Here is a detailed table of contents (no page numbers yet, as I have not yet received my own copy).
Introduction
Chapter 1. Universal Human Rights
Definition of Human Rights
Human Dignity
Origins of Human Rights
The International Law of Human Rights
Sovereignty versus Human Rights
Chapter 2: Some Critical
Perspectives on Human Rights
Human Rights as Western Liberalism
Abstraction versus Compassion
The Feminist Critique
Human Rights Law vs. Social Change
Critical Perspectives and Human Rights Universality
Chapter 3: How Rights-Protective
Societies Develop
Does the International Human Rights Regime Make Any Difference?
Market Economies
Civil Society and Political Action
Democracy and Political Institutions
Political Culture
Human Rights Regression
The Fragility of Human Rights
Chapter 4: Civil and Political
Rights
The Debate on Human Rights Priorities
The Strategic Value of Civil and Political Human Rights
The Intrinsic Value of Civil and Political Human Rights
The Right to Have Rights
Universal or Particular?
Chapter 5: Culture and Community
Community and Responsibility
Community and Culture
Cultural Clashes
Freedom of Speech vs. Freedom of Religion
Social Collectivities: Indigenous Rights
The Necessity for Intra-Cultural Debates on Human Rights
Chapter 6: Economic and Social Human
Rights
Economic and Social Human Rights
Critiques of Economic and Social Human Rights
Globalization, Capitalism and Economic Human Rights
Inequality
Development Models and the Intersection of Human Rights
Cherry-Picking Human Rights
Chapter 7: Collective Human Rights
Definition
Self-Determination
The Right to Development
Environmental Rights
The Right to Peace
Civil and Political Rights as the Basis for Collective Rights
Chapter 8: Western (Ir)responsibility
for Human Rights in the Global South
International Justice
International Trade
Foreign Aid
Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations
Human Rights in Foreign Policy
The Urgent Need for Universal Human Rights
Here is the blurb on the back cover.'
Should African and Muslim-majority countries be obliged to protect LGBT rights, even though they claim such rights violate their cultures? Should Western-based corporations be held liable if their security guards kill union activists in Latin America?
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann answers yes to both these
questions. She vigorously defends
universal human rights, arguing that the entire range of rights is necessary
for all individuals everywhere. She
especially defends civil and political rights such as the rights not to be
tortured and the rights to vote, which are often so taken for granted as to be
neglected.
Howard-Hassmann grounds her defense of universality in her
conception of human dignity, which she maintains must include personal autonomy,
equality, respect, recognition, and material security. She argues that only
social democracies can be considered fully rights-protective states. Other
political systems such as communism, or minimally liberal or libertarian states,
are not fully rights-protective.
Howard-Hassmann takes particular issue with scholars who argue that human rights are “Western,” quasi-imperialist impositions on states in the global South, and that the stress on individual rights undermines community and social obligation. She contends, to the contrary, that human rights support communities and can only be preserved if states and individuals observe their duties to protect human rights. Criticisms of human rights as “Western” confuse the practice of sovereignty by all states with some Western states’ hypocrisy in advocating for human rights elsewhere.
