In the third edition of his classic work, revised extensively and updated to include recent developments on the international scene, Jack Donnelly explains and defends a richly interdisciplinary account of human rights as universal rights. He shows that any conception of human rights—and the idea of human rights itself—is historically specific and contingent. Since publication of the first edition in 1989, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice has justified Donnelly’s claim that “conceptual clarity, the fruit of sound theory, can facilitate action. At the very least it can help to unmask the arguments of dictators and their allies.”

Table of Contents

• • Preface to the Second Edition
  • Introduction 1
• Pt. I Toward a Theory of Universal Human Rights
  • 1 The Concept of Human Rights 7
  • 2 The Universal Declaration Model 22
  • 3 Equal Concern and Respect 38
• Pt. II Cultural Relativism and International Human Rights
  • 4 Markets, States, and “The West” 57
  • 5 Non-Western Conceptions of Human Rights 71
  • 6 Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights 89
  • 7 Human Rights and “Asian Values” 107
• Pt. III Human Rights and International Action
  • 8 International Human Rights Regimes 127
  • 9 Human Rights and Foreign Policy 155
  • 10 The Priority of National Action 173
• Pt. IV Essays on Contemporary Theory and Practice
  • 11 Democracy, Development, and Human Rights 185
  • 12 Group Rights and Human Rights 204
  • 13 Nondiscrimination for All: The Case of Sexual Minorities 225
  • 14 Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention 242
  • References 261
  • Index 287