Although human rights belong to all persons on the basis of their humanity, this book demonstrates that in the practice of international human rights law, the freedom to be non-religious or atheist does not receive the same protection as the freedom to be religious. Despite the claimed universality of freedom of religion and belief contained in article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the key assertion made is that there is a hierarchy of religion and belief, with followers of major established religions enjoying high protection and low regulation at the top, and atheists and non-believers enduring high persecution and weaker protection at the bottom. The existence of this hierarchy is proven and critiqued through three case study chapters that respectively explore the extent to which non-religious and atheist rights-holders enjoy freedom from proselytism, freedom from hate and freedom from the religions of their parents.

Volume 56 of "Studies in Law, Politics, and Society" presents the latest scholarship on human rights. The work contained in this volume examines both the theoretical dimensions and dilemmas of human rights in the modern world and particular cases in which the problems and possibilities of human rights are examined. Taken together the contributions point to a need for more searching examination of the way human rights work and highlight the contribution of human rights to the advancement of claims for justice. "Studies in Law, Politics, and Society" is a leading socio-legal publication that truly embraces innovative, theoretically informed, interdisciplinary legal scholarship.

Endangered Peoples of Oceania: Struggles to Survive and Thrive introduces a wide range of Pacific Islanders and indigenous and migrant cultures in Australia and New Zealand and the challenges they face today. This volume focuses on 16 endangered peoples, from Micronesians and Melanesians to Samoans in New Zealand. Students and other readers will become knowledgeable about the contemporary impacts and responses to such factors as nuclear testing, migration for jobs, uncontrolled development, and ecotourism. The chapters are written by anthropologists based on their recent fieldwork, which guarantees unparalleled accuracy and immediacy. The peoples of Oceania are struggling to be economically independent and autonomous while maintaining their distinctive cultural traditions. Each chapter in Endangered Peoples of Oceania: Struggles to Survive and Thrive is devoted to a specific people, including a cultural overview of their history, subsistence strategies, social and political organization, and religion and world view; threats to their survival; and their response to these threats. A section entitled "Food for Thought" poses questions that encourage a personal engagement with the experience of these peoples, and a resource guide suggests further reading and lists films and videos as well as pertinent organizations and web sites. As the curriculum expands to include more multicultural and indigenous peoples, this unique volume will be valuable to both students and teachers.

This fully revised and extended edition of James Nickel's classic study explains and defends the contemporary conception of human rights. Combining philosophical, legal and political approaches, Nickel explains international human rights law and addresses questions of justification and feasibility.
New, revised edition of James Nickel's classic study.
Explains and defends the conception of human rights found in the" Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (1948) and subsequent treaties in a clear and lively style.
Covers fundamental freedoms, due process rights, social rights, and minority rights.
Updated throughout to include developments in law, politics, and theory since the publication of the first edition.
New features for this edition include an extensive bibliography and a chapter on human rights and terrorism.

This book uniquely depicts the preeminent role that African trade unions played in ousting dictatorships and bringing democracy to many African countries in the 1990s. In the analytical introduction and case studies of major African countries, leading scholars relate how democratic trade unions were critical in launching and sustaining democratization. Working with other societal groups and parties, unions continue to represent the popular classes and invigorate democratic life in these otherwise elite-dominated countries.

This book defends the thesis that Kant's normative ethics and his practical ethics of sex and marriage can be valuable resources for people engaged in the contemporary debate over same-sex marriage. It does so by first developing a reading of Kant's normative ethics that explains the way in which Kant's notions of human moral imperfection unsocial sociability inform his ethical thinking. The book then offers a systematic treatment of Kant's views of sex and marriage, arguing that Kant's views are more defensible than some of his critics have made them out to be. Drawing on Kant's account of marriage and his conception of moral friendship, the book argues that Kant's ethics can be used to develop a defense of same-sex marriage.

