Protecting Human Rights in the 21st Century

'Aidan Hehir and Robert Murray have chosen an innovative strategy for surmounting the entrenched divide between scholars who believe in human rights, come what may, and commentators fatalistically resigned to the rights’ worthlessness on the ground. Instead of reflexively taking sides, the two collaborators present essays by international relations experts offering many alternative perspectives. This has freed the discourse from a straightjacket of dichotomous thinking and initiated a more generative process for finding consensus on how to move the human rights agenda forward.' -- Susan H. Bitensky, Michigan State University College of Law, USA

'There is a trend among atrocity prevention norm entrepreneurs to gather in like-minded groups, extol their virtues and control narratives to avoid criticism. This timely volume adopts a more inclusive and reflective approach; motivated by a determination to "get atrocity prevention right," the contributions here will help practitioners to examine our motives, our policy inconsistencies, and the gaps in our analysis and practice.' -- Robert Zuber, Director, Global Action to Prevent War and Armed Conflict

'Refusing to be deluded by wishful thinking, the authors of this volume undertake a clear-eyed, critical analysis of R2P’s successes and failures. Steering between fatalism and denial, they concede that our awareness of atrocity and the protection of civilians has been enhanced by R2P but that its time has passed. In thinking about what comes next, there is no better place to start than this provocative and highly insightful book.' -- Stephen Hopgood, SOAS, University of London, UK