The Challenge Of Human Rights

'This volume represents a genuine attempt to think beyond the realms of what exists, to reflect on ideas postulated in the past that could be of great salience in the future. It presents the reader with a key question; to what extent are the contemporary concepts of human rights and the systems that support them equipped to address the challenges of a changed world? By thinking through some of the ideas of the past, with a set of promising young scholars alongside more established names, readers will gain a sense of how human rights politics have shaped the current regime while also becoming attuned to the extent to which new directions and mechanisms can be forged in the future. Many of the individuals whose contributions are encompassed in this volume have strong links to the Irish Centre for Human Rights, at the National University of Ireland, Galway, an institution that has had a significant impact in its first decade of existence under the stewardship of Professor William A. Schabas. This volume celebrates the success of the institution by showcasing some of the talent it has generated, and is likely to be of avid interest to all who care about the future of human rights.' – From the foreword by Joshua Castellino, Middlesex University, UK the Challenge of Human Rights takes a detailed and exploratory approach to topics across the field of human rights, and seeks to map a path for future research and policy development. It examines contemporary approaches to established rights, such as the right to peace and the protection against double jeopardy, while also revisiting overlooked or forgotten rights and concepts such as slavery, apartheid and the right to resist, determining the optimal place for those rights in today's world. the contributing authors outline lacunae in human rights law where rights could be established, from voting rights for under-18s to rights for the dead to cultural and intellectual property rights, and also apply completely new approaches to questions that have troubled human rights advocates for decades. This innovative book will be essential reading for researchers and practitioners of human rights law, political scientists, historians, and others who have a general interest in the future trajectory of human rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted by the UN Commission on Human Rights in the aftermath of the World War II in an attempt to address the wrongs of the past and plan for a better future for all. With contributions from President Jimmy Carter, UNESCO Secretary General Audrey Azoulay and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, this collection of essays, Contemporary Human Rights Challenges: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its Continuing Relevance, by leading international experts offers a timely contemporary view on the UDHR and its continuing relevance to today’s issues. Reflecting the structure of the UDHR, the chapters, written by 28 academics, practitioners and activists, bring a contemporary perspective to the original principles proclaimed in the Declaration’s 30 Articles. It will be a stimulating accessible read, with real world examples, for anyone involved in thinking about, designing or applying public policy, particularly government officials, politicians, lawyers, journalists and academics and those engaged in promoting social justice. Examined through these universal principles, which have enduring relevance, the authors grapple with some of today’s most pressing challenges, some of which, for example equality and gender related rights, would not have been foreseen by the original drafters of the Declaration, who included Eleanor Roosevelt, René Cassin and John Humphrey. The essays cover a wide range of topics such as an individual’s right to privacy in a digital age, freedom to practise one’s religion and the right to redress, and make a compelling and detailed argument for the on-going importance and significance of the Declaration and human rights in our rapidly changing world.

This book identifies the more persuasive contributions by East Asian intellectuals to the international human rights debate.

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the International Declaration of Human Rights, a document designed to hold both individuals and nations accountable for their treatment of fellow human beings, regardless of religious or cultural affiliations. Since then, the compatibility of Islam and human rights has emerged as a particularly thorny issue of international concern, and has been addressed by Muslim rulers, conservatives, and extremists, as well as Western analysts and policymakers; all have commonly agreed that Islamic theology and human rights cannot coexist. Abdulaziz Sachedina rejects this informal consensus, arguing instead for the essential compatibility of Islam and human rights. He offers a balanced and incisive critique of Western experts who have ignored or underplayed the importance of religion to the development of human rights, contending that any theory of universal rights necessarily emerges out of particular cultural contexts. At the same time, he re-examines the juridical and theological traditions that form the basis of conservative Muslim objections to human rights, arguing that Islam, like any culture, is open to development and change. Finally, and most importantly, Sachedina articulates a fresh position that argues for a correspondence between Islam and secular notions of human rights.

Against the backdrop of globalization and mounting evidence of the corporate subversion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights paradigm, Anna Grear interrogates the complex tendencies within law that are implicated in the emergence of 'corporate humanity'. Grear presents a critical account of legal subjectivity, linking it with law's intimate relationship with liberal capitalism in order to suggest law's special receptivity to the corporate form. She argues that in the field of human rights law, particularly within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights paradigm, human embodied vulnerability should be understood as the foundation of human rights and as a key qualifying characteristic of the human rights subject. The need to redirect human rights in order to resist their colonization by powerful economic global actors could scarcely be more urgent.

The world is faced with significant and interrelated challenges in the 21st century which threaten human rights in a number of ways. This book examines three of the largest issues of the century - armed conflict, environment, and poverty - and examines how these may be addressed using a human rights framework. It considers how these challenges threaten human rights and reassesses our understanding of human rights in the light of these issues. This multidisciplinary text considers both foundational and applied questions such as the relationship between morality and the laws of war, as well as the application of the International Human Rights Framework in cyber space. Alongside analyses from some of the most prominent lawyers, philosophers, and political theorists in the debate, each section includes contributions by those who have served as Special Rapporteurs within the United Nations Human Rights System on the challenges facing international human rights laws today.