The Concept of Human Rights in Africa

Issa G. Shivji

ISBN 10: 1870784022 / ISBN 13: 9781870784023

Published by CODESRIA, SN, 1989

About this Item

Seller Inventory # LU-9781870784023

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Concept of Human Rights in Africa
• Publisher: CODESRIA, SN
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1870784022
• ISBN 13: 9781870784023
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 13.97W x 0.81H x 21.59D centimeters 13.97 centimeters width by 0.81 centimeters height by 21.59 centimeters depth
• Weight: 182 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Hitherto the human rights debate in Africa has concentrated on the legal and philosophical. The author, Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, here moves the debate to the social and political planes. He attempts to reconceptualise human rights ideology from the standpoint of the working people in Africa. He defines the approach as avoiding the pitfalls of the liberal perspective as being absolutist in viewing human rights as a central question and the rights struggle as the backbone of democratic struggles. The author maintains that such a study cannot be politically neutral or intellectually uncommitted. Both the critique of dominant discourse and the reconceptualisation are located within the current social science and jurisprudential debates.