International Human Rights
A Survey

This book provides an interdisciplinary overview of international human rights issues, covering a wide range of understudied and emerging topics.

Cher Weixia Chen (Author), Alison Dundes Renteln (Author)

9781108735384, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 August 2022

606 pages
24.5 x 19 x 3.8 cm, 1.16 kg

'The term 'tour de force' is overused, but in the case of Chen and Renteln's International Human Rights: A Survey, it is an entirely appropriate description of the work.' Human Rights Quarterly (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/892622)

This book provides an interdisciplinary overview of international human rights issues, offering truly international coverage including the Global South. Considering the philosophical foundations of human rights, Chen and Renteln explore the interpretive difficulties associated with identifying what constitute human rights abuses, and evaluate various perspectives on human rights. This book goes on to analyze institutions that strive to promote and enforce human rights standards, including the United Nations system, regional human rights bodies, and domestic courts. It also discusses a wide variety of substantive human rights including genocide, torture, capital punishment, and other cruel and unusual punishments. In particular, the book offers an accessible introduction to key understudied topics within human rights, such as socioeconomic rights, cultural rights, and environmental rights. It also focuses on the rights of marginalized groups, including children's rights, rights of persons with disabilities, women's rights, labor rights, indigenous rights, and LGBTQ+ rights, making this an engaging and invaluable resource for the contemporary student.

1. Introduction: overview of human rights
2. Human rights machinery: enforcement mechanisms
3. Genocide
4. Torture
5. The death penalty and cruel, degrading, and inhuman punishments
6. Socio-economic rights
7. Cultural rights
8. Environmental protection and human rights
9. Indigenous rights
10. Disability and human rights
11. Labor rights as human rights
12. Children's rights
13. Women's rights
14. LGBTQ+ rights
15. Media and human rights: freedom of expression and of the press, access to information, and the right to privacy
16. Conclusion: the future of human rights.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], International human rights law [LBBR], International relations [JPS]