Cultural Politics of Human Rights

Explores how crucial cultural politics is to the realization of human rights ideals.

• Develops novel concepts and an innovative methodology to study a new phenomenon of 'intermestic' rights
• Analyses the human rights movement in the context of state transformation from within states in order to assess the varieties of nationalism which are now emerging
• Features case studies - some of which have been highly controversial - in the media as well as for activists and professionals

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How does culture make a difference to the realisation of human rights in Western states? It is only through cultural politics that human rights may become more than abstract moral ideals, protecting human beings from state violence and advancing protection from starvation and the social destruction of poverty. Using an innovative methodology, this book maps the emergent 'intermestic' human rights field within the US and UK in order to investigate detailed case studies of the cultural politics of human rights. Kate Nash researches how the authority to define human rights is being created within states as a result of international human rights commitments. Through comparative case studies, she explores how cultural politics is affecting state transformation today.