Human Rights Donnelly, J. (2007). Book Report

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The human rights police occasionally violate human rights in the name of rights preservation. Therefore, those who have the political power to underwrite human rights legislation also have the power to re-write that legislation or simply be excused from the table.

In some cases, human rights violations are clear-cut. Genocide is a prime example of a situation in which the global community screams for a more conscientious enforcement of human rights treaties. Yet even in this scenario, there are no clear-cut human rights law enforcement agencies. How can the international community create not just consensus but also transnational legal jurisdiction? What about the institutions needed to act as human rights police? Are we in a post-nation-state world, in which the authority of transnational organizations like the United Nations can trump cultural norms? If so, then which parties are privy to writing the legal code that underwrites transnational human rights?

Sonners, M.R., & Roberts, C.N.J. (2008). Towards a new sociology of rights: A genealogy of "buried bodies" of citizenship and human rights. Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 2008. 4:385 -- 425.

Sonners & Roberts (2008) propose a sociology of human rights. Sociology typically does not address human rights as being within its domain. Citizenship might fall under the rubric of sociology, but human rights have more of a philosophical underpinning that makes it somewhat out of place in classical sociological disciplines.

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Ultimately, Sonners & Roberts (2008) argue that it is "morally and intellectually indefensible" for sociology to continue distancing itself from the study and implementation of human rights.

First, the authors note that human rights are difficult to define. The definition of human rights is currently embroiled in the conflict between civil rights vs. socioeconomic rights. Specifically, traditional and still-existing versions of human rights codes hold out that an individual has the right to self-determination but not necessarily the right to free health care services. In the neo-liberal world, Sonners & Roberts (2008) contend, socioeconomic rights are overtly outshined by the only the most basic idea of human civil rights. The very idea that socioeconomic rights are equivalent with or an inherent part of civil rights is itself an assumption that many sociologists are unwilling to make.

The authors trace the evolution of human rights through law, showing that the same sociological factors that influence norms will eventually influence legal structures. Then, Sonners & Roberts (2008) conclude that the concept of human rights is reflected in shifting legal codes. A sociology of human rights would radically transform the way rights are conceived of by lawmakers and politicians because a sociology of human rights would illuminate why such rights are important in the first place. If we are sympathetic with the authors' central claims, then what is….....

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