Universal Human Rights, Neoliberal Globalization, and the International Human Rights Regime: Tensions and Alternatives.

In recent years, several popular works have helped to place firmly in the Western public's consciousness the idea that processes of neoliberal globalization are clearly beneficial for increasing respect for human rights (for example, Friedman 2005; Yergin and Stanislaw 1998). However, other scholars have suggested that tensions between the ideology of neoliberalism and the conception of the whole list of internationally-recognized human rights as truly universal may very well hinder the advancement of respect for human rights worldwide (for example, Benhabib 2002; Brysk 2002; Harvey 2005). Therefore, this paper seeks to engage in a discourse of alternatives that is rooted in a central, orienting concern for the state of human rights under the socio-political and economic agenda of neoliberal globalization. In order to do this, we first establish the formal arrangement of the current international human rights regime in its most idealized form. Second, we explore the spaces in which this regime is inconsonant with its stated goal of truly universal respect for human rights. Finally, we spend the remainder of the paper identifying and exploring possible alternative directions for the future of the international human rights regime. In this exploration, the authors hope that the reader will find, at best, several pragmatic suggestions for the improvement of the current regime and, at least, a cogent discussion of the current and future limitations of existing international efforts attempting to secure the enjoyment of human rights for all. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]