The massacre of Canudos in 1897 is a pivotal episode in Brazilian social history. Looking at the event through the eyes of the inhabitants, Levine challenges traditional interpretations and gives weight to the fact that most of the Canudenses were of mixed-raced descent and were thus perceived as opponents to progress and civilization. In 1897, Brazilian military forces destroyed the millenarian settlement of Canudos, murdering as many as 35,000 pious rural folk who had taken refuge in the remote northeast backlands of Brazil. Fictionalized in Mario Vargas Llosa's acclaimed novel, "War at the End of the World", Canudos is a pivotal episode in Brazilian social history. When looked at through the eyes of the inhabitants of Canudos, however, this historical incident lends itself to a bold new interpretation which challenges the traditional polemics on the subject. While the Canudos movement has been consistently viewed either as a rebellion of crazed fanatics or as a model of proletarian resistance to oppression, Levine deftly demonstrates that it was, in fact, neither. "Vale of Tears" probes the reasons for the Brazilian ambivalence toward its social history, giving much weight to the fact that most of the Canudenses were of mixed-race descent. They were perceived as opponents to progress and civilization and, by inference, to Brazil's attempts to 'whiten' itself. As a result there are major insights to be found here into Brazilians' self-image over the past century.

This book is devoted to the study of the interplay between religious rules and State law. It explores how State recognition of religious rules can affect the degree of legal diversity that is available to citizens and why such recognition sometime results in more individual and collective freedom and sometime in a threat to equality of citizens before the law. The first part of the book contains a few contributions that place this discussion within the wider debate on legal pluralism. While State law and religious rules are two normative systems among many others, the specific characteristics of the latter are at the heart of tensions that emerge with increasing frequency in many countries. The second part is devoted to the analysis of about twenty national cases that provide an overview of the different tools and strategies that are employed to manage the relationship between State law and religious rules all over the world.

The collapse of socialist regimes across Southeastern Europe changed the rules of the political game and led to the transformation of these societies. The status of women was immediately affected. The contributors to this volume contrast the status of women in the post-socialist societies of the region with their status under socialism.

Who is entitled to be a citizen? What rights and duties does citizenship involve? These political questions are being asked today with a renewed urgency, both by practising politicians and by scholars. These essays by distinguished contributors examine the changing frontiers of modern citizenship. They look at the way citizenship is being reshaped within the nation state, in relations between women and the state, under the impact of economic crisis and recession, and in the face of new multinational political forces.

Black conservatism is no oxymoron. Recent polls have indicated that an increasing number of black Americans identified themselves as conservatives, favoring smaller government, lower taxes, tougher crime laws, welfare reform, and personal initiative. While applauding the moral and legal victories of the Civil Rights Movement, the conservative spokespeople in this dynamic new collection reject the claims of inequities and what they consider to be the self-serving agenda of the present civil rights establishment. National leaders such as Justice Clarence Thomas and former Representative Gary Franks and writers such as Shelby Steele and Glenn Loury appear either as contributors or as subjects in this volume. They emphasize the grassroots aspects of black conservatism with a reliance on common sense and common humanity. The strength of the black conservative voice lies in the growth of its numbers and social influence. As more African-Americans shift to the right and embrace conservative ideology, they are signalling what may be one of the most politically significant trends in American public life as the 20th century draws to a close. This provocative collection of essays shatters the myth that black Americans are uniformly left of center and that conservatism is an ideology with a white face. Unique in its personal and political portrait of black conservatives in America, this book shows the remarkable diversity of ideas from one of the most talked-about political movements to emerge in recent years.

In September 1993 a unique dialogue took place. Humanists from around the country gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah, to exchange ideas with Mormons on the topics of feminism, freedom of conscience, academic freedom in Mormon universities, and clashes between "dissident intellectuals" and Mormon church authorities. Of particular concern in the discussion was the recent excommunication of members of the Mormon church and the departure of two professors from Brigham Young University for allegedly expressing ideas at variance with church teachings. Ironically, despite such conflicts, Mormons officially and individually endorse freedom of conscience; the dignity of the human right to exercise free agency is a principle rooted in the Mormon as well as the humanist tradition. On this basis for mutual understanding, the dialogue between the two diverse cultures of Mormonism and humanism proceeded. George D. Smith has collected twelve essays, all but one of which were presented at the Utah conference, for this thought-provoking volume. Among the subjects covered are ecclesiastical abuse and the excommunicated "September Six", academic freedom at Brigham Young University, the politics of exclusivity, and free inquiry in a religious context. Paul Kurtz, editor of Free Inquiry, introduces the discussion with an overview of "Humanism and the Idea of Freedom". The volume concludes with a 1939 essay by noted American journalist Walter Lippmann entitled "The Indispensable Opposition".

