National human rights institutions--state agencies charged with
protecting and promoting human rights domestically--have
proliferated dramatically since the 1990s; today more than a
hundred countries have NHRIs, with dozens more seeking to join the
global trend. These institutions are found in states of all
sizes--from the Maldives and Barbados to South Africa, Mexico, and
India; they exist in conflict zones and comparatively stable
democracies alike. In "Chains of Justice," Sonia Cardenas offers a
sweeping historical and global account of the emergence of NHRIs,
linking their growing prominence to the contradictions and
possibilities of the modern state.As human rights norms gained
visibility at the end of the twentieth century, states began
creating NHRIs based on the idea that if international human rights
standards were ever to take root, they had to be firmly implanted
within countries--impacting domestic laws and administrative
practices and even systems of education. However, this very
position within a complex state makes it particularly challenging
to assess the design and influence of NHRIs: some observers are
inclined to associate NHRIs with ideals of restraint and
accountability, whereas others are suspicious of these institutions
as "pretenders" in democratic disguise. In her theoretically and
politically grounded examination, Cardenas tackles the role of
NHRIs, asking how we can understand the global diffusion of these
institutions, including why individual states decide to create an
NHRI at a particular time while others resist the trend. She
explores the influence of these institutions in states seeking
mostly to appease international audiences as well as their value in
places where respect for human rights is already strong.The most
comprehensive account of the NHRI phenomenon to date, "Chains of
Justice" analyzes many institutions never studied before and draws
from new data released from the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism
of the United Nations Human Rights Council. With its global scope
and fresh insights into the origins and influence of NHRIs, "Chains
of Justice" promises to become a standard reference that will
appeal to scholars immersed in the workings of these understudied
institutions as well as nonspecialists curious about the role of
the state in human rights.
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