Human Rights is an introductory text that is both innovative and challenging. Its unique interdisciplinary approach invites students to think imaginatively and rigorously about one of the most important and influential political concepts of our time. Tracing the history of the concept, the book shows that there are fundamental tensions between legal, philosophical and social-scientific approaches to human rights. This analysis throws light on some of the most controversial issues in the field: Is the idea of the universality of human rights consistent with respect for cultural difference? Are there collective human rights? What are the underlying causes of human-rights violations? And why do some countries have much worse human-rights records than others? The third edition has been substantially revised and updated to take account of recent developments, including the ‘Arab Spring’, the civil war in Syria, the refugee crisis, ISIS and international terrorism, and climate change politics. Widely admired and assigned for its clarity and comprehensiveness, this book remains a ‘go-to’ text for students in the social sciences, as well as students of human-rights law who want an introduction to the non-legal aspects of their subject.

Human Rights is an introductory text that is both innovative and challenging. It invites students to think conceptually about one of the most important and influential political concepts of our time. In this unique interdisciplinary approach, Michael Freeman emphasizes the complex ways in which the experiences of the victims of human rights violations are related to legal, philosophical and social-scientific approaches to human rights. By tracing the history of the concept, the book shows that there is a fundamental tension between the philosophy of human rights and the way in which it is understood in the social sciences. This analysis throws light on some of the most controversial issues in the field: Is the idea of the universality of human rights consistent with respect for cultural difference? Are there collective human rights? Should feminists embrace, revise or reject the idea of human rights? Does the idea of human rights distract our attention from the structural causes of oppression and exploitation? What are the underlying causes of human rights violations? And why do some countries have much worse human rights records than others? The book will appeal to students in the social sciences, as well as students of human rights law who want an introduction to the non-legal aspects of their subject. It will also be read by scholars interested in ethics and the social sciences, as well as the general reader.

Imaginary and real strangers : constructing and reconstructing the human in human rights discourse and instruments / Mickaella Perina -- Rise of the global human rights regime : challenging power with humanity / Darren Kew, Malcolm Russell-Einhorn, and Adriana Rincon Villegas -- Between nothingness and infinity : settlement and anti-blackness as the overdetermination of human rights / Andrés Fabian Henao-Castro -- Human rights, Latin America, and left internationalism during the Cold War / Steve Striffler -- Women, gender, and human rights : the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women / Nada Mustafa Ali -- The US-Mexico border and human rights / Luis Jimenez -- Unintended consequences in the postcolonies : struggling South Africans experiencing rights discourse as disempowering / Sindiso Mnisi Weeks -- The mysterious disappearance of human rights in the 2030 development agenda / Gillian Macnaughton -- Addressing General Recommendation No. 35 from an intersectional perspective on violence, gender and disability in Mexico / Ana Maria Sanchez Rodríguez -- Global lgbtq politics and human rights / Jamie Hagen -- Refugee camps and the (educational) rights of the child / Rajini Srikanth -- Persistent voices : a history of indigenous people and human rights in Australia, 1950s-2000s / Maria John -- So you want to work in human rights? / Jean-Philippe Belleau -- Migrant workers in the Gulf : theoretical and human rights dilemmas / Amani El Jack -- Ethical reckoning : theorizing gender, vulnerability and agency in Bangladesh Muktijuddho film / Elora Halim Chowdhury -- Right now in no place with strangers : Eudora Welty's queer love / Avak Hasratian -- On the human right to peace in times of contemporary colonial power / Adriana Rincon -- Beyond dignity : a case study of the mis/use of human rights discourse in development campaigns / Chris Bobel -- Teaching health and human rights in a psychology capstone : cultivating connections between rights, personal wellness and social justice / Ester Shapiro, Fernando Andino Valdez, Yasmin Bailey, Grace Furtado, Diana Lamothe, Kosar Mohammad, Mardia Pierre and Nick Wood

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights: History, Politics, Practice is an edited collection that brings together analyses of human rights work from multiple disciplines. Within the academic sphere, this book will garner interest from scholars who are invested in human rights as a field of study, as well as those who research, and are engaged in, the praxis of human rights. Referring to the historical and cross-cultural study of human rights, the volume engages with disciplinary debates in political philosophy, gender and women’s studies, Global South/Third World studies, international relations, psychology, and anthropology. At the same time, the authors employ diverse methodologies including oral history, theoretical and discourse analysis, ethnography, and literary and cinema studies. Within the field of human rights studies, this book attends to the critical academic gap on interdisciplinary and praxis-based approaches to the field, as opposed to a predominantly legalistic focus, drawing from case studies from a wide range of contexts in the Global South, including Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, India, Mexico, Palestine, and Sudan, as well as from Australia and the United States in the Global North. For students who will go on to become researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and activists, this collection of essays will demonstrate the multifaceted landscape of human rights and the multiple forces (philosophical, political, cultural, economic, historical) that affect it.

Introducing readers to the theory and practice of human rights, this text emphasises how the experiences of the victims of human rights violations are related to legal, philosophical and social-scientific approaches to human rights.

Among several contesting views about the purpose of development and how progress should be evaluated, human rights and capabilities (or human development) stand out as two approaches that are concerned first and foremost with the well-being of individuals, their freedom, dignity and empowerment. These two approaches contrast sharply with the dominant development frameworks that emphasize economic growth as the essential objective. Though human rights and capabilities share these common commitment to human priorities, they are distinct concepts and fields that have developed separately. The aim of this volume is to explore the relationship between them in order to enhance the understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, as public policy frameworks and as approaches to development. The book includes contributions from some of the leading scholars in the two fields of capabilities approach and human rights. It covers the essential aspects of this relationship: addressing the complementarities between human rights and capabilities as theoretical concepts; how the concept of capabilities can contribute to resolving some key theoretical issues in human rights; how the social science analysis and methods of the capabilities approach can clarify human rights concepts and strengthen human rights advocacy; and how human rights norms can strengthen public policy and mobilize collective action to demand greater accountability in placing human priorities first in public policy. Human Rights and the Capabilities Approach raises many questions for further inter-disciplinary conversation and further research. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, and has been expanded with two additional articles from this journal and a new foreword by Professor Amartya Sen.

This open access book analyses the interplay of sustainable development and human rights from different perspectives including fight against poverty, health, gender equality, working conditions, climate change and the role of private actors. Each aspect is addressed from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle. This allows comparisons between the different approaches but also seeks to close gaps which would remain if only one perspective would be at the center of the discussions. Specifically, the book shows the strong connections between human rights and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Already the preamble of this document explicitly states that "the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ... seek to realise the human rights of all". Moreover, several goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda correspond to already existing individual human rights obligations. The contributions of this volume therefore also address how the implementation of human rights and SDGs can reinforce each other, but also point to critical shortcomings of the different approaches.