Description
Book SynopsisThis insightful book offers a critical reflection on the sustainability and effectiveness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its legacy over the last 70 years. Exploring the problems surrounding universality, proliferation and costs, it asks the provocative question, can we still afford human rights?
Expert contributors illustrate the interdependence between these three key issues in an unprecedented way, addressing many of the contemporary criticisms voiced against the human rights system and the reasons for popular skepticism about human rights. In order to interrogate the deficiencies of the UDHR, chapters analyse the following questions: Can and should we keep claiming that human rights are universal? Is their proliferation rendering human rights meaningless? And have human rights become too costly? The book concludes that there is a pressing need for a renewed and lasting commitment to human rights. We cannot afford not to afford human rights.
This book will be a valuable resource for academics and students of international relations, the political sciences and comparative legal studies. Covering policy and advocacy issues as well as the evolution of case law regarding particular human rights, it will also be beneficial for policy-makers and human rights practitioners.
Table of ContentsContents: INTRODUCTION 1. The Interdependence of Issues Relating to the Universality, Proliferation and Costs of Human Rights Thomas Van Poecke, Marie Bourguignon, Jan Wouters and Koen Lemmens PART I: THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS 2. The Mythic Universality of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights: Revisiting the Drafting History of the UDHR in Search for a Foundational Theory Nick Goetschalckx 3. The Case for a Comprehensive Global Human Rights Treaty under UN Auspices Prof. Dr. Konstantinos D. Magliveras 4. The Universality of Human Rights: A European perspective Prof. Dr. Paul Lemmens 5. Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships under the ECHR: Till Death – or the Lack of European Consensus – Do Us Part Dr. Johan Lievens and Nele Verbrugghe Part II: THE PROLIFERATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 6. The Proliferation of Human Rights: Between Devotion and Calculation Prof. Dr. Kasey McCall-Smith 7. Human Rights Adjudication: Between Hopes and Failures Dr. Dalia Palombo 8. Sustainable Development in “New Generation” Trade Agreements of the European Union: Towards Integration or Fragmentation of the Human Rights Language?’ Michelle Meulebrouck 9. Denationalization under the EC(t)HR: A Need for an Autonomous Human Right to a Nationality? Louise Reyntjens PART III: THE COSTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS 10. Economic, Social and Political Costs of the (Non-)Realization of Human Rights: Towards a New Social Contract Prof. Dr. Felipe Gómez Isa 11. Conflicts in Human Rights-Based Development Dr. Gustavo Arosemena and Bart Kleine Deters 12. Rights and Development: The Costs of Human Rights in Ethiopia Dr. Dina Townsend and Dr. Nicky Broeckhoven 13. The Least Financially Accountable Branch? The Right to Health and the Judiciary’s Power of the Purse: An Israeli Perspective Dr. Hillel Sommer CONCLUSION 14. The Human Rights Project: Perspectives on Universality, Proliferation and Costs of Human Rights Dima Yared Index
