Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference

Description

From the diverse work and often competing insights of women's human rights activists, Brooke Ackerly has written a feminist and a universal theory of human rights that bridges the relativists' concerns about universalizing from particulars and the activists' commitment to justice. Unlike universal theories that rely on shared commitments to divine authority or to an 'enlightened' way of reasoning, Ackerly's theory relies on rigorous methodological attention to difference and disagreement. She sets out human rights as at once a research ethic, a tool for criticism of injustice and a call to recognize our obligations to promote justice through our actions. This book will be of great interest to political theorists, feminist and gender studies scholars and researchers of social movements.

Brooke A. Ackerly is Associate Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism (Cambridge, 2000) and co-editor of Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge, 2006).

'As an activist I find Ackerly's theorizing of human rights in action so insightful. She gives a name to our approach - curb-cut feminism: by being humble and attentive to those made invisible or 'different' by the mainstream we are better able to realize universal human rights. This book is a very useful map for anyone committed to justice in an often messy terrain.' Joanna Kerr, former Executive Director of AWID, the Association for Women's Rights in Development 'A stunning achievement. Ackerly takes up the daunting - some would say insuperable - challenge of developing a universal theory of human rights that does not entail cultural imperialism. With the concerns of activists and politics of difference as her starting points, she thinks outside of the box that has limited our understanding of, and ability to realize, universal human rights. This extremely thoughtful and closely argued text will stimulate debate and, I hope, revitalize activism.' V. Spike Peterson, Department of Political Science, University of Arizona