Landman, T: Protecting Human Rights

Landman, Todd

ISBN 10: 1589010639 / ISBN 13: 9781589010635

Published by Georgetown University Press, 2005

About this Item

How are we to reconcile the language of rights with the reality? Do we live in an age of rights after all? This title provides a quantitative analysis of the marked gap between the principle and practice of human rights.&Uumlber den Autor.

Seller Inventory # 825422864

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Landman, T: Protecting Human Rights
• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1589010639
• ISBN 13: 9781589010635
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Ours has been called a global "age of rights," an era in which respect for human rights is considered the highest aspiration of the international democratic community. Since the United Nation's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a wide variety of protections―civil, political, economic, social, and cultural―have been given legal validation as countries ratify treaties, participate in intergovernmental organizations, and establish human rights tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions.

Yet notable human rights failures have marred the post-Declaration era, including ongoing state violence toward citizens, the selectivity of humanitarian intervention (evidenced by the international community's failure to respond in Rwanda), and recent legislation in advanced democracies that trades some rights for protection against the threat of terrorism. How are we to reconcile the language of rights with the reality? Do we live in an age of rights after all?

In Protecting Human Rights, Todd Landman provides a unique quantitative analysis of the marked gap between the principle and practice of human rights. Applying theories and methods from the fields of international law, international relations, and comparative politics, Landman examines data from 193 countries over 25 years (1976-2000) to assess the growth of the international human rights regime, the effect of law on actual protection, and global variation in human rights norms.

Landman contends that human rights foreign policy remains based more on geo-strategic interest than moral internationalism. He argues that the influence human rights ideals have begun to have on states cannot be separated from the broader impact of socioeconomic changes that swept the globe in the late twentieth century. Landman concludes that international law alone will not suffice to fully protect human rights―it must be accompanied by democratic government, effective conflict resolution, and just economic systems.

About the Author

Todd Landman is a senior lecturer in the department of government and member of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. He is the author of Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics and coauthor of Governing Latin America and Citizenship Rights and Social Movements.