About the Book
The third edition of The Human Rights Reader presents a variety of new primary documents and readings and elaborates the exploration of rights in the areas of race, gender, refugees, climate, Artificial Intelligence, drones and cyber security, and nationalism and Internationalism. In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, it addresses human rights challenges reflected in and posed by global health inequities. Each part of the reader corresponds to five historical phases in the history of human rights and explores the arguments, debates, and issues of inclusiveness central to those eras. This edition is the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of essays, speeches, and documents from historical and contemporary sources, all of which are placed in context with Micheline Ishay’s substantial introduction to the Reader as a whole and context-setting introductions to each part and chapter.
New to the Third Edition
60 new readings and documents cover subjects ranging from human rights in the age of globalization and populism, debates of the rights of citizens versus those of refugees and immigrants, transgender rights, the new Jim Crow, and the future of human rights as they relate to digital surveillance, the pandemic, and bioengineering
Part I has been reorganized into three chapters: the Secular Tradition, Asian and African Religions and Traditions, and the Monotheistic Religions
Part V has been significantly updated and expanded with the addition of an entirely new chapter — "Debating the Future of Human Rights."
Each of the six parts in the book is preceded by an editorial introduction and, in four of the parts, a separate selection providing the reader with a general background on the history and themes represented in the readings that follow
Each part and several chapters conclude with new Questions for Discussion authored by the volume editor
An extensive new online resource includes 62 key human rights documents ranging from the Magna Carta to the United Nations Glasgow Climate Pact
Table of Contents:
Preface to the Third Edition
New to the Third Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Human Rights: Historical and Contemporary Controversies
PART I: THE ORIGINS: SECULAR, ASIAN, AND MONOTHEISTIC TRADITIONS
CHAPTER 1: The Secular Tradition
CHAPTER 2: Asian and African Religions and Traditions
CHAPTER 3: Monotheistic Religions
PART II: THE LEGACY OF EARLY LIBERALISM AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT
CHAPTER 4: Liberal Visions of Human Rights
CHAPTER 5: How to Promote a Liberal Conception of Human Rights
CHAPTER 6: Human Rights for Whom?
PART III: THE SOCIALIST CONTRIBUTION AND THE INDUSTRIAL AGE
CHAPTER 7: Challenging the Liberal Vision of Rights
CHAPTER 8: How to Promote a Socialist Perspective of Human Rights? Free Trade, Just War, and International Organizations
CHAPTER 9: Human Rights for Whom?
PART IV: THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND THE IMPERIAL AGE
CHAPTER 10: On the National Question
PART V: HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION AND POPULISM
CHAPTER 11: Redefining Rights
CHAPTER 12: How to Protect and Promote Human Rights?
CHAPTER 13: Human Rights for Whom?
CHAPTER 14: Debating the Future of Human Rights
PART VI: HUMAN RIGHTS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS: A BRIEF HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
CHAPTER 15: Additional Documents
About the Author :
Micheline R. Ishay is Distinguished Professor of International Studies and Human Rights at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
Review :
Praise for The Human Rights Reader, Third Edition
Ishay's Human Rights Reader is a monumental work, chronicling the force of human rights ideas and documents in the time they emerged and beyond. For activists like myself, joined in the campaign to forge enduring peace founded on universal rights, this book offers a wealth of knowledge with unparalleled breadth. It is a truly important resource.
--Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate
The Human Rights Reader offers a sweeping documentary history of the struggle for human rights. Ishay's selections and commentary go beyond illuminating the intellectual development of human rights discourse to depict emerging challenges that human rights defenders will surely face in coming decades. This volume represents the best form of human rights advocacy, combining scholarly understanding with activist passion while upholding all rights for everyone.
--Nadine Strossen, New York Law School (Emerita)
Praise for Previous Editions
In tracing the complex intellectual history of human rights, Micheline Ishay’s insightful and provocative selection of texts illuminates many of today’s most fundamental rights debates. Are human rights Western impositions or universal values? Does globalization advance or undermine them? Do they originate in or constrain religion? Are they the product of socialism or among its victims? Did the anti-colonial movement respond to repression or simply shift its source? None of these questions admits simple answers, but no one should address them without considering the deep and varied perspectives provided in Ishay’s new Human Rights Reader.
-- Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights WatchMicheline Ishay's excellent collection provides all the material that anyone needs to participate in the critical debates about human rights. Differing views of cultural diversity, economic justice, national self-determination, and humanitarian intervention are fairly and intelligently represented.
--Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
Following her masterly History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Era of Globalization, Micheline Ishay now presents us with an extraordinarily rich, original, and illuminating compilation of sources on the history and philosophy of human rights. Insightful introductions to each part provide the appropriate historical context. A ‘must’ for courses on human rights.
--David Kretzmer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Transitional Justice Institute
Praise for The Human Rights Reader, Third Edition
"Ishay's Human Rights Reader is a monumental work, chronicling the force of human rights ideas and documents in the time they emerged and beyond. For activists like myself, joined in the campaign to forge enduring peace founded on universal rights, this book offers a wealth of knowledge with unparalleled breadth. It is a truly important resource."
—Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate
"The Human Rights Reader offers a sweeping documentary history of the struggle for human rights. Ishay's selections and commentary go beyond illuminating the intellectual development of human rights discourse to depict emerging challenges that human rights defenders will surely face in coming decades. This volume represents the best form of human rights advocacy, combining scholarly understanding with activist passion while upholding all rights for everyone."
—Nadine Strossen, New York Law School (Emerita); Past President, American Civil Liberties Union
Praise for Previous Editions
"In tracing the complex intellectual history of human rights, Micheline R. Ishay’s insightful and provocative selection of texts illuminates many of today’s most fundamental rights debates. Are human rights Western impositions or universal values? Does globalization advance or undermine them? Do they originate in or constrain religion? Are they the product of socialism or among its victims? Did the anti-colonial movement respond to repression or simply shift its source? None of these questions admits simple answers, but no one should address them without considering the deep and varied perspectives provided in Ishay’s new Human Rights Reader."
—Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch
"Micheline R. Ishay's excellent collection provides all the material that anyone needs to participate in the critical debates about human rights. Differing views of cultural diversity, economic justice, national self-determination, and humanitarian intervention are fairly and intelligently represented."
—Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
"Following her masterly History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Era of Globalization, Micheline R. Ishay now presents us with an extraordinarily rich, original, and illuminating compilation of sources on the history and philosophy of human rights. Insightful introductions to each part provide the appropriate historical context. A ‘must’ for courses on human rights."
—David Kretzmer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Emeritus
