Human Rights: An Introduction is an important text that provides a comprehensive overview of human rights and related issues from a social science perspective.

First, this book does more than discuss theory, it uses case studies and personal testimonies in the debate. Human rights as an area of academic interest cannot be easily divorced from human rights struggles and the reality of contemporary conditions.

Second, the book is aimed at what is an emerging and growing cross-disciplinary field of study. Human rights issues are increasingly coming to the fore in a number of academic debates. Whereas the study of human rights has traditionally been included in departments of law, international relations and philosophy, a number of courses are now being set up in departments of sociology and anthropology. Consequently, there is an increasing need to bring these disparate approaches together.


This book is aimed at what is a growing cross-disciplinary field of study and provides a comprehensive overview of human rights and related issues from a social science perspective. The text does more than discuss theory: it uses case studies and personal testimonies in the debate.

Theorising human rights Regulating human rights Censorship Political prisoners Torture The death penalty Apartheid Slavery Genocide Refugees Conclusion.