Human Rights: The Essential Reference - Hardcover

Devine, Carol; Hansen, Carol R.; Poole, Hilary; Wilde, Ralph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 157356205X ISBN 13: 9781573562058

Publisher: Greenwood, 1999

Synopsis

Now, for the first time, there is a single reference work that documents the history of human rights worldwide, clearly explains each article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and examines the major human rights issues facing the world today. Comprehensive in scope, Human Rights covers a broad range of human rights issues that are central to an understanding of world history and current affairs.

About this title

About the Author

Carol Devine is a Canadian human rights professional. She has worked for national and international nongovernmental organizations such as Voices of Positive Women (Canada), the Diplomacy Training Program (Australia), and Medecins Sans Frontieres (international). Devine is the author of Determination: Tibetan Women and the Struggle for an Independent Tibet (1994). In 1995, she served as executive director of the VIEW Foundation, a Canadian nongovernmental organization that led the first civilian volunteer clean-up expedition to Antarctica.

Carol Rae Hansen is an international affairs and education consultant in the Washington, D.C. area. Her extensive government experience includes service with the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, Commerce and Agriculture, as well as with the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the National Security Council, and the C.I.A. She has also been a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute and an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Hansen received her PhD in government from Harvard University, and her MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Ralph Wilde is an English barrister who is working as an academic and a practitioner in international law and human rights law. He has worked in this field for Senator Edward Kennedy in the U.S. Congress, at the UN in New York, for UNHCR as a human rights monitor in Kenya, and for the law firm Shearman & Sterling. He was recently the Henry Fellow at Yale University and a visiting scholar at Yale Law School.

Hilary Poole is a writer and editor specializing in the social sciences. Most recently she coauthored History of the Internet: A Chronology, 1843 to the Present. She served as managing editor for Sexuality and Cyberspace: Performing the Digital Body. Poole also served on the editorial board of the journal Women and Performance and was a frequent editor and contributor. She is a graduate of Brown University.

Reviews

Grade 10 Up-As most discussions in the political, economic, and social arena have a human-rights component, it is refreshing to find such a fine addition to the reference literature. This volume is divided into four sections; the first "traces the evolution of our modern concept of human rights" beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing through World War II to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Part two is a thorough examination of this historical document, article by article. Part three provides a detailed overview of the contemporary human-rights movement through essays and alphabetical entries on various government and nongovernmental agencies as well as biographical profiles of numerous activists. The final section consists of short essays on 33 of the most pressing human-rights issues today, including: "AIDS/HIV," "Child Soldiers," the "Death Penalty," and "Indigenous Peoples." Black-and-white photographs are scattered throughout. An appendix offers the text of eight United Nations documents and an extensive index facilitates access. A specialized resource without an equal.
Marsha S. Holden, Highland Community College, Freeport, IL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwood
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 157356205X
• ISBN 13: 9781573562058
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304