Between Principle and Practice: Human Rights in North-South Relations.

David Gillies. Montreal, Kingston, London and Buffalo: McGill-Queen's University Press. 1996. xv, 339 pp. (Tables, diagram.) US$55.00, cloth, ISBN 0-7735-1413-9; US$22.95, paper, ISBN 0-7735-1414-7.

This volume is a comprehensive review of the role of human rights in the foreign policy of three industrial democracies as a tool for protesting human rights abuses. The countries - Norway, the Netherlands and Canada - have well-established human rights records. The author has selected five cases to test the consistency of the practice with the principle. He finds a wide gap.

David Gillies has provided a balanced and thoughtful account which, together with a clear, straightforward writing style creates a sense of confidence in the reader. He expresses a hope that "a sense of urgency and engagement has found its way onto those pages."

The period under examination was the second half of the 1980s, a period that saw the passing of the cold war and the new thrust of promoting human rights and democracy as keys to sustainable, market-based development. There followed the emergence of a rift between OECD democracies and the emerging economies of Asia on the application of so-called Western human rights standards. Among the OECD democracies, this in turn was followed by a sharpening debate between moral claims and national interests, and in the author's words, an inescapable tension between foreign policy and human rights, a dichotomy that in this reviewer's view has become pronounced in Canada under the Chretien government.

Arguably, a consistent policy of conditioning both trade and aid is the morally sensitive response. On the other hand, those who categorize themselves as realists would argue for the use of international agencies, such as the U.N., and of technical assistance programs to encourage the development of indigenous human rights mechanisms as well as good governance more generally.

This volume is much more than several case studies; it is a canvas of the major facets of human rights concepts, of definitions, of law and morality, and the frequently cited defence of cultural relativism. The eclectic mix of cases clearly shows off the diversity, complexity and particularity of this field. The author charts the evolution of policy through changing conditions in the target country and political perceptions in the donor country.

The author concludes, "If the resolve to defend human rights abroad is gauged by a state's willingness to incur costs to other important national interests, then the evidence in this study suggests that Canada, the Netherlands and Norway are seldom disposed to let human rights considerations trump more self-serving interests, even though all three states profess ethical duties beyond their borders" (p. 257). This leads him to question whether human rights are truly a "fundamental" Canadian foreign policy interest, a "main" pillar of Dutch policy and an "important" part of Norway's international relations as they are claimed to be.

MAURICE COPITHORNE University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada