Table of Contents

Introduction

The Riddle
The Argument

Chapter I: The Diverse Origins

Civil Rights
Political Rights
Social Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Chapter II: The Absolutes

The Human in Human Rights
The Assertion of Equality
Rights as Inherent
Rights as Indivisible and Inalienable
The Assertion of Universality
The Relativity of Human Rights

Chapter III: The Contradictions

In Principle

The Contradiction in Private Property
The Corporation and the Individual 
Civil Rights and Social Rights 
Political Rights and Corporate Civil Rights
Human Rights and Institutionalized Religion

In Practice

The Unequal Rights of Men and Women
The Rights of Children
The Right of Self-Determination of Peoples

Chapter IV: Rights Outside Capitalist Relations

"Socialist" Countries
Human Rights and the Third World
An African Concept of Human Rights
Islamization and Human Rights
Human Rights and the Fourth World

Chapter V: The Curious Unanimity

Contradictory Demands
Support from the Right
Support from the Reformist Left
The Meeting Ground of Left and Right: NGOs On the National Level
NGOs on the Global Level
Human Rights Watch 
HRW on Cuba
The Problem of Amnesty International
The Meaning of Social Rights

Chapter VI: The Future of Human Rights

Globalization and Human Rights
Non-Corporate Rights at the Global Level?
Recent Global Mechanisms for Enforcement
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
UN Ad Hoc Tribunals
Compromised Commissions and Tribunals
The International Criminal Court

Chapter VII: Principles for the Future?

Respect for Human Rights
The "Corporatization" of the United Nations: "The Global Compact"
The Meanings Implicit in Human Rights
The Irrepressible Spread of Resistance

Chapter VIII: September 11 and the New Behemoth

Peace as a Problem
The Need to Defend Global Class Relations 
The Political Economy of Military Spending
The Search for a Threat
A Strategy Long in the Planning
Global Ascendancy and "Full Spectrum Dominance"
The Militarization of Space
The Expansion of NATO
New Technology for Civilian Repression
Global Surveillance: Echelon
A New Role for Nuclear Weapons
"Benevolent Global Hegemony"
The Question of Pretexts
The Meaning of September 11: Its Aftermath
Class War at Home
Global Assertion of Dominance
The Transformation of International Relations and Human Rights
The Coming End of Liberal Democracy

Appendix: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Promotional Information

[...] makes the reader aware of the human longings and needs which are the other part of human rights. One is able to recognize the fundamental ambivalence which characterizes all the 'theories' on and the practices of human rights in the West. -- Wolf-Dieter Narr, Freie Universitaet Berlin A singularly important contribution both to scholarship and the politics of the academic left. -- Harry Glasbeek, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

About the Author

Gary Teeple is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University.

Reviews

Teeple's work forces us to consider the ramifications of a narrow, legal conception of human rights in a world where the division between the state and civil society is becoming increasingly blurred. It is an innovative argument and an essential contribution to a literature blind to the limitations of this elusive concept.
*Labour / Le Travail*