The Politics of Human Rights - Hardcover

Circle, Belgrade

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859847277 ISBN 13: 9781859847275

Publisher: Verso, 2000

Synopsis

This volume sets out to describe the political and philosophical underpinnings of the idea of human rights by bringing together a collection of original essays by a group of highly distinguished theorists. Recognizing that Western insistence on the universality of the concept of human rights can also function as diplomatic cover for post-colonial interventions, it insists that the campaign for human rights must take into account the varied social and economic environments in different nation states that affect the ways such demands can be implemented. This campaign is most effective when demonstrating international solidarity with those whose basic rights are jeopardized or denied.

About this title

About the Author

Obrad Savic teaches History of Social Sciences at the University of Belgrade. He is editor-in-chief of the Belgrade Circle Journal, and author and editor of numerous collections.

Reviews

The essays in The Politics of Human Rights are reprinted from the third issue of the irregular serial Belgrade Circle Journal (ISSN 0354-635X). The Belgrade Circle is a nongovernmental organization founded in 1992 that, according to its web site, promotes "a free, open, pluralist, democratic, and rational civil society" and looks forward to a new Europe rather than back to old Serbia. A better title for the collection would have been "The Political Theory of Human Rights" as the contributors advocate a legal framework as the best protection for human rights, basing their arguments on the early Western European political philosophers of those rights. Three of the essays are analyses of human rights texts; only the last two, written by the volume editor, consider contemporary Yugoslavia. The publication of such essays in Belgrade may be a subversive activity, but they will hardly seem radical to American readers. Furthermore, the photo of Slobodan Milosevic on the cover misleads the reader to expect the contents to focus on Serbia, which is barely mentioned. Chomsky (MIT), a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, contributed one essay to the preceding book as well as writing his own book during the spring 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. He compares the rhetoric of the U.S. government justifying this intervention to its rhetoric and actions in other parts of the world both recently (the Kurds) and in past decades (several incursions into Central America). In all cases, he depicts the United States as a rogue superpower intent on enforcing its wishes everywhere while flouting international legal conventions and undermining world order in the process. Intense anger and strong passion drip from every page, but the haste of composition has led to numerous nonsense statements, such as "If we had records, we might find that Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun professed humanitarian motives." His arguments would be better served by a thorough revision. Neither volume can be recommended.AMarcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1859847277
• ISBN 13: 9781859847275
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 370
• Editor: Savic Obrad