Description
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.
Critiques the UN's role in advancing human rights
About the Author
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.
Reviews
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. The authors carefully examine the historical background prior to WW II, and then distinguish between group and individual rights in the development of UN principles and covenants. They stress the lack of enforcement mechanisms, but praise the UN for giving birth to "the modern human rights regime." Not surprisingly, they blame the Cold War for the evident defects as the US and USSR were both reluctant to accept limitations on sovereignty. The end of the Cold War helped further the UN human rights agenda, but it still "remained dependent on voluntary state compliance with soft norms and policy targets." Normand and Zaidi are strongly critical of recent US policy, thus the latter sections of the book are increasingly polemical, but the authors do clearly announce that they are "human rights activists," not just scholars. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and up.
-- A. Klinghoffer * Choice *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.October 2008
-- A. Klinghoffer * Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden *. . . 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 . . . .January 2009
-- Klaas Dykmann * H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net *. . . Zaidi and Normand, both human rights advocates for many years, have prepared a quite critical, readable and highly interesting book. . . January 2009
* History.Transnational *Overall, this volume is extremely well written, organized, and researched, and provides a comprehensive understanding of the development of human rights at the United Nations. September, 2009
* H-NET Reviews Humanities & Social Sciences *Book Information
ISBN 9780253219343
Author Roger Normand
Format Paperback
Page Count 528
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press