Human rights are one of the great tasks of our civilisation. This article discusses the importance of this task along with our personal responsibility to be involved.
This article fleshes out some of the ideas in the introduction and would be a good one to read after that.
The massacres in Rwanda were an event that touched me deeply, and taught me much about the world. Here are a couple of good summary articles about why the west should also learn from them.
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunites...if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die
A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
Whilst working at the University of Queensland, I would wander through the Co-operative bookshop and this book would always call to me. I picked it up a number of times, but always the word "moral" in the subtitle put me off. Anyway finally I did pick it up, and I've now completely changed my view about the use of the word moral. We need to ask more what is moral and to reclaim it from the religious conservatives who have hitherto defined it in our cultural discourse. The enormity of this book and the relevance of the questions it asks...