Why am I passionate about this?

I am an emeritus professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex. I taught political theory for many years with a speciality in the theory and practice of human rights. I'm the author of Edmund Burke and the Critique of Political Radicalism and Human Rights. I've published many articles in political theory, philosophy of social science, and human rights. I've directed academic programmes in political theory, The Enlightenment, and human rights. I've lectured on human rights in some 25 countries. I was a founder-member of my local branch of Amnesty International and served on the board of Amnesty’s British Section for five years, for two years as its Chairperson.


I wrote

Human Rights

By Michael Freeman,

Book cover of Human Rights

What is my book about?

The United Nations committed itself to the promotion of human rights in its Charter of 1945 and elaborated these principles…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century

Michael Freeman Why did I love this book?

The concept of human rights will seem to many at first sight a powerful, positive, and relatively uncontroversial idea. However, the concept is both historically and philosophically bound up with the political theory of liberalism which is very controversial. Many people praise or condemn liberalism without a clear idea of what it is, how it developed historically, or its diverse forms. Helena Rosenblatt’s valuable history tells the story of liberalism from ancient times to the present, showing us the various forms it can take and has taken.

Contrary to widely held beliefs liberalism has been concerned not only with individual rights but with individual duties and the common good. Thus liberalism is not simply opposed to conservatism or socialism but has complex relationships with these rival philosophies. All contemporary debates about liberalism are likely to remain confused if they fail to take account of Rosenblatt’s history.

By Helena Rosenblatt,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Lost History of Liberalism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The changing face of the liberal creed from the ancient world to today

The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry-and a term of derision-in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking readers from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism," revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. She debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition, and shows how it was only during the Cold War that it was refashioned into an American…


Book cover of Making Sense of Human Rights

Michael Freeman Why did I love this book?

Perhaps the best explanation and defence of the contemporary concept of human rights. Nickel addresses theoretical problems of justifying human rights, practical problems of implementing them, and dilemmas to which they give rise. It is written with unusual clarity. On the one hand, as a philosopher he does not take for granted that human rights make sense or that all uses of the idea deserve our support. On the other hand, he does not engage in debunking the idea that has been fashionable on both the political left and right. This is a most thoughtful and balanced account and is highly recommendable to those seeking a readable introduction to the philosophy of human rights.

I particularly liked his `lawnmower theory of human rights'. One of the challenges to human rights theory is why we should think of human rights as `universal’ – as the UN and international human rights law claim – rather than merely a historically contingent cultural preference of the West. Nickel suggests that the modern state is like the lawnmower: both were invented in the West; both have advantages and dangers, and it is universally true that we should seek to maximize the advantages and minimize the dangers. Human rights seek to promote the advantages of state power while minimizing the dangers. Nickel also usefully `deconstructs’ the UN myth that human rights are `indivisible’ by painstakingly showing that the relationships among different rights are complex and to some extent contingent.

By James Nickel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Making Sense of Human Rights as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This fully revised and extended edition of James Nickel's classic study explains and defends the contemporary conception of human rights. Combining philosophical, legal and political approaches, Nickel explains international human rights law and addresses questions of justification and feasibility. * New, revised edition of James Nickel's classic study. * Explains and defends the conception of human rights found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and subsequent treaties in a clear and lively style. * Covers fundamental freedoms, due process rights, social rights, and minority rights. * Updated throughout to include developments in law, politics, and theory since the…


Book cover of Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century

Michael Freeman Why did I love this book?

When social scientists began to ask the question – neglected by human rights lawyers and activists – whether international human rights law actually improved the enjoyment of human rights, they came up with largely negative answers: international human rights law had no effect, or very little effect, or was sometimes counter-productive, being associated with more human rights violations, depending on the research methods used. Kathryn Sikkink was among the leading scholars challenging these results, showing that the previous studies greatly oversimplified the human rights world.

Her book, Evidence for Hope, brings together the empirical evidence showing that human rights law sometimes, in some places, improves the enjoyment of some human rights. Sikkink defends the human rights movement from the charge of `utopianism’ by turning the tables on the critics and accusing them of unrealistic expectations for human rights law. The human rights struggle takes place on a hard road but there is solid evidence that progress has been made and that further progress can be made in the future. Science, realism, and hope can be combined.

Academics, journalists, and ordinary citizens (including even human rights activists) are often more impressed by bad news than by good news. Human rights disasters (Cambodia, Rwanda, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ukraine) rightly hit the headlines, but important human rights improvements (for example, in maternal and infant mortality or disability rights) are less noticed. Indeed, increased concern for human rights has led to better information about human rights violations and, paradoxically, the dubious belief that human rights have not improved and may well have deteriorated.

Sikkink brings us the good news about human rights on the basis of comprehensive and systematic research. Sikkink, a specialist in Latin America as well as in international human rights, also argues robustly against the widely-held view that human rights were a Western imposition on the rest, documenting the contribution of non-Western countries to the development and acceptance of international human rights law and the ambivalence of the West to these developments. Sikkink’s book exemplifies two primary virtues: hope for a better world and action for a better world informed by the best available evidence.

By Kathryn Sikkink,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Evidence for Hope as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A history of the successes of the human rights movement and a case for why human rights work

Evidence for Hope makes the case that yes, human rights work. Critics may counter that the movement is in serious jeopardy or even a questionable byproduct of Western imperialism. Guantanamo is still open and governments are cracking down on NGOs everywhere. But human rights expert Kathryn Sikkink draws on decades of research and fieldwork to provide a rigorous rebuttal to doubts about human rights laws and institutions. Past and current trends indicate that in the long term, human rights movements have been…


Book cover of Human Rights and Their Limits

Michael Freeman Why did I love this book?

