Global Human Rights Institutions

The range of global human rights institutions which have been
created over the past half century is a remarkable achievement.
Yet, their establishment and proliferation raises important
questions. Why do states create such institutions and what do they
want them to achieve? Does this differ from what the institutions
themselves seek to accomplish? Are global human rights institutions
effective remedies for violations of human dignity or temples for
the performance of stale bureaucratic rituals? What happens to
human rights when they are being framed in global institutions?

This book is an introduction to global human rights institutions
and to the challenges and paradoxes of institutionalizing human
rights. Drawing on international legal scholarship and
international relations literature, it examines UN institutions
with a human rights mandate, the process of mainstreaming human
rights, international courts which adjudicate human rights, and
non-governmental human rights organizations.

In mapping the ever more complex network of global human rights
institutions it asks what these institutions are and what they are
for. It critically assesses and appraises the ways in which global
institutions bureaucratize human rights, and reflects on how this
process is changing our perception of human rights.