It is an undeniable fact that corporations participate in human rights abuses throughout the world. Yet there is disagreement among scholars, politicians and business actors about the best approaches to preventing and responding to those abuses and whether it would be feasible to adopt a treaty on the matter.This book explores the potential adoption of a treaty on business and human rights, first proposed by Ecuador and South Africa. Would such a treaty be practicable and what should its content be - should it regulate direct corporate obligations or extraterritorial obligations? How can experiences of other international legal regimes and developments in regional systems inform the global debate on business and human rights?The Future of Business and Human Rights informs the reader - academics, practitioners and policy makers - about the current debate that is at centre of legal and diplomatic discussion.

Cosmopolitanism, as an intellectual and political project, has failed. The portrayal of human rights, especially European, as evidence of cosmopolitanism in practice is misguided. Cosmopolitan theorists point to the rise of claims-making to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) among Europe's Muslims to protect their right to religious freedom, mainly concerning the hijab, as evidence of cosmopolitan justice. However, the outcomes of such claims-making show that far from signifying a cosmopolitan moment, European human rights law has failed Europe's Muslims. Human Rights, Islam and the Failure of Cosmopolitanism provides an empirical examination of claims-making and government policy in Western Europe focusing mainly on developments in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. A consideration of public debates and European law of conduct in the public sphere shows that cosmopolitan optimism has misjudged the magnitude of the impact claims-making among Europe's Muslims. To overcome this cul-de-sac, European Muslims should turn to a new 'politics of rights' to pursue their right to religious expression. This book is a theoretically challenging re-evaluation of cosmopolitan arguments through a rigorous discussion of rights-making claims by Europe's Muslims to the European Court of Human Rights. It combines sociological and legal case analysis which advances understanding of one of the most pressing topical issues of the day.

"A very readable book containing the best arguments thus far opposing campaign finance reform."
-- "Choice"

"Martin Redish's accomplishment is that he not only has written a strong critique of te proposals to extend governmental regulation of free speech, but he has also given First Amendment defenders a base from which to attack existing restrictions on communication. Money Talks illustrates and upholds why the Founders prohibited Congress from making any law thta abridges the freedom of speech."--"Regulation"

Many have argued that soft money and special interests are destroying the American electoral system. And yet the clarion call for campaign finance reform only touches on the more general belief that money and economic power have a disastrous impact on both free expression and American democracy. The nation's primary sources of communication, the argument goes, are increasingly controlled by vast corporate empires whose primary, or even exclusive motive is the maximization of profit. And these conglomerates should simply not be granted the same constitutional protection as, say, an individual protester.

And yet neither the expenditure of money for expressive purposes nor an underlying motive of profit maximization detracts from the values fostered by such activity, claims Martin H. Redish. In fact, given the modern economic realities that dictate that effective expression virtually requires the expenditure of capital, any restriction of such capital for expressive purposes will necessarily reduce the sum total of available expression. Further, Redish here illustrates, the underlying motive of those who wish to restrict corporate expression is disagreement with thenature of the views they express.

Confronting head-on one of the sacred cows of American reformist politics, Martin H. Redish here once again lives up to his reputation as one of America's most original and counterintuitive legal minds.

Too often lost in our understanding of the American Cold War crisis, with its nuclear brinkmanship and global political chess game, is the simultaneous crisis on the nation's racial front. "Reckoning Day" is the first book to examine the relationship of African Americans to the atom bomb in postwar America. It tells the wide-ranging story of African Americans' response to the atomic threat in the postwar period. It examines the anti-nuclear writing and activism of major figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Lorraine Hansberry as well as the placement (or absence) of black characters in white-authored doomsday fiction and nonfiction. Author Jacqueline Foertsch analyzes the work of African American thinkers, activists, writers, journalists, filmmakers, and musical performers in the "atomic" decades of 1945 to 1965 and beyond. Her book tells the dynamic story of commitment and interdependence, as these major figures spoke with force and eloquence for nuclear disarmament, just as they argued unstintingly for racial equality on numerous other occasions.

