Tony Evans The Politics of Human Rights : A Global Perspective (London: Pluto Press, 2005 –second edition- 162pp.) A key thesis of this new edition of Tony Evans The Politics of Human Rights is that “One consequence of globalization is that it is no longer possible — if it ever was — to understand development, security, environmental degradation or human rights as exclusively national problems. And if they are not exclusively national problems then the institutions of national democracy alone cannot be expected to provide a framework for people to participate in seeking solutions. Furthermore, under conditions of globalization, governments seem increasingly unable to exercise the necessary authority to secure democratic outcomes or offer protection for human rights, particularly economic and social rights. Therefore, if we are serious about protecting human rights, it will not be enough to enhance the institutions and practices of liberal democracy at the national level alone. While strengthening national institutions must support democracy, ensuring that deprived, marginalized and forgotten groups can exercise their right to participation, this will achieve little unless global society itself is democratized.” How is the world society to be democratized? One important aspect is the democratization of the state units which represent important actors in the world society. A large number of states are not liberal democracies although democracy represents a nearly universal ideology. Today, there is little coherent anti-democratic thought. We do not have the Communist, Nazi or Fascist ideologies of the 1930s which tried to present a structured alternative to democratic thought. Even the militarist justifications for taking power in many Latin American countries in an earlier period have now been largely dropped. Today, we have democracy as a universal ideology but not a universal practice. There are holdouts who believe that men are superior to women, that one race or ethnic group is superior to others, that only one faith leads to salvation and the others are false, but such holdouts of earlier time have no intellectual foundation. The only state-sponsored alternative to human rights as based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was presented by the Islamic Republic of Iran who maintained that Islamic law based on revelation was superior to man-made law. However, the Iranian representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights did not present a fully developed alternative. As Evans points out “The habit of assuming that human rights is best understood as a singular discourse, a discourse upon which general agreement has been achieved, therefore obscures important and continuing disagreements that are seldom confronted.” Iran has organized two important seminars at the United Nations in Geneva so that Islamic scholars could confront their understanding of Islamic law in contrast to the Universal Declaration. However, for those who do not accept Islamic law as revelation, it was difficult to see how Islam could be a universal standard. Thus today, we find verbal agreement on the value of the person, on the right of each person to participate fully in the political structures of the state, and some agreement that basic human needs should be met and that governments have a responsibility for helping to meet basic needs. Yet we also find discrimination based on gender, class, ethnic group, faith. We find starvation, lack of acess to basic needs such as education, health and meaningful work as Evans lists the negative aspects of globalization “ including mass migrations, refugees, famine, violence, environmental degradation, cultural dissolution and structural deprivation.”

Evans quotes the views of Issa Shivji who indicates that human rights “mirror the struggles and concerns of the dominant groups in society at a particular time as these groups organize and reorganize to maintain their positions or to overthrow the existing order.” Thus, It is likely that the current understanding of human rights is not permanent and that there will be evolutions, but for the moment there is a widely-shared consensus that human rights are those articulated through the efforts of the United Nations. The creation of the United Nations placed universal human rights at the center of global politics. The need now is for implementation of these UN standards in the face of the new challenges. There are two new situations which were not fully seen at the time of drafting the UN human rights instruments. The first is the breakdown of states leading to multi-party civil wars and an end to the institutions of government. International law is based on the idea of a state which can provide order, predictability and enough stability so that the state can abide by international agreements. When all the institutions of a state break down, as was the case of Somalia, the national protection of human rights is impossible. This was one of the considerations which led to the creation of the International Criminal Court. The other world transformation of which the human rights drafters was not fully aware is the impact of globalization. Although many aspects of globalization have been around for a long time, and with the vocabulary of ‘interdependence’ were being studied in the 1970s, the full impact of globalization is only being felt today. Thus Evans asks “What role does the global political economy play in securing or denying access to the means for protecting human rights?” The answer is still being developed. Within the UN system there is increasing emphasis on implementation. The International Labour Organisation is working intensively on conditions of work and the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. What was also unforeseen by the drafters was the role of non-governmental organizations. Since the late 1970s when the UN human rights secretariat was moved to Geneva, there has been increased cooperation between the UN Secretariat, NGOs and the representatives of victims. There has been a growth of academic institutions dealing with human rights, the growth of rapid responses to violations, more field missions, and better reporting of events through internet. While the forces involved in repression and violations of human rights are still strong, the pro-human rights NGOs are increasingly effective and have greater access to media. The foundation of the International Criminal Court owes much to this increased organizational skills of NGO. As E.H. Carr wrote before World War II, international law “like politics, is a meeting place for ethics and power…it cannot be understood independently of the political foundation in which it rests and of the political interests which it serves.” Tony Evans has written a useful book on the ethics and power of human rights — a useful tool for all human rights defenders. Rene Wadlow