This book describes how human rights have given rise to a vision of benevolent governance that, if fully realised, would be antithetical to individual freedom. It describes human rights' evolution into a grand but nebulous project, rooted in compassion, with the overarching aim of improving universal welfare by defining the conditions of human well-being and imposing obligations on the state and other actors to realise them. This gives rise to a form of managerialism, preoccupied with measuring and improving the 'human rights performance' of the state, businesses and so on. The ultimate result is the 'governmentalisation' of a pastoral form of global human rights governance, in which power is exercised for the general good, moulded by a complex regulatory sphere which shapes the field of action for the individual at every turn. This, unsurprisingly, does not appeal to rights-holders themselves.
| ISBN: | 9781526131829 |
| Publication date: | 27th April 2021 |
| Author: | David McGrogan |
| Publisher: | Manchester University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 288 pages |
| Series: | Critical Theory and Contemporary Society |
| Genres: |
Human rights, civil rights Public international law: human rights International law |