Rights for Others

An empirical account of the mismatch between Dutch foreign policy and their approach to human rights domestically.

This is a valuable study of how rights consciousness and human rights consciousness fails to emerge, even in countries that strongly advocate human rights in their external policies, such as The Netherlands. It focuses on the important and widespread paradox about the difficulties of bringing human rights home.Rights for Others is an empirical study of what happens when international human rights are applied domestically in The Netherlands. It tracks recent debates in Dutch society on citizenship and the rights of immigrants, and analyses the shift from the perception of human rights as a 'foreign policy concern' to the slow processes of homecoming in what has traditionally been a left-wing society, but now includes many more right-wing political parties. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Oomen combines insights from law, sociology and anthropology to explain how rights gain significance in framing social and political discussions. The book provides comprehensive coverage on relevant constitutional law, legal culture and rights realization as well as discussing case material on human rights education, polarization, socio-economic rights, domestic violence and the rights of minorities. This is an invaluable contribution to the global fields of human rights and socio-legal studies for scholars and researchers.