Contents: Contributors. Introduction. I. Indian concept of rights: Ideals and realities: 1. Human rights in India: historical roots, inherent ethos and contemporary theory and practices/Vijay Kumar. 2. The matter of mass cremations in Punjab: a window into the state of impunity in India/Ram Narayan Kumar. II. Rights of Dalits and minorities: 3. The right to education under international human rights instruments: examining education of Dalits in India/Abdulrahim P. Vijapur. 4. Freedom of religion and the rights of Dalits and minorities--constitutional vision and reality/James Massey. 5. Minority rights in danger/Ambrose Pinto S.J. 6. Human rights and Dalit women: a cultural exploration into their struggles/Sushma Yadav. 7. Dalits and human rights situation in India/Y. Chinna Rao. 8. Minority rights in India: contest between individual rights and group identity/Kumar Suresh. 9. Police atrocities and endangered minorities in India/Mohd. Mohibul Haque. III. Rights of marginalized groups in India: women and children: 10. Advancing international women's rights in the third world: CEDAW and its application in India/K. Savitri. 11. Rights of the child--manifestations and forms of violations/Joseph Benjamin. 12. Revisiting child rights on the experiences of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)/Somen Chakraborty. IV. Protecting socio-economic rights in India: 13. Appraisal of elementary teacher education curriculum and practices from human rights education perspectives in India/Pranati Panda. 14. Some aspects of India's obligations emanating from the right to social security as a human rights/Ajay Pandey. 15. State and the urban poor in Delhi: development, livelihoods and human rights/M.V. Bijulal. V. Implementing third generation human rights: 16. Self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir--shifting paradigms in a perennial conflict/Patrick Hoenig. 17. Human right to development and ecologically sound environmental in India: premonitions and promises/Md. Zafar Mahfooz Nomani. VI. Human rights in the third world: some studies: 18. Rights of the child and the problem of child soldiers: a case study of Sierra Leone/Jamal M. Moosa. 19. Migrant workers and human rights: a study of the Gulf region/Anisur Rehman. 20. Human rights in Central Asia: problems and prospects/Abuzar Khairi. 21. Recent democratisation reforms and human rights issues in Turkey: problems and prospects/Mujib Alam. Index.
"Human rights in modern international relations represent both the best of times and the worst of times. During the half century following the Second World War revolutionary developments occurred in the legal theory and diplomatic practice of internationally recognized human rights. Human rights language was written into the UN charter and the constitutions of many countries. More than two hundred multilateral human rights treaties exist today. The United Nations system alone has adopted more than 100 human rights instruments on various facets of human rights, covering the entire gamut of human relationship. The world community has adopted the international Bill of Human rights and core human rights instruments on elimination of racial discrimination, discrimination against women, prevention of torture, rights of children and migrant workers. These core treaties have monitoring bodies to supervise international human rights obligations of the states ratifying them. Many third world states are parties to these instruments. Thus, human rights now have become the common language of mankind.
Notwithstanding these revolutionary evolution and domestic implementation of various human rights treaties, this period on the other hand represents the worst of times. Many instances of gross and systematic violations of human rights and inhumanity have occurred in almost all countries the developed West and the under-development Third World. In the 20th century more people have been killed by the states or in the inter-ethnic and communal strife than in two World wars.
The essays contained in the book recapture this paradox of the 20th century the gap between theory and practice of human rights norms. It examines the problem of implementing international human rights obligations in Third World States. The main focus of the essays is to evaluate the rights of Dalits, minorities, socio-economic rights, rights of women, children and marginalized groups. It also deals with human rights situation in Central Asia, Gulf, Sierra Leone and Turkey.
The learned contributors provide candid and graphic accounts of human rights violations. Specialists and non-specialists alike will find ideas, arguments and analyses of high quality in these essays." (jacket)
