John Kamm's dialogic vision: Human rights in China case by case.

摘要

For nearly fifteen years, Kamm's communicative activity with Chinese government officials has fostered the better treatment or release from prison of more political prisoners than have the actions of any other individual or organization in the world. On behalf of human rights and systemic reform in China, the main question this research addresses is how Kamm communicates across cultures to achieve these significant results. Kamm's efforts have not gone unnoticed. He is the recipient of the first Best Global Practices Award from President Bill Clinton, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award from the George W. Bush Administration, and in September, 2004, was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for designing and implementing an original approach for helping political prisoners in China.; In order to explore the "hows" of Kamm's verbal and written engagement with Chinese officials, this researcher observed directly in China Kamm's communication with those officials. Moreover, several prisoner cases were selected from Dui Hua's database, and are presented in Chapter Five. This dissertation was, moreover, informed by scholarly literature in the specific areas of dialogue, translation, human rights, and international negotiation theory. In addition, thirteen ethnographic interviews were conducted with individuals highly familiar with Kamm's work. Interviewees were selected from diverse professional backgrounds, including academia, international law, politics, human rights research and activism, and the office of the Special Envoy to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The "hows" and "whys" of Kamm's work were also examined in terms of his ontological and epistemological assumptions concerning communication and human rights.; Key findings suggest that Kamm's dialoguing with Chinese officials operates in uncharted territory and is based primarily on his asking about a specific prisoner. It is dialogue based on his and his staff's meticulous research to uncover political prisoners' names. These names are then entered into Dui Hua's database, compiled into lists, and submitted to Chinese officials. Kamm's communicative approach is distinguished from that of a more openly confrontational one commonly practiced by human rights activists and international lawyers. Human rights abuses, Kamm claims, are bad for business. He strongly believes that business people themselves should do something about that. He continues to urge them---without success---to follow his lead. Kamm's dialogic methods have generated new and significant potentials. These including opening communication channels not only with officials in relevant Chinese Ministries, but also, for the first time ever, with Chinese prison wardens themselves.