The International Human Rights Movement

by Neier, Aryeh

• ISBN13: 9780691135151
• ISBN10: 0691135150
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

During the past several decades, the international human rights movement has had a crucial hand in the struggle against totalitarian regimes, cruelties in wars, and crimes against humanity. Today, it grapples with the war against terror and subsequent abuses of government power. In The International Human Rights Movement, Aryeh Neier--a leading figure and a founder of the contemporary movement--offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of this global force, from its beginnings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to its essential place in world affairs today. Neier combines analysis with personal experience, and gives a unique insider's perspective on the movement's goals, the disputes about its mission, and its rise to international importance. Discussing the movement's origins, Neier looks at the dissenters who fought for religious freedoms in seventeenth-century England and the abolitionists who opposed slavery before the Civil War era. He pays special attention to the period from the 1970s onward, and he describes the growth of the human rights movement after the Helsinki Accords, the roles played by American presidential administrations, and the astonishing Arab revolutions of 2011. Neier argues that the contemporary human rights movement was, to a large extent, an outgrowth of the Cold War, and he demonstrates how it became the driving influence in international law, institutions, and rights. Throughout, Neier highlights key figures, controversies, and organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and he considers the challenges to come. Illuminating and insightful, The International Human Rights Movementis a remarkable account of a significant world movement, told by a key figure in its evolution.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
The Movement	p. 1
Putting Natural Law Principles into Practice	p. 26
What Are Rights?	p. 57
International Human Rights Law	p. 93
International Humanitarian Law	p. 117
Defying Communism	p. 138
Rights on the Other Side of the Cold War Divide	p. 161
Amnesty International	p. 186
Human Rights Watch	p. 204
The Worldwide Movement	p. 233
Accountability	p. 258
Rights after 9/11	p. 285
Going Forward	p. 318
Notes	p. 335
Index	p. 359
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