The value and legitimacy of using courts to limit the powers of governments in the domain of human rights is a significant ongoing debate. This book provides a critical review that explores the alternative means for protecting and promoting human rights. This group of twenty-four leading human rights scholars from around the world present a variety of perspectives on the disappointing human rights outcomes of recent institutional developments and consider the prospects of reviving the moral force and political implications of human rights values.
This important work argues that human rights abuse is not necessarily about distant places and peoples, and it is neither incomprehensible nor inevitable. Despite seeming consensus about the importance of human rights protection, abuse--based in inequality--continues to expand. This empowering book seeks to break through barriers of ignorance, apathy, denial, and despair that allow decent people to tolerate indecent acts by their governments, and to arm a new generation of human rights advocates with analytical and strategic tools to prevent future atrocities.
This is a new edition of this popular introduction to the politics of human rights.Tony Evans argues that the state's central role in protecting and promoting rights has been severely weakened under globalization and that as a consequence human rights are becoming less attainable. As the value of the market grows, the value of individual human rights decreases. The author departs from traditional interpretations of human rights by focusing on the political economy of human rights rather than on the philosophical or legal aspects. He analyses how issues related to globalization, such as the environment, population movement patterns and free trade impact on individual human rights. In conclusion, he argues that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other major treaties must be renegotiated to take globalization into account.
The second edition of Kalin and Kunzli's authoritative book provides a concise but comprehensive legal analysis of international human rights protection at the global and regional levels. It shows that human rights are real rights creating legal entitlements for those who are protected by them and imposing legal obligations on those bound by them.
(unseen), $12.95. Donnelly explicates and defends an account of human rights as universal rights. Considering the competing claims of the universality, particularity, and relativity of human rights, he argues that the historical contingency and particularity of human rights is completely compatible with a conception of human rights as universal moral rights, and thus does not require the acceptance of claims of cultural relativism. The book moves between theoretical argument and historical practice. Rigorous and tightly-reasoned, material and perspectives from many disciplines are incorporated. Paper edition Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Beth Simmons demonstrates through a combination of statistical analysis and case studies that the ratification of treaties generally leads to better human rights practices. She argues that international human rights law should get more practical and rhetorical support from the international community as a supplement to broader efforts to address conflict, development, and democratization.
For the past decade, humanitarian actors have increasingly sought not only to assist people affected by conflicts and natural disasters, but also to protect them. At the same time, protection of civilians has become central to UN peacekeeping operations, and the UN General Assembly has endorsed the principle that the international community has the "responsibility to protect" people when their governments cannot or will not do so. Elizabeth Ferris explores the evolution of the international community's understandings of protection, with a particular emphasis on the humanitarian community. "Protection" is a noble word, with positive connotations, but what does it actually mean in practice? Does providing assistance to vulnerable people protect them, for example? Does monitoring the number of rapes protect women? Does increased engagement in protection activities by humanitarian agencies jeopardize the cornerstone humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality? In The Politics of Protection, Ferris examines inconsistent ways in which protection is defined and applied. For example, why do certain groups receive international protection while other equally needy groups do not? Her case studies, ranging from Iraq to Katrina, illustrate the challenges—and limitations—of protecting vulnerable populations from the ravages of war and natural disasters. Ferris argues that the protection paradigms currently in use are inadequate to meet the challenges of the future, such as climate change, protracted displacement, and the changing nature of warfare.
