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In recent years, human rights have come under fire, with the rise of political illiberalism and the coming to power of populist authoritarian leaders in many parts of the world who contest and dismiss the idea of human rights. More surprisingly, scholars and public intellectuals, from both the progressive and the conservative side of the political spectrum, have also been deeply critical, dismissing human rights as flawed, inadequate, hegemonic, or
overreaching.While acknowledging some of the shortcomings, this book presents an experimentalist account of international human rights law and practice and argues that the human rights movement remains a
powerful and appealing one with widespread traction in many parts of the globe. Using three case studies to illuminate the importance and vibrancy of the movement around the world, the book argues that its potency and legitimacy rest on three main pillars: First, it is based on a deeply-rooted and widely appealing moral discourse that integrates the three universal values of human dignity, human welfare, and human freedom. Second, these values and their elaboration in international legal
instruments have gained widespread - even if thin - agreement among states worldwide. Third, human rights law and practice is highly dynamic, with human rights being activated, shaped, and given meaning and
impact through the on-going mobilization of affected individuals and groups, and through their iterative engagement with multiple domestic and international institutions and processes.The book offers an account of how the human rights movement has helped to promote human rights and positive social change, and argues that the challenges of the current era provide good reasons to reform, innovate, and strengthen that movement, rather than to abandon it or to herald its demise.
In recent years, human rights have come under fire, with the rise of political illiberalism and the coming to power of populist authoritarian leaders in many parts of the world who contest and dismiss the idea of human rights. More surprisingly, scholars and public intellectuals, from both the progressive and the conservative side of the political spectrum, have also been deeply critical, dismissing human rights as flawed, inadequate, hegemonic, or
overreaching.While acknowledging some of the shortcomings, this book presents an experimentalist account of international human rights law and practice and argues that the human rights movement remains a
powerful and appealing one with widespread traction in many parts of the globe. Using three case studies to illuminate the importance and vibrancy of the movement around the world, the book argues that its potency and legitimacy rest on three main pillars: First, it is based on a deeply-rooted and widely appealing moral discourse that integrates the three universal values of human dignity, human welfare, and human freedom. Second, these values and their elaboration in international legal
instruments have gained widespread - even if thin - agreement among states worldwide. Third, human rights law and practice is highly dynamic, with human rights being activated, shaped, and given meaning and
impact through the on-going mobilization of affected individuals and groups, and through their iterative engagement with multiple domestic and international institutions and processes.The book offers an account of how the human rights movement has helped to promote human rights and positive social change, and argues that the challenges of the current era provide good reasons to reform, innovate, and strengthen that movement, rather than to abandon it or to herald its demise.
Introduction
1: The Effectiveness of Human Rights
2: Mobilization for Gender Equality in Pakistan and the Role of
International Human Rights
3: The Activation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities in Argentina
4: Using International Human Rights Law to Mobilize for Children's
Rights and Reproductive Rights in Ireland
5: The Past and Future of Human Rights
Gráinne de Búrca is Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law at
NYU. Previously, she held tenured posts at Harvard Law School,
Fordham Law School, the European University Institute in Florence,
Italy, and Oxford University. Her fields of research are European
Union law and international human rights law. She is co-editor of
the Oxford University Press series Oxford Studies in European Law,
and co-author of the leading OUP textbook EU Law. She is
co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Constitutional
Law (ICON) and serves on the editorial board of the American
Journal of International Law, Global Constitutionalism and Legal
Studies. She was a
President of the International Society of Public Law ICON-S from
2015-2018, and is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
In this refreshing and inspirational book, Gráinne de Búrca
directly confronts human rights sceptics among scholars from across
the political spectrum to demonstrate that, in practice, human
rights have maintained an extraordinary vigour in motivating and
supporting grassroots mobilization against political repression and
illiberalism. With her well-known skill in developing powerful and
innovative arguments, she builds on the actual practice of human
rights activists to illuminate the dynamism of the human rights
project, activated and shaped through both its moral appeal, and
the meaning and impact given to it by affected groups.
*Sandra Fredman, Professor of Law, Oxford University*
At last a book that makes the case for human rights and does it
with great weight and authority. Gráinne de Búrca is proud to
believe in human rights and supplies powerful reasons for our doing
so too. Fresh and scholarly, de Búrcas account is a bracing change
from the negativity that too often infuses academic treatments of
the field.
*Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law, LSE*
This book comes at the right time in a world that looks too grim.
Grainne de Búrca provides grounded empirical assessments of the
work that human rights movements do through structuring modes of
interacting across national boundaries. De Búrca offers a nuanced
appreciation of a complex world full of "mixed and partial"
achievements, often met with backlash. De Búrca demonstrates that,
when politics permits, the processes of ratifying, reporting, and
arguing about what human rights commitments mean can engender new
opportunities to lessen (not erase) modes of subordination.
*Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School*
Finally we have a thoughtful book about human rights which captures
the vibrancy and successes of the diverse human rights movement.
Anyone who wants to understand the real rather than the imagined
world of human rights should read de Búrca's study. She makes it
clear that struggles for social justice will continue to coalesce
around the language of human rights for a long time to come.
*Andrew Clapham, Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute
of International and Development Studies*
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