Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction

Description

What are our human rights? What are their philosophical justifications and historical origins? Focusing on highly topical issues such as torture, arbitrary detention, privacy, and discrimination, this Very Short Introduction discusses the controversies and complexities behind these vitally relevant issues.

New to this edition

• Brings the Bush Administration's approach to the war on terror up to date by referencing Obama's reversal of some policies
• Accounts for new issues of restrictions on speech and press freedom in the wake of the emerging concerns for privacy and cyberbullying
• Acknowledges issues related to climate change and the debate over 'climate justice' and 'climate refugees' that have generated a new dimension to the human rights debate
• Provides a more intense discussion of hate speech, islamophobia, and what is referred to as 'defamation of religion' in light of the situations in Libya and Syria
• Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Andrew Clapham, Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva

Andrew Clapham is Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. Before he joined the Graduate Institute of International Studies Institute in 1997, he was the Representative of Amnesty International to the United Nations in New York. He was the Director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from 2006 until 2014. His publications include The 1949 Geneva Conventions: A Commentary, co-edited with Paola Gaeta and Marco Sassòli, (OUP 2015) and The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict, co-edited with Paola Gaeta (OUP 2014).

Table of Contents

Preface
1:Looking at rights
2:Historical development and contemporary concerns
3:Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations
4:Torture
5:Deprivations of life and liberty
6:Balancing rights - free speech and privacy
7:Food, education, health, housing, and work
8:Discrimination and equality
9:The death penalty
Final remarks
References
Further reading
Annex: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Index

Reviews

"A highly suitable starting point for students of law, moral and ethical philosophy, history and politics. And, of course, activists in civil society movements or those who seek an accessible introduction to human rights and their relevance to current events." - Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

"This short book covers one main area of current interest very well: how the human rights movement has gained increasing attention internationally... "Clapham on Human Rights" can be summed up as one of the best titles we have read yet from OUP." - Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers