The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521865173)

Human rights are now the dominant approach to social justice globally. But how do human rights work? What do they do? Drawing on anthropological studies of human rights work from around the world, this book examines human rights in practice. It shows how groups and organizations mobilize human rights language in a variety of local settings, often differently from those imagined by human rights law itself. The case studies reveal the contradictions and ambiguities of human rights approaches to various forms of violence. They show that this openness is not a failure of universal human rights as a coherent legal or ethical framework but an essential element in the development of living and organic ideas of human rights in context. Studying human rights in practice means examining the channels of communication and institutional structures that mediate between global ideas and local situations. Suitable for use on inter-disciplinary courses globally.

Author: Mark Goodale
ISBN-10: 0521865174
ISBN-13: 9780521865173
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/27/2007
Pages: 398
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.68lbs
Size: 9.01h x 6.39w x 1.16d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2008 pg. 228