The Politics of Human Rights: The Quest for Dignity

by Sabine C. Carey , Mark Gibney , Steven C. Poe

• ISBN13: 9780521614054
• ISBN10: 0521614058
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Human rights is an important issue in contemporary politics, and the last few decades have also seen a remarkable increase in research and teaching on the subject. This book introduces students to the study of human rights and aims to build on their interest while simultaneously offering an alternative vision of the subject. Many texts focus on the theoretical and legal issues surrounding human rights. This book adopts a substantially different approach which uses empirical data derived from research on human rights by political scientists to illustrate the occurrence of different types of human rights violations across the world. The authors devote attention to rights as well as to responsibilities, neither of which stops at one country's political borders. They also explore how to deal with repression and the aftermath of human rights violations, making students aware of the prospects for and realities of progress.

Table of Contents

List of text boxes	p. x
List of figures	p. xi
List of tables	p. xii
List of abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Human rights and state responsibilities
The concept of human rights	p. 7
What are human rights?	p. 8
The universality of human rights	p. 11
Where do human rights come from?	p. 16
Human rights and the West	p. 24
International human rights law	p. 28
Introducing the major players	p. 31
Conclusion	p. 37
Further reading	p. 38
Related websites	p. 39
Related films	p. 39
State responsibilities	p. 41
Positive and negative obligations	p. 43
Contested responsibilities	p. 56
Conclusion	p. 67
Further reading	p. 68
Related films	p. 68
Rights with responsibilities	p. 71
Freedom from torture	p. 73
Refugee protection	p. 81
The right to health and the right to food	p. 86
The right to an effective remedy	p. 93
Conclusion	p. 96
Further reading	p. 98
Related films	p. 98
Empirical representations and explanations of human rights violations
Where are human rights violated?	p. 103
Civil and political rights	p. 105
Physical integrity rights	p. 107
Economic and social rights	p. 118
Conclusion	p. 122
Further reading	p. 123
Related websites	p. 123
Related films	p. 124
Why are human rights violated? An examination of personal integrity rights	p. 127
The state as perpetrator of human rights violations	p. 128
Causes of human rights violations	p. 131
A more complete picture	p. 145
A case study: Nigeria	p. 152
Summary and conclusion	p. 157
Further reading	p. 160
Related films	p. 160
Intervening and rebuilding in the wake of repression
Intervening to protect human rights	p. 165
Humanitarian intervention	p. 166
Conclusion	p. 185
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P)	p. 185
Conclusion	p. 193
Further reading	p. 194
Related films	p. 194
Rebuilding society in the aftermath of repression	p. 197
Obstacles to transitional justice	p. 199
Objectives of transitional justice	p. 203
Restorative and retributive justice: complement or contradiction?	p. 220
Further reading	p. 222
Related films	p. 222
Towards the future	p. 225
Bibliography	p. 229
Index	p. 238
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