Can human rights bring social justice?

This collection of twelve essays explores the differences and similarities between social justice and human rights, providing divergent perspectives on whether and how human rights NGOs should pursue social justice.

Poverty, inequality and human rights

Worldwide socio-economic inequalities are mounting. While in absolute terms poverty rates are slowly going down, differences in income and wealth are growing. Deprived groups and protest movements mobilize to demand social justice. What do human rights have to offer them? This volume in Strategic Studies’ Changing Perspectives on Human Rights series focuses on conceptual and strategic differences and similarities between social justice and human rights.

Strategic decisions for human rights NGOs working on social justice

The twelve essays discuss different views on questions such as: Can human rights bring social justice? Can the human rights system speak out on political and economic structures that are seen as causing inequality? Should human rights organizations engage with political resource decisions? Would they risk being viewed as partisan if they engage with issues of redistribution or does their impartiality betray the poor and marginalized if they remain silent on system failures? Twelve essays provide diverging perspectives on the potential and limits of human rights for social justice and trade-offs in the strategic decisions of human rights NGOs.

Contributors to this Changing Perspectives on Human Rights volume

With contributions from Eduardo Arenas Catalán, Widney Brown, Sara Burke, Iain Byrne, Koldo Casla, Dan Chong, Ashfaq Khalfan, Rolf Künnemann, Doutje Lettinga, Jacob Mchangama, Samuel Moyn, Aryeh Neier, David Petrasek and Lars van Troost.