BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: IN DEFENSE OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS

My latest book, in Defense of Universal Human Rights, is about to be released by Polity Press in the UK.  This is a short book suitable for teaching.  Some colleagues in the US and the UK have already received it.

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.