Subjects:

Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Contents:

Foreword by Stephen P. Marks

INTRODUCTION

1. INTERDEPENDENCE AND ITS IMPERATIVES

2. SOURCES AND CONTENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO COOPERATE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

3. THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN-CENTERED GLOBALIZATION

4. A DOCTRINE OF BASIC UNIVERSAL RIGHTS AND SUPRA-POSITIVE OBLIGATIONS

5. ATTRIBUTING GLOBAL LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY

6. CONCLUDING REMARKS: LATTER-DAY TYRANNY AND THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

World poverty represents a failure of the international community to see half of the global population secure their basic socio-economic rights. Yet international law foresees cooperation as essential to the realisation of these human rights. In an era of considerable interdependence and entrenched economic and political advantage, the particular features of contemporary world poverty give rise to pressing questions about the scope, evolution, and application of the international law of human rights, and the attribution of global responsibility.

This book considers the evolving nature of public international law and human rights with respect to international cooperation as a basis for addressing the role and responsibility of the international community in the creation of an environment conducive to a human-centred globalization. It offers a detailed examination of the historically controversial right to development and, through a careful consideration of its current significance and application, reflects the importance of the rationale of the right to development onto the critical challenge of poverty in the 21st century. Through doctrine and jurisprudence, this book charts recent changes in international law relevant to the ability of states to develop and to fulfil their human rights obligations, and the reality that they are constrained by the actions and structural arrangements of the powerful members of the international community.

This book explores developments in the system of international safeguards meant to correspond to the deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights today. By analysing the approach, contribution, and current limitations of the international law of human rights to the manifestations of world poverty, the reader is challenged to rethink human rights and, in particular, the framing of responsibilities that are essential to their protection.