Wiktor Osiatyński was a distinguished Polish constitutional and human rights lawyer who died in 2017 and who, among many other achievements, contributed to the drafting of the post-Communist constitution of Poland. He was a member of the board of the Open Society Foundation and a greatly admired teacher of human rights. Human Rights and Their Limits is one of the most carefully balanced accounts of human rights available in English. Osiatyński argues against human rights absolutism, pointing out that excessive respect for rights can undermine the democracy that is the precondition of rights protection, and that rights have to be balanced against other social and personal values.

He vividly illustrates the hypocrisy of states that talk the talk of human rights when it suits their interests but refuse to walk the walk when it does not. The hope for human rights, therefore, lies primarily not in the institutions of the state but in the organizations of civil society. Civil society organizations, however, could be effective only if they engaged in the issues that concern ordinary people, especially those neglected by dominant political and economic institutions. Human rights can be an exclusionary discourse. Constitutions are important frameworks for the protection of human rights, but the struggle for rights is more political than legal.

Osiatyński controversially distinguished civil and political rights, on the one hand, from economic and social rights, on the other hand, on the ground that the latter depends on everyone fulfilling their duties to the common welfare. Others have pointed out that the fulfillment of all human rights requires resources (fair trials, for example, can be more expensive than health care) and therefore depend on a fair allocation of both rights and responsibilities. There is room for reasonable disagreement with some of this book’s treatments of the admittedly knotty problems of human rights theory and practice, but the book is, in the best sense, a provocative and successful account of human rights and their limits.

By Wiktor Osiatyński,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Human Rights and Their Limits as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Human Rights and their Limits shows that the concept of human rights has developed in waves: each call for rights served the purpose of social groups that tried to stop further proliferation of rights once their own goals were reached. While defending the universality of human rights as norms of behavior, Osiatynski admits that the philosophy on human rights does not need to be universal. Instead he suggests that the enjoyment of social rights should be contingent upon the recipient's contribution to society. He calls for a 'soft universalism' that will not impose rights on others but will share the…


Book cover of Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law Into Local Justice

Michael Freeman Why did I love this book?

The initial reaction of anthropologists to the UN’s proposal for a universal declaration of human rights was to question it on the ground that it might be no more than an expression of the cultures of the world’s dominant powers. Human rights universalism was opposed by cultural relativism, the idea that no or few values are universally valid as values derive from particular cultures. Anthropologists then discovered that the cultural groups that they typically studied – `indigenous’ peoples – often suffered the most serious human rights violations and that ignoring this was ethically and scientifically unacceptable.

Although many anthropologists are still attracted to cultural relativism, some have not only embraced human rights but have made an original and distinctive contribution to our understanding of the human rights world in at least two respects: 1) understanding the culture of this world, and 2) understanding the real-world interaction of human rights and local cultures. Merry’s book is one of the finest examples of anthropological work that respects both the cultural diversity of the world and the potential of international human rights to solve the problems and enhance the rights of the socially powerless. It achieves this by focussing on the gap between gender violence in international human rights law and the lived experience of women.

The practical import of the study is to emphasise that international human rights advocacy, to be effective, must work with the grain of local cultures and not simply `blame’ them for their supposed shortcomings. People are attached to their cultures and their response to human rights advocacy will always be culturally inflected. The culture of international human rights law may seem `alien’ to those living in local cultures, but, contrary to the views of some cultural relativists, cultures are flexible and changeable, and so even `traditional’ cultures can be open to human rights influences. In such processes, `translators’ – those familiar with both global and local cultures – may be crucial.

By Sally Engle Merry,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Human Rights and Gender Violence as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Human rights law and the legal protection of women from violence are still fairly new concepts. As a result, substantial discrepancies exist between what is decided in the halls of the United Nations and what women experience on a daily basis in their communities. "Human Rights and Gender Violence" is an ambitious study that investigates the tensions between global law and local justice. As an observer of UN diplomatic negotiations as well as the workings of grassroots feminist organizations in several countries, Sally Engle Merry offers an insider's perspective on how human rights law holds authorities accountable for the protection…


Explore my book 😀

Human Rights

By Michael Freeman,

Book cover of Human Rights

What is my book about?

The United Nations committed itself to the promotion of human rights in its Charter of 1945 and elaborated these principles in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Since then a vast body of international, regional and national law has developed to clarify and protect human rights. Yet for a long time the social sciences largely ignored these developments.

Since the end of the last century, social science has woken up to the role human rights play in international and national law and politics. In this book, I describe and evaluate these contributions, and relate them to human rights law and `real-world’ politics. I consider the interaction of law and politics, claims of `universal’ rights and cultural diversity, human rights and global inequalities, and the supposed crisis of liberal democracy.

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Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

Book cover of Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Elizabeth Randall Author Of Fire is the Test of Gold

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Why am I passionate about this?

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Elizabeth's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Tourists and local residents of St. Augustine will enjoy reading about the secret wonders of their ancient city that are right under their noses. Of course, that includes a few stray corpses and ghosts!

Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

What is this book about?

It is no wonder the ancient city of St. Augustine is steeped in secrets. St. Johns, the oldest continuously occupied county in America celebrated its 450th birthday on September 4, 2015. More like a European enclave than an urban landscape, it is a place of cannon fire, street parties, historical reenactments, concerts, and more. From admiring replicas of fine art at Ripley’s Believe or Not, to hunting haunts in restaurants and museums, to eating ice cream from a recipe originated by World War II bombardiers, St. Augustine has it all from beaches, gourmet dining, festivals, and attractions. A young and…


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Interested in human rights, the United Nations, and violence?

Human Rights 70 books
Violence 100 books