Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables, Figures and Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface and acknowledgements
- An Introduction to International Relations: The origins and changing agendas of a discipline
- 1 Theories of International Relations
- 2 The Traditional Agenda
- 3 The New Agenda
- 21 The United Nations
- 22 Non-State Actors: Multinational Corporations and International Non-Governmental Organisations
- 23 Religion and Secularism
- 24 Global Economic Institutions
- 25 Global Trade
- 26 Global Finance
- 27 Global Poverty, Inequality and Development
- 28 Globalisation and Its Critics
- 29 Global Terrorism
- 30 Post-Conflict State-Building
- 31 Humanitarian Intervention
- 32 Human Rights
- 33 Migration and Refugees
- 34 Global Environmental Politics
- 35 Climate Change
- Glossary of Terms
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
32 - Human Rights
from 3 - The New Agenda
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables, Figures and Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface and acknowledgements
- An Introduction to International Relations: The origins and changing agendas of a discipline
- 1 Theories of International Relations
- 2 The Traditional Agenda
- 3 The New Agenda
- 21 The United Nations
- 22 Non-State Actors: Multinational Corporations and International Non-Governmental Organisations
- 23 Religion and Secularism
- 24 Global Economic Institutions
- 25 Global Trade
- 26 Global Finance
- 27 Global Poverty, Inequality and Development
- 28 Globalisation and Its Critics
- 29 Global Terrorism
- 30 Post-Conflict State-Building
- 31 Humanitarian Intervention
- 32 Human Rights
- 33 Migration and Refugees
- 34 Global Environmental Politics
- 35 Climate Change
- Glossary of Terms
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
This chapter examines the rise and growth of human rights. First, it discusses the historical development of human rights. Second, it outlines how human rights are understood today. Third, it explains how the liberal universalism that lies behind human rights has come up against cultural resistance. Finally, the chapter touches on some challenges that lie ahead in the struggle for human rights.
The doctrine of human rights has become one of the central political doctrines of international politics. This is a remarkable state of affairs, given that only sixty years ago the idea, while championed by some, had little or no traction on the behaviour of states with one another. The end of World War II was the key marker in the birth of the human rights movement as we know it today. Prior to that war, human rights – or ‘the rights of man’ as they were known – had few political supporters in international relations. The doctrines of realism, or realpolitik, seemed an accurate description of international politics and stood opposed to the kinds of idealism and moralism which the idea of human rights was thought to embody. Importantly, too, the idea of universal rights had fallen on hard times in intellectual terms, being subject to various critiques which undermined its authority and persuasive power.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to International Relations , pp. 440 - 449Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011