Focuses on understanding human rights as they really are and their proper role in international affairs.

In a groundbreaking investigation, Kiernan reveals the disconnect between how patients want to live the end of life--pain free, functioning mentally and physically, surrounded by family and friends--and how the medical system continues to treat the dying with extreme interventions and little regard for their wishes.

This book explores the significance of remembering the rescuers denouncing human rights crimes as well as protecting and sheltering targeted victims—including the dead—during the Cold War state violence in Latin America. In light of newly unearthed archival evidence, testimonial memories, and the continued mobilization of human rights groups to preserve Cold War memory, this timely book moves beyond the victim-perpetrator dichotomy and its discursive studies to focus on those whose moral courage and righteous acts were beacons of hope in the midst of extreme violence. Remembering Latin American “righteousness,” a term used in Holocaust literature, is important in recognizing that those who resisted human rights violations and protected victims yesterday are those who often keep the collective memory of that past alive today.

In this theological resource for spiritual transformation and social change, Carter Heyward rethinks the figure and import of Jesus for church, academy, and society. Rather than focus on the endlessly variable pictures of Jesus in contemporary biblical scholarship, and in radical opposition to the Jesus of the Christian Right, Heyward presents Jesus as our brother, infused with a sacred power and passion for embodying right (mutual) relation, and ourselves with him in this commitment. She goes on to explore, concretely, how we might live this way.Wonderfully clear-sighted, this brief, faithful, and intelligent Christology offers reconstructions of incarnation, atonement, evil, suffering, and fear. It also sheds light on the significance of Jesus for ecological, racial, economic, and gender justice. Heyward's book envisions a mighty counter-cultural force, which she names christic power, that can help save American culture from its greed and domination and save the figure of Jesus from culture-generated distortions. In short, Heyward's book will help people come to terms with the life-changing implications of Jesus' person and ethic. To a generation in search of the transforming potential of Christian commitment, Heyward's most important work offers both spiritual depth and unwavering commitment to the human good. A study guide to this book is available here on fortresspress.com. Click on the tab Letter from the Author.

In mapping out the field of human rights for those studying and researching within both humanities and social science disciplines, the Handbook of Human Rights not only provides a solid foundation for the reader who wants to learn the basic parameters of the field, but also promotes new thinking and frameworks for the study of human rights in the twenty-first century. The Handbook comprises over sixty individual contributions from key figures around the world, which are grouped according to eight key areas of discussion: foundations and critiques; new frameworks for understanding human rights; world religious traditions and human rights; social, economic, group, and collective rights; critical perspectives on human rights organizations, institutions, and practices; law and human rights; narrative and aesthetic dimension of rights; geographies of rights. In its presentation and analysis of the traditional core history and topics, critical perspectives, human rights culture, and current practice, this Handbook proves a valuable resource for all students and researchers with an interest in human rights.

This work is the result of a master’s dissertation, but especially of the author’s concern to understand how, in the 21st century, we are still discussing degrading forms of labour without ever having actually freed ourselves from the chains of slavery experienced in centuries past. The state of Tocantins, as one of the Brazilian states that most often supplies slave labour, as well as importing this form of labour, has repercussions both domestically and internationally, which is why the study was justified. The north of Brazil, where the state of Tocantins is located, is a vast region with low levels of education, where many people live below the poverty line and with little state action, making it a favourable environment for workers to be recruited in slavery-like conditions. However, modern slavery has much deeper roots than can be measured and was only formally extinguished by political and economic interests, which contributes to the fact that even today the issue is the subject of worldwide studies and criticism, since the marginalised class of yesteryear has become the modern slaves of today. Unfortunately, history proves that the abolition of slavery was due to British pressure on Brazil to establish a new society: the consumer society. In other words, the new type of society would require products to be commercialised, but above all people to consume them, which justified the end of slavery. However, the end of slavery did not really mean the end of the exploitation of human labour power, because the excluded class of former slaves formed the marginalised class of modern Brazilian society, as they were left at the mercy of a capitalist system that was not inclusive and had no real opportunities for social mobility. Thus, this class of workers defined the future of their generations in which the barriers of social injustice and non-belonging could never be overcome because labour for the former slaves was never an emancipating mechanism, marking secular social injustices that continue to this day. The truth is that freed slaves, especially black, poor and illiterate slaves, started to be chained in other ways, especially those that caused physical and emotional illness, because they had to be subjected to degrading work due to the lack of education, culture and opportunities, making the same slave society of ancient times persist, but in a new guise. The slave of precision, that is, the individual who faces the absence of opportunities to achieve basic survival, becomes the worker in conditions similar to slavery by accepting work in precarious and humiliating conditions for personal and family needs given the demands of the capitalist world, creating a favourable environment for the perpetuation of modern slavery. Therefore, it is against this backdrop that the study of labour in conditions analogous to slavery becomes fundamental so that one day we can actually put an end to this vicious cycle from the perspective of coordinated actions between the various bodies that are responsible at the domestic legal level for combating and eradicating neo-slavery once and for all.

When a family outing in a private plane takes a tragic turn, a Memorial Day trip becomes an unforgettable 15 hours of danger, rescue efforts, and miracles. On a clear Saturday morning, professional fire captain and private pilot Brian Brown, his wife, and younger daughter headed out in their Cessna Sky Hawk for a weekend with their elder daughter. But unexpected severe conditions send the craft into the treacherous War Eagle Idaho mountainside...a remote place that would make communication and rescue nearly impossible—if they survived. This captivating story, featured on The Today Show, is about a family in crisis, emergency plans for survival, and the incredible orchestration of local, state, and national rescue workers who brave unpredictable obstacles to accomplish the unimaginable. An intriguing account of faith and courage reminds readers that one’s darkest hour can become the landscape for miracles to unfold.