Rhoda E. Howard

The Dilemma of Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

The question of human rights in the Third World is one of the central humanitarian issues of the last quarter of the twentieth century. In this essay, I intend to address the issue by examining English-speaking African countries in an historical and comparative context. English-speaking African states have a common colonial heritage, sharing an official language and institutional structure. Moreover, the ruling Elites of these countries were generally educated in Britain or the United States, where in many cases they developed a commitment to the democratic ideals of the Western world. Thus in sub-Saharan English-speaking nations a body of Third World countries can be identified which, at least in their ideals, resemble Western democracies, yet which in their practice do not seem able to attain the degree of civil and political liberty to which they ostensibly aspire. This suggests that there may be social, economic, or historical impediments to an implementation of their ideals; in other words, that structures limit the realization of values. It is the task of the scholar to

Human Rights and International Relations

Preface Introduction Part I. Theory: 1. The idea of human rights 2. Human rights in Western political thought 3. Human rights and cultural relativism Part II. Practice: 4. Human rights in East-West relations 5. Human rights in North-South relations 6. Human rights in contemporary world society Part III. Policy: 7. Human rights and the theory of international relations 8. Human rights in foreign policy Notes Index.