Local Relevance of Human Rights

Do human rights offer real protection when disadvantaged groups invoke them at the local level in an attempt to improve their living conditions? If so, how can we make sure that the experiences of those invoking human rights at the local level have an impact on the further development of human rights (at national and other levels) so that the local relevance of human rights increases? Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 1948, numerous international documents have reaffirmed human rights as global norms. This book examines what factors determine whether appeals to human rights that emanate from the local level are successful, and whether the UDHR adequately responds to threats as currently defined by relevant groups or whether a revision of some of the ideas included in the UDHR is needed in order to increase its contemporary relevance.

Koen De Feyter holds the Chair of International Law at the University of Antwerp. He is also spokesperson of the Law and Development Research Group at the University of Antwerp Legal School, the promoter-coordinator of the Flemish Centre for International Policy and a founding editor of the Human Rights and International Legal Discourse journal.

Stephan Parmentier teaches sociology of crime, law and human rights at the Faculty of Law of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and coordinates the research line on political crimes, human rights and human security at the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC). He also currently serves as the Secretary General of the International Society for Criminology.

Christiane Timmerman is Director of the Centre for Migration and Intercultural Studies (CeMIS) at the University of Antwerp and Director of Academic Affairs at UCSIA.

George Ulrich is Rector of the Riga Graduate School of Law. He previously served as Secretary General of the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC).