Product Description

How do we define human rights, and how do we protect them? Is the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights truly universal? And how has human rights discourse been appropriated by legal and institutional cultures? In this "No-Nonsense Guide", Olivia Ball and Paul Gready review the development of today's assumptions about human rights and introduce us to alternative models from history and from today's human rights debate. Using vivid case studies from around the world, the authors illustrate how the concept of rights changes according to geography and culture. They examine the gap between rights legislation and rights implementation, and provide constructive examples of situations in which rights implementation has been successful. From the material rights of citizenship to the more abstract rights of the imagination, the authors present a clear overview of today's human rights debate, and prompt discussion about alternative models for the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104358 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
'For anyone who wants a lucid, factual, reliable guide to some of the most important issues of our time, I strongly recommend you check out the No-Nonsense Guides.' Howard Zinn, historian, playwright and social activist 'A splendid series of pocketable guides to issue politics... rigorously clear' The Guardian, London The No-Nonsense Guides are the most accessible and enjoyable means for people with hurried lives to find out how the world really works George Monbiot, journalist, campaigner and author of The Age of Consent and Captive State 'Publishers have created lists of short books that discuss the questions that your average [electoral] candidate will only ever touch if armed with a slogan and a soundbite. Together [such books] hint at a resurgence of the grand educational tradition... Closest to the hot headline issues are The No-Nonsense Guides. These target those topics that a large army of voters care about, but that politicos evade. Arguments, figures and documents combine to prove that good journalism is far too important to be left to (most) journalists.' Boyd Tonkin,The Independent, London 'For as long as I have been writing about North-South issues - and that's longer than I care to remember - the New Internationalist has been there with pungent, pithy, probing, political analysis. Now they've had the bright idea to encapsulate some of their accumulated wisdom in the No-Nonsense Guides. You can't go wrong - I personally intend to order the whole series' Susan George, Transnational Institute, and author of The Debt Trap and Another World is Possible if...

About the Author
Originally a psychologist working with refugees, Olivia Ball also holds qualifications in community development and development studies and an MA in Human Rights. She has undertaken human rights research, education and campaign work in academia and the NGO sector in Britain and Australia and is now an Adjunct Lecturer at Curtin University's Centre for Human Rights Education. Dr Paul Gready Paul is a Senior Lecturer in Human Rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. He has worked for and undertaken consultancies for a number of human rights organizations, mostly in the UK and South Africa, including Amnesty International and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Johannesburg.