Sometimes people treat human rights as a feel-good idea about being nice to each other. Human rights are actually a set of radical claims that have transformed the world, provoking both fierce backlashes and monumental advances around the globe. When we talk about human rights, we do not talk about a set of incontrovertible facts, but about an ongoing, roiling debate about the existence, extent, and implications of human dignity, and our duties to each other.
In Human Rights in a Global Context, you’ll be introduced to the history of the concept of human rights, and learn how international and national institutions were created to protect and promote human rights. From this historical foundation, you’ll begin a hopefully life-long exploration of attempts to promote and defend human rights around the global, and learn about the resistance, backlash, controversies, and life-altering changes that human rights promoters have created all around the world.