

3.	Alan Gewirth, "Human Rights: Essays on Justification and Application" ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).

4.	Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989), chaps. 1-3.

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Publication Information: Book Title: International Human Rights. Contributors: Jack Donnelly - author. Publisher: Westview Press. Place of Publication: Boulder, CO. Publication Year: 1998. Page Number: 181.