Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference [Hardcover]

A feminist argument in favour of human rights as wide-ranging and universal.Brooke Ackerly offers a feminist argument for a universal theory of human rights, found within the diverse work of activists themselves, which recognizes a wide list of human rights and our universal obligation to respect them through our actions.Brooke Ackerly offers a feminist argument for a universal theory of human rights, found within the diverse work of activists themselves, which recognizes a wide list of human rights and our universal obligation to respect them through our actions.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.1. Universal human rights in a world of difference: challenging our thinking; Part I. Epistemology, Diversity, and Disagreement in Theory and Practice: 2. Universal human rights?; 3. Universalisms and differences; 4. Immanent and universal human rights: more legitimate than reasonable; Part II. A Methodology for Immanent Theory: 5. Feminist curb cutting: a methodology for exposing silences and revealing differences: immanent study of universal human rights; 6. Listening to the silent voices, hearing dissonance: a methodology for interpretation and analysis; Part III. Immanent Universal Human Rights: Theory and Practice: 7. An l³Ü