{"title":"Aaron Rhodes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"debasement-of-human-rights-book-aaron-rhodes-9781594039799","title":"The Debasement of Human Rights","description":"Why have human rights become a defense for dictators and an ideological weapon for leftist political activists and advocates for global governance? \u003ci\u003eThe Debasement of Human Rights\u003c\/i\u003e explains how profound contradictions in the idea of human rights around which international law and institutions and civil society campaigns are built have led to a process by which human rights has lost its meaning, and its moral power as an inspiration for those seeking freedom and democracy. The contemporary concept of human rights mixes and confuses natural rights to individual freedom with rights to material support from governments - economic and social rights based in the Socialist tradition, which are intrinsically political, and reflect positive, as opposed to natural law. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The book takes the reader through the foundations of the idea of human rights in ancient and Enlightenment philosophy, and the process by which human rights principles were caste aside in the formation of the international human rights system following World War II. Through a confluence of ideological and geopolitical forces, the concept of human rights was ripped from its foundations and cynically manipulated. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The inclusion of economic and social rights in the global human rights regime has had devastating consequences. While the politicization of human rights was to a degree held in check during the Cold War, when it ended, a campaign to protect an ever-widening array of social and economic rights - an essentially Soviet approach to human rights - gained legitimacy. The exploitation of the idea of human rights has continued, and in fact accelerated. In the second half of the book, the consequences of this process for human rights protections are documented, including how the idea of human rights is used as a justification for restricting the basic freedoms that human rights law should protect. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Human rights is among the most emancipatory and inspiring ideas of the modern age. We all have a stake in proper custodianship of this idea, yet the international community and civil society formations have neglected or subverted the philosophical foundations of human rights, and assumed that human rights are defined by international law rather than principles that have been defined in a tradition beginning with the Stoic philosophers and extending through Kant and Locke. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Few serious observers would deny that the idea of human rights has lost clarity and focus, yet no one has produced such a thorough analysis of the origins and effects of problem as Aaron Rhodes, who has been recognized by The University of Chicago as one of the leading human rights activists in the world. \u003ci\u003eThe Debasement of Human Rights\u003c\/i\u003e is a rich admixture of political, philosophical and historical analysis, illustrated by vivid examples from the author's own work and experiences in international human rights.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49589328183569,"sku":"GOR013382279","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50384819421457,"sku":"CIN1594039798G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52349304439057,"sku":"NLS9781594039799","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52752445833489,"sku":"NIN9781594039799","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53487179104529,"sku":"GOR014943522","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53498048381201,"sku":"CIN1594039798VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1594039798.jpg?v=1751276631"},{"product_id":"human-rights-without-illusions-book-aaron-rhodes-9781680533514","title":"Human Rights Without Illusions","description":"In Human Rights Without Illusions, leading human rights advocate Aaron Rhodes traces the political and religious traditions that have led to prioritizing consensus among diverse nations as a prerequisite for upholding universal principles. The modern, global human rights regime sits on the foundation of Hellenistic stoicism and medieval Christendom, where natural law morally unified all of humanity. Drawing upon subsequent efforts to implement a secularized law of nations as promulgated natural law, and inspired by political progressivism, the international human rights system initiated in 1948 envisions a process of moral transformation on the basis of bureaucratic cooperation with institutions of the United Nations. By contrast, the natural rights tradition reflects a different form of universalism, one that focuses on a common understanding of human nature rather than intergovernmental consensus. The philosophy of natural rights, as crystallized in the Enlightenment, is skeptical of international formations, holding that interactions between governments occur in a state of nature without any overarching authority. Therefore, protecting human rights is possible only in nation-states, where the rules of civil society are legally enforceable. That does not render futile a campaign for improving respect for human rights around the world, however. Rhodes considers defending human rights and freedoms to be a moral duty, but human rights advocacy needs to free itself from the inevitable corruption of institutionalized universalism. Rhodes argues instead for a “human rights without illusions” consistent with the classical liberal principles that inspired America’s Founding Fathers and shaped their belief that basic freedoms are realized in a bottom-up process, not a top-down one. Progress toward a spontaneous order of global human rights can be made if liberal societies project inherent freedom as a compelling moral principle, rather than subjecting it to legalistic rationalization and compromise in inclusive global institutions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52532485194001,"sku":"NLS9781680533514","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52753333453073,"sku":"NIN9781680533514","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781680533514.jpg?v=1762598817"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-aaron-rhodes.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}