Research Methods in Human Rights (Reprint)

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Since the 1960s and the origins of the modern human rights movement, human rights organizations have produced their own research. In-depth and well-documented reports, replete with testimonial evidence and analysis of government policy and practice, are the stock-in-trade product of human rights organizations. They serve as the basis of lobbying and campaign efforts, and they provide the underpinnings of organizational reputation and credibility. Human rights organizations invented the genre of human rights research. It typically resembles evidence gathered for a legal argument rather than analysis in the tradition of social science. Human rights organizations do not seek to describe general social conditions; rather, the main objective of human rights reporting is to document patterns of human rights violations and expose the perpetrators, institutions and policies that facilitate abuse. This comprehensive book will be an essential reading for any PhD candidate embarking on a dissertation in the field of human rights and any human rights scholar wishing to critically reflect on the quality of her/his own methods of work.