Human rights for the 21st century; sovereignty, civil society, culture

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2009

Human rights for the 21st century; sovereignty, civil society, culture.

Stacy, Helen M.

Stanford U. Press

2009

260 pages

$21.95

Paperback

Stanford studies in human rights

K3240

In an effort to defend the necessity of building international human rights institutions, Stacy (Stanford Law School) addresses three broad critiques of international human rights. In response to charges that international human rights is either powerless rhetoric in the face of national interests or perhaps an excuse for colonial or imperial projects that impinge on the sovereignty of nation-states, she argues that a new norm of sovereignty, "relational sovereignty," has emerged in the era of economic and communications globalization and that it requires the sovereign to care for the human rights of its citizens. Against those who argue that civil society is a better vehicle for promoting human rights than international law, she contends that law provides a structure for disagreement, claims, and judgments that can mediate disputes in ways that neither social nor political institutions are able to do. Finally, addressing those that worry about the challenges of cultural difference to universal standards of human rights, she proposes the creation of regional institutions that will be able to offer equilibrium between general international norms and particular cultures.

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