Crimes Against Humanity : The Struggle for Global Justice - Softcover

Robertson, Geoffrey

4.09

433 ratings by Goodreads

9781565846685: Crimes Against Humanity : The Struggle for Global Justice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565846680 ISBN 13: 9781565846685

Publisher: New Pr, 2002

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How human rights have come to dominate world politics, from Kosovo to East Timor. Hailed by the Observer as "a book to stop another Holocaust," Crimes Against Humanity is the first work to weave together history, philosophy, international law, and politics into a comprehensive and engrossing account of the increasingly significant movement for world human rights. Robertson, one of the world's leading human rights lawyers, reveals how human rights, a concept virtually unknown before the second world war, has over the last fifty years penetrated the legal armor of the sovereign state, providing a justification for the international community—with or without the United Nations—to bring down tyrants and torturers. Called "absorbing and important" by the Guardian [London], Crimes Against Humanity defines a whole new field of inquiry.

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About the Author:

Geoffrey Robertson QC, a British barrister, has appeared as counsel in many landmark human rights cases, including the trial that exposed Iraqgate and the commission that exposed the international plot to arm the Medell�n cartel in Colombia. He is head of Doughty Street Chambers and visiting professor in human rights at Birkbeck College. His books include Freedom, the Individual and the Law; Media Law; and a memoir, The Justice Game.

From Publishers Weekly:

A British lawyer long involved in human rights observations and tribunals, Robinson writes of the history and the contemporary politics of international human rights. He devotes a chapter each to the history of human rights law; the case of General Pinochet; the "Guernica Paradox" (that is, bombing in the service of human rights); the International Court; and recent events in the Balkans, East Timor, Latin America and the U.S. An unabashed supporter of international military intervention, Robinson puts individuals' rights above the right of national sovereignty. Passionate almost to a fault, he occasionally even argues that morality, the defense of human rights, should supersede the rule of international law. To his credit, he is consistently willing to criticize all sidesAand he does criticize the U.S. Congress (for what he says is its occasional desire to place U.S. interests above international human rights), U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (for what Robinson considers his occasional incompetence) and anyone who'd excuse human rights violations in the name of cultural relativism. The author's disgust with the U.N.'s inaction leads him to propose that the human rights community form a separate organization to deal with the issue. At times, Robinson's intense focus on law may blind him to important holes in his argument. But overall, this is an erudite book that adds sophistication to the debate on a crucial subject. (Aug.)
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