Critiques the UN's role in advancing human rights
"International human rights law is based primarily on Western values and jurisprudence, but strong challenges from Asia and Africa have stimulated a lively debate over the issue. Thankfully, the current cultural gap has been bridged successfully by the team of Normand (Lahore Univ., Pakistan) and Zaidi (Center for Economic and Social Rights), who have produced an illuminating intellectual fusion. . . . Recommended." —A. Klinghoffer, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, Choice , October 2008
"All who care about human rights need to carefully ponder the challenges that the authors present." —from the foreword by Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss
"Expert and rigorous in methodology, engaging in style, pragmatic yet principled and visionary, this indispensable book is accessible to students, activists, scholars, and practitioners. We all need to understand how and why this system came to be the way it is today if we are to re—appropriate its humane vision and re—enact its humanizing power. —Abdullahi Ahmed A" —Na'im, Emory University School of Law
"Expert and rigorous in methodology, engaging in style, pragmatic yet principled and visionary, this indispensable book is accessible to students, activists, scholars, and practitioners. We all need to understand how and why this system came to be the way it is today if we are to re—appropriate its humane vision and re—enact its humanizing power." —Abdullahi Ahmed A Na'im, Emory University School of Law
". . . Normand and Zaidi have presented a quite readable account of the history of the UN human rights system, mostly providing a perspective on power relations . . . ." —Klaas Dykmann, H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net , January 2009
Human rights activists Roger Normand and Sarah Zaidi provide a broad political history of the emergence and development of the human rights movement in the 20th century through the crucible of the United Nations, focusing on the hopes and expectations, concrete power struggles, national rivalries, and bureaucratic politics that molded the international system of human rights law. The book emphasizes the period before and after the creation of the UN, when human rights ideas and proposals were shaped and transformed by the hard-edged realities of power politics and bureaucratic imperatives. It also analyzes the expansion of the human rights framework in response to demands for equitable development after decolonization and organized efforts by women, minorities, and other disadvantaged groups to secure international recognition of their rights.
Roger Normand is Associate Professor of Law at Lahore University, Pakistan, and co-founder and former executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights. He has lectured widely on topics related to international politics and human rights. He lives in Lahore, Pakistan.
Sarah Zaidi is Coordinator of Research and Information Systems for Earthquakes–Pakistan and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Social Rights. She lives in Lahore, Pakistan.
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Distribution: World
Publication date: 12/19/2007
Format: paper 528 pages, 6.125 x 9.25
ISBN-13: 978-0-253-21934-3
ISBN: 0-253-21934-5
