II New Books

Date01 March 2005
Published date01 March 2005
DOI10.1177/016934410502300114
Subject MatterPart D: Documentation
II NEW BOOKS
Agents of atrocity: leaders, followers, and the violation of human rights in civil war / Neil J.
Mitchell. – New York: Palgrave, 2004. – 227 p.
ISBN: 1-4039-6274-X
Who is responsible for the terror, atrocities, and violations of human rights that
occur in civil wars? Blame can be directly attributed to the actual perpetrators of the
massacres, rapes, and pillaging – but it can also be placed on the leaders who often
hide behind their ambivalent orders. Placing responsibility clearly in the hands of
political leadership, the author explores the interaction of leaders, their
management practices and repressive policies, using the Arab-Israeli conflict and
the English and Russian civil wars to shed light on when leaders are more or less
likely to turn to atrocities to achieve their goals. With civil wars continuing to rage
around the world, this book provides a timely history of atrocities and the leaders
and henchmen who carried them out, while providing a new context for
understanding why they occur and how they can be prevented in the future.
The blindfold of lady justice: judicial independence and impartiality in light of the requirements
of article 6 ECHR / Martin Kuijer. – Leiden: E.M. Meijers Institute, 2004. – xvi, 497 p.
ISBN: 90-5850-074-8
The judiciary, the institution that ensures the peaceful settlement of disputes, is
essential for the proper functioning of a State governed by the rule of law. Public
debate tend to focus more often on the authority, integrity, independence and
impartiality of judges. One of the most important benchmarks in this respect is laid
down in Article 6 ECHR, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg. What does the Convention exactly demand from national judiciaries?
The book also examines some of the controversies relating to judicial independence
and impartiality and the organisation and structure of the Dutch judiciary.
Compassionate Canadians: civic leaders discuss human rights / Rhoda Howard-
Hassmann. – Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. – xii, 322 p.
ISBN: 0-8020-3664-3
Do Canadians, as a group, possess a strong ethical code when thinking about human
rights issues? They do, according to the author who has analysed the responses of 78
civic leaders to questions about hate speech, hate crimes, gay and lesbian rights,
multiculturalism, employment equity, aboriginal rights, the rights of the poor, and
an individual’s obligation to immigrants, refugees, and people living outside
Canada’s borders. The civic leaders interviewed represented many diverse groups.
In their responses, they stressed the importance of both belonging to and having
obligations to the Canadian community. They highlighted the values of equality,
non-discrimination, and multiculturalism, as well as the need to respect everyone
living in Canada. Understanding the moral reasoning of these civic leaders helps to
illuminate the moral consensus among ordinary Canadian citizens around the
formal human rights laws that govern Canada. It also illustrates the sort of human
rights policies that Canadians are likely to support.
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 23/1 (2005) 163

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