Global Human Rights! Not New News!

This post is taken from a book entitled:

Worldwide education statistics: Enhancing Unesco's Role

By James W. Guthrie, Janet S. Hansen, Michael W. Kirst,National Res

I am particularly interested in the "global" aspects of this books inherent approach to the notion of human rights. The book was published in 1995. This is the quote I would like to review:

"Fifty years ago, international relations were dominated by a legacy of fear and distrust between many nations and groups of nations. Today there is a global investment and trade economy, an understanding (at least intellectually) of worldwide ecological interdependence, an emerging international consciousness about human rights and humanitarian issues, and an intense reliance on human capital formation to sustain a nation's global competitive status and internal civic structure.

Research in macroeconomics, international relations, and comparative sociology document these developments and inform our understanding of them. They are highlighted in studies of the global economy and the role of highly skilled personnel in fostering national competitiveness (Reich, 1991), in research on the global expansion and legitimation of education and its transnational influences (Schriever, forthcoming; Ramirez, 1993), and in the literature on the rise of human rights as a global standard (Forsythe, 1991) and its implications for the comparative study of efforts to upgrade the status of women (Stromquist, 1995). The new globalism has gone hand in hand with studies that direct attention to worldwide economic trends and cycles, to international emphasis on education and science for sustainable development, and to human rights issues, especially as they affect women, children, and minorities."

This is of course a 14 year old analysis of a very modern problem that has not gone away. Perhaps it has even worsened in many respects in some regions of the world.Yet it had been very much recognized by scholars as a global problem in 1995 and I am sure as I continue with the research for this blog, I will go back into book and scholarly archives and discover even more literature that demonstrates that there had been globally significant issues which definitely implicated women children and of course minorities even way earlier than 1995. My point is that global human rights are not a new notion. They have been "around" for a very very long time!

William