Global Human Rights Institutions: Between Remedy and Ritual

By Gerd Oberleitner

The range of global human rights institutions which have beencreated over the past half century is a remarkable achievement.Yet, their establishment and proliferation raises importantquestions. Why do states create such institutions and what do theywant them to achieve? Does this differ from what the institutionsthemselves seek to accomplish? Are global human rights institutionseffective remedies for violations of human dignity or temples forthe performance of stale bureaucratic rituals? What happens tohuman rights when they are being framed in globalinstitutions?

This book is an introduction to global human rights institutionsand to the challenges and paradoxes of institutionalizing humanrights. Drawing on international legal scholarship andinternational relations literature, it examines UN institutionswith a human rights mandate, the process of mainstreaming humanrights, international courts which adjudicate human rights, andnon-governmental human rights organizations.

In mapping the ever more complex network of global human rightsinstitutions it asks what these institutions are and what they arefor. It critically assesses and appraises the ways in which globalinstitutions bureaucratize human rights, and reflects on how thisprocess is changing our perception of human rights.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745634397
• ISBN13: 9780745634395
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Polity Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.0"