Ethics in Action: The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations

This book is the product of a multiyear dialogue between leading human rights theorists and high-level representatives of international human rights nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) sponsored by the United Nations University, Tokyo, and the City University of Hong Kong. It is divided into three parts that reflect the major ethical challenges discussed at the workshops: the ethical challenges associated with interaction between relatively rich and powerful Northern-based human rights INGOs and recipients of their aid in the South; whether and how to collaborate with governments that place severe restrictions on the activities of human rights INGOs; and the tension between expanding organization mandate to address more fundamental social and economic problems and restricting it for the sake of focusing on more immediate and clearly identifiable violations of civil and political rights. Each section contains contributions from both theorists and practitioners of human rights.

Daniel A. Bell is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has held fellowships at Stanford's Center for Advanced study in the Behavioral Sciences and Princeton University Center of Human Values. His books include Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context (Princeton University Press 2006), East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (Princeton University Press 2000) and Communitarianism and Its Critics (Oxford University Press 1993).

Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the UNU Office at the United Nations in New York. Dr Coicaud was Senior Academic Officer in the Peace and Governance Programme at UNU in Tokyo from 1996 to 2003. Before joining UNU, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A former fellow at Harvard University Center for International Affairs and Harvard Law School, Coicaud has held appointments as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee).