| ISBN | 9789956762620 |
| Pages | 528 |
| Dimensions | 229 x 152mm |
| Published | 2015 |
| Publisher | Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon |
| Format | Paperback |
Battling over Human Rights
Twenty Essays on Law, Politics and Governance
by J. Oloka-Onyango
Twenty thoughtful essays are brought together on contemporary Human Rights issues at the international, regional and national level. The author is one of Africa's foremost scholars of International Human Rights and Constitutional Law. Ranging from the 'Arab Spring' to the Right to Education, the collection is both an in-depth analysis of discrete topics as well as a critical reflection on the state of human rights around the world today. Taking up issues such as the African reaction to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the question of truth and reconciliation before the outbreak of post-election violence in Kenya and the links between globalization and racism, the book is a tour de force of issues that are both unique as well as pertinent to human rights struggles around the world.
Reviews
“Battling over Human Rights by one of Africa’s most distinguished scholars is an intellectual masterwork that traverses the whole arena of rights discourse and praxis, providing critical insights into numerous contemporary issues that are of major concern in Law, Politics and Governance. While offering broad new theoretical insights on the place of human rights at the international and regional levels, its greatest strength is to demonstrate how the ultimate point at which such rights should resonate is the local.”
“Many in academics excel because of narrowing down their areas of specialisation. This is not the case with Battling over Human Rights. The twenty essays in the book move from the general to the particular addressing a wide range of current human rights issues and struggles. Underpinned by thorough research, Oloka-Onyango has done ample justice to the issues he set out to write on over the years. This book is essential reading for the politician, as well as for academics and students of law, political science, public administration and development studies. It is also a must read for the common mwananchi!”
“In this book, Oloka-Onyango deals with what can meaningfully be defined as the politicization of human rights at various levels, namely, the international, the regional and the domestic. Who is key in fostering human rights transformation, the peoples affected or outsiders? The essays demonstrate that it is not only individual persons who can be oppressed but also Nation States and even regional bodies, depending on where they are placed within the international geo-political order. Although the issues handled in each essay are different, they are all bound by the same critical question: are human rights concepts universally understood and applied?”