Human Rights at the Intersections

This book offers a rich repertoire of theoretical and pragmatic tools to address mounting economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental challenges and crises. It makes a compelling call for the need of innovation, experimentation, cross-sectoral collaboration, and multidisciplinary approaches. A must-read for anyone in civil society, academia, or subnational, regional, and national governments grappling with the need for new solutions and analytical frames. Besides constituting a practical toolkit, the case studies and snapshots from across the globe are also a timely and compelling case for the potential utility of human rights on the ground at a moment in which their relevance and impact are questioned. * Claudia López Hernández, Mayor of Bogotá *
This volume assembles a diverse array of experience and expertise that compels a re-imagination of human rights to help analysts and practitioners escape conventional boundaries imposed by powerful groups working to divide communities and otherwise preserve the status quo. By questioning state-centrism and the issue silos that compartmentalize policy processes and social movements, contributors address the structural foundations of human rights and point to productive and novel solutions. A range of timely cases shows how human rights advocates are engaging in innovative and replicable strategies to build power, using the largely untapped normative and institutional resources of human rights to respond to deep-seated problems like structural racism, COVID-19, climate change, and austerity. * Jackie Smith, Professor of Sociology University of Pittsburgh, USA, and Co-ordinator of the U.S. Human Rights City Alliance *
This volume aims high in terms of both substance and structure. And it achieves. The through-lines of “intersections” and “transformations” link chapters grouped around the themes of cosmopolitanism, the city, sexual rights, and feminism. The deft introductions by the editors bring these chapters into illuminating conversation. Short snapshots throughout the volume ground the theoretical discussions in the empirical realities out in the world. At a time when human rights are under stress from a rise in global authoritarianism and rejection of the rule of law, these chapters underscore human rights’ dynamism and resilience. The result is stimulating, essential reading for those interested in navigating the current challenges to human rights theory and practice. * Martha F. Davis, University Distinguished Professor of Law, Northeastern University *
Most studies of human rights have been concerned with the vernacularization of the global – that is, with the making of the lingua franca of international human rights and its contested adoption at the local scale. We need to be equally concerned with the globalization of the vernacular – that is, with the legal and political processes whereby local actors, including subaltern groups, introduce modifications and neologisms into the vocabulary and even the grammar of human rights. This volume gives us precisely this type of well-rounded and complex account of human rights. Rather than remaining in the comfort of partial views of the movement, it embraces the messiness of the practice of rights and the possibilities of this transitional moment. And it rekindles our imagination at a time when we need it most. * César Rodríguez-Garavito, Professor of Clinical Law, Faculty Director and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, USA *