Foertsch also examines the location of African American characters in novels, science fiction, and survivalist nonfiction such as government-sponsored forecasts regarding post-nuclear survival. In these, black characters are often displaced or absented entirely: in doomsday narratives they are excluded from executive decision-making and the stories' often triumphant conclusions; in the nonfiction, they are rarely envisioned amongst the "typical American" survivors charged with rebuilding US society. Throughout "Reckoning Day," issues of placement and positioning provide the conceptual framework: abandoned at "ground zero" (America's inner cities) during the height of the atomic threat, African Americans were figured in white-authored survival fiction as compliant servants aiding white victory over atomic adversity, while as historical figures they were often perceived as "elsewhere" (indifferent) to the atomic threat. In fact, African Americans' "position" on the bomb was rarely one of silence or indifference. Ranging from appreciation to disdain to vigorous opposition, atomic-era African Americans developed diverse and meaningful positions on the bomb and made essential contributions to a remarkably American dialogue.

During the transition to democracy, states have used various mechanisms to address previous human rights abuses including domestic trials, truth and reconciliation commissions and internationalized tribunals. This volume analyzes the transitional justice choices made by four countries: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), Sierra Leone and East Timor. For each country, there is a chapter which provides a historical overview concerning the causes of the conflict and two subsequent chapters which highlight a different method of transitional justice implemented. The volume highlights the opportunities and the constraints faced by states and the international community to provide accountability for human rights violations.

This exemplary contribution to the literature on ethnic studies examines the issues surrounding Mexican-American political empowerment in the United States. The chapters, originally contributions to a symposium at the University of Texas in El Paso, are uniformly engaging, rigorous in their analysis, and richly suggestive in their conclusions. This exceptionally fine collection discusses the political history of Mexican-Americans, the role of their interest groups, educational models, local bureaucracies, and electoral strategies. Noteworthy are the barriers to Chicano authority found in Los Angeles and Texas. Strongly recommended. Library Journal This timely book is among the first to be published that directly addresses the political empowerment of Hispanics. The contributors concern themselves not only with the progress and problems of political empowerment, but also with the prospects of future empowerment--the political strategies and agendas for the next decade. Conducted by a group of scholars well known for their research on Chicano politics, the studies suggest that while substantial progress has been made in opening political doors to Mexican Americans, most of their political potential has yet to be realized. The volume begins with an overview of the history of Mexican-American political empowerment from 1850 to the present. Institutional, procedural, and ideological barriers to success in American politics for Mexican- Americans are reviewed. An examination of two major politics for paradigms for educational achievement reflect different views on educational success and failure. The bureaucracy of local government and its sensitivity in increasing political representation in Los Angeles, the development of political organization and leadership, and future legal issues are covered. In the conclusion, the various perspectives of the contributors are synthesized to point the way to the next level of Mexican-American empowerment, and ultimately, to a general theory of political integration.

This book addresses key transformations in citizenship politics in the EU, ember states. The contributors argue that the anti-discrimination agenda set out in the Treaty of Amsterdam has had an impact on traditional patterns of national integration of ethnic minorities and migrants in Europe. Comparing transformations in French and British politics of citizenship, the book focuses in particular upon the religious dimension of discrimination and Islam in Europe.

Harcum maintains that the proper assumptions about human nature are established by their relative utility in solving existing human problems. In order to facilitate solutions to familiar problems of daily living, the author advocates a definition of the science of psychology that includes the concepts of human freedom and intrinsic dignity. The author emphasizes the importance of the free will concept to behavioral scientists and practitioners as well as to citizens of the general population who, perhaps without realizing it, are forced users of behavioral science. The author's intention is to show that our cherished beliefs in the concepts of freedom and dignity are consistent with scientific principles and thus will become a vital part of a scientifically designed culture.