International Human Rights
A Survey

‘Its approach is likely to engage an audience that goes beyond the usual suspects – lawyerly and academic circles. Highly recommended.' Christian Courtis, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

‘Chen and Renteln's tremendous International Human Rights: A Survey provides a thoroughly modern account of international human rights. Without shying away from controversies, it goes beyond a standard legal analysis, embracing perspectives from different disciplines and tackling the normative architecture, contextual dimensions, and cultural complexities, as well as the perennial enforcement challenges. A powerful and ambitious work that will stand as an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners.' Siobhan McInerney-Lankford, Senior Counsel, World Bank

‘International Human Rights: A Survey is a monumental achievement, integrating careful theoretical exposition of human rights with practical considerations. Chen and Renteln masterfully analyze the promises and challenges facing those concerned with the betterment of the human condition, and offer wise and practical counsel for navigating the fraught circumstances in which they approach their goals. This book is a signal achievement, and an essential resource for anyone interested in human rights.' Robert A. Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Professor of International Relations, Syracuse University, USA

‘A comprehensive critical coverage of the evolution of the human rights movement at national, regional and international levels. It also explores emerging issues we can no longer ignore today like protection of the environment, rights of persons with disabilities and of LGBTQ+ people. These are not only pertinent to the North, but more crucially to the Global South, enhancing the book's value and appealing to the wider audience.' Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, Keele University, The United Kingdom

‘A major highlight of this volume is its rights-based approach, which unpacks questions of cultural relativism, genocide studies, torture and inhuman punishments within the universal human rights discourse, and its critical examination of the fractures introduced by histories of imperialism and colonialism. Chen and Renteln judiciously and meticulously capture the heroic journey of the human rights movement right from 1948 through the contemporary evolution of new regional human rights systems.' Vibhuti Patel, Vice President, Indian Association for Women's Studies, India

‘Chen and Renteln offer an accessible, but in-depth and critical, appraisal informed by anthropology, political sciences, and international relations to tackle some of the most contentious contemporary challenges in international human rights law. At a time when authoritarian governments appear ever more emboldened to challenge the centrality of human rights discourse, this book is a crucial contribution to a necessary reflection on the future of human rights.' René Provost, Professor of Law, McGill University, Canada

‘International Human Rights: A Survey is a must-read for students who want to deepen their knowledge on human rights and ready themselves to face the challenges posed by their violation. The book provides a comprehensive and fully updated analysis of all the human rights internationally protected in an easy and rigorous legal language. With this work, Chen and Renteln provided an important landmark in the road toward a global justice.' Ilenia Ruggiu, Professor of Constitutional Law and Vice-President, University of Cagliari, Italy

‘Comprehensive and readable, International Human Rights: A Survey is the essential contemporary human rights reader. It leaves no current issue, group, or region behind – from identity to culture, racial disparities, and gendercide. The book's 16 chapters, each clearly organized around the legal concepts, instruments, and movements that make human rights matter, expose students to the history, promise, and potential of human rights.' Mark Fathi Massoud, Professor of Politics, UC Santa Cruz and Visiting Professor of Law, University of Oxford

‘The authors have done a brilliant job elucidating various aspects of human rights, demonstrating persuasively that an understanding of the underlying ideas and their application in different areas is critically important not just in distant countries under authoritarian governments, but to all. This is an important book for the general reader and an essential work for the academic.' David Miller, former Mayor of Toronto, Canada and the author of Solved: How the Great Cities of the World are Fixing the Climate Crisis

‘This is the most comprehensive and accessible treatment of human rights available. Chen and Renteln cover every aspect of human rights – from genocide to the right to be forgotten – in this multidisciplinary book. Examining rights from international, national and local levels adds rare depth. A valuable resource for students and experts alike.' Beth Simmons, Andrea Mitchell University Professor in Law, Political Science and Business Ethics, Penn Law

'In this essential book Dr. Chen and Dr. Renteln provide a much needed overview of humanity’s first normative line of defense against repression … in an age of brutality, but also of hope and opportunity.' Jan Egeland, Secretary General, Norwegian Refuge Council and former UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs

‘The term ‘tour de force’ is overused, but in the case of Chen and Renteln’s International Human Rights: A Survey, it is an entirely appropriate description of the work.’ Human Rights Quarterly (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/892622)