Jacqueline Smith – författare

Since 1985 seven Yearbooks have appeared containing articles on recent developments with regard to human rights in developing countries. Besides topical information on current issues and trends that pertain to these countries in general, the Yearbook describes the current situation in a selected group of developing countries. The Yearbook 1994 contains national reports on Angola, China, Ghana, Honduras, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The authors and editors of the Yearbook use a broad definition of human rights meaning not merely civil and political rights but economic, social and cultural rights as well. This broad and modern perspective on the issue is reflected in the contents of the national reports and in the thematic studies in the first part of the book, covering a wide range of issues relevant to human rights in the developing world. Among the topics covered by the thematic studies this year are the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the influence of recognized human rights standards in the national politics of Eastern Europe, the social cost of adjustment and human rights protection and an evaluation of recent positive measures taken in the sphere of North-South cooperation. The Yearbook is an initiative of human rights institutes in Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands with the purpose of reaching a wide audience interested in both human rights and development aid issues.

This volume contains the papers which were presented at a symposium on human rights, held in September 1994 in Beijing and organized within the framework of an academic programme of co-operation between the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The focal point of most of the papers is the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action - adopted during the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights - which, from the perspective of particularly the Chinese participants, is considered as marking a new beginning in the field of human rights. Taking the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action as a point of departure the following main themes were the subject of discussion at the symposium and are more or less similarly reflected in the present volume: universality versus particularity; individual rights versus collective rights; national sovereignty and matters of international concern; ratification of international treaties.

This collection of essays, contributed by his friends, pays tribute to the work of Peter R. Baehr, whose impressive career spans some 40 years of activity devoted to the cause of human rights. Although human rights remains the leitmotiv of Professor Baehr's career, the themes explored in this collection - the role of the nation-state in the 21st century, international organisations and foreign policy - are a reflection of the versatility of his work and the range of his interests. This volume thus offers the reader a stimulating collection of essays by a wide range of international experts on both the theory and the practice of human rights within the context of the nation-state of the 21st century.