For decades, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism, racism, and inequality. The region has also experienced dramatic-if uneven-human rights improvements, shedding light on the politics of transformation. The accounts of how Latin America's people have dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights offer lessons for people around the world. Human Rights in Latin America provides a comprehensive introduction to the human rights issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of the Western Hemisphere. This second edition brings together regional case studies and thematic chapters to explore cutting-edge issues and developments in the field. From historical accounts of abuse to successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, Human Rights in Latin America explores the dynamics underlying a vast range of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the United States, relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions, Sonia Cardenas and Rebecca Root cover newer ground in addressing the colonial and ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns for gender and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to the International Criminal Court. Engagingly written and fully illustrated, Human Rights in Latin America fills an important niche among human rights and Latin American textbooks. Ample supplementary resources-including discussion questions, interdisciplinary reading lists, filmographies, online resources, internship opportunities, and instructor assignments-make this an especially valuable text for use in human rights courses.

For decades, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism, racism, and inequality. The region has also experienced dramatic-if uneven-human rights improvements, shedding light on the politics of transformation. The accounts of how Latin America's people have dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights offer lessons for people around the world. Human Rights in Latin America provides a comprehensive introduction to the human rights issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of the Western Hemisphere. This second edition brings together regional case studies and thematic chapters to explore cutting-edge issues and developments in the field. From historical accounts of abuse to successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, Human Rights in Latin America explores the dynamics underlying a vast range of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the United States, relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions, Sonia Cardenas and Rebecca Root cover newer ground in addressing the colonial and ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns for gender and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to the International Criminal Court. Engagingly written and fully illustrated, Human Rights in Latin America fills an important niche among human rights and Latin American textbooks. Ample supplementary resources-including discussion questions, interdisciplinary reading lists, filmographies, online resources, internship opportunities, and instructor assignments-make this an especially valuable text for use in human rights courses.

Conflict and Compliance State Responses to International Human Rights Pressure Sonia Cardenas "Finally, a book showing that compliance is not an all-or-nothing affair. Cardenas unpacks compliance and makes a compelling case that domestic politics are a big part of the story, two invaluable contributions to the field of human rights. Read the book "--Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, University of California, San Diego "This is an excellent look at why states comply--or not--with international human rights norms, and will be a valuable reference on the bookshelf of students of human rights as well as, hopefully, policymakers responsible for crafting and implementing pressure for human rights compliance."--"Human Rights and Human Welfare" International human rights pressure has been applied to numerous states with varying results. In "Conflict and Compliance," Sonia Cardenas examines responses to such pressure and challenges conventional views of the reasons states do--or do not--comply with international law. Data from disparate bodies of research suggest that more pressure to comply with human rights standards is not necessarily more effective, and that international policies are more efficient when they target the root causes of state oppression. Cardenas surveys a broad array of evidence to support these conclusions, including Latin American cases that incorporate recent important declassified materials, a statistical analysis of all the countries in the world, and a set of secondary cases from Eastern Europe, South Africa, China, and Cuba. The views of human rights skeptics and optimists are surveyed to illustrate how state rhetoric and behavior can be interpreted differently depending on one's perspective. Theoretically and methodologically sophisticated, "Conflict and Compliance" paints a new picture of the complex dynamics at work when states face competing pressures to comply with and violate international human rights norms. Sonia Cardenas is Associate Professor of Political Science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights 2007 200 pages 6 x 9 3 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-3999-7 Cloth $65.00s 42.50 ISBN 978-0-8122-2130-5 Paper $22.50s 15.00 World Rights Political Science Short copy: Theoretically and methodologically sophisticated, "Conflict and Compliance" paints a new picture of the complex dynamics at work when states face competing pressures to comply with and violate international human rights norms.

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.

For the last half century, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism and racism, and other evils. The region has also experienced dramatic--if uneven--human rights improvements. The accounts of how Latin America's people have dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights offer lessons for people around the world."Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope" is the first textbook to provide a comprehensive introduction to the human rights issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of the Western Hemisphere. Leading human rights researcher and educator Sonia Cardenas brings together regional examples of both terror and hope, emphasizing the dualities inherent in human rights struggles. Organized by three pivotal topics--human rights violations, reform, and accountability--this book offers an authoritative synthesis of research on human rights on the continent. From historical accounts of abuse to successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, "Human Rights in Latin America" explores the tensions underlying a vast range of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the United States, relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions, Cardenas covers newer ground in addressing the colonial and ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns for disability and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to the International Criminal Court.Engagingly written and fully illustrated, "Human Rights in Latin America" creates an important niche among human rights and Latin American textbooks. Ample supplementary resources--including discussion questions, interdisciplinary reading lists, filmographies, online resources, internship opportunities, and instructor assignments--make this an especially valuable text for use in human rights courses.