Synopses & Reviews
Hitherto the human rights debate in Africa has concentrated on the legal and philosophical. The author, Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, here moves the debate to the social and political planes. He attempts to reconceptualise human rights ideology from the standpoint of the working people in Africa. He defines the approach as avoiding the pitfalls of the liberal perspective as being absolutist in viewing human rights as a central question and the rights struggle as the backbone of democratic struggles. The author maintains that such a study cannot be politically neutral or intellectually uncommitted. Both the critique of dominant discourse and the reconceptualisation are located within the current social science and jurisprudential debates. ...Shivji presents a thought-provoking study...provide s a useful agenda for future human rights research on Africa. - Africa Today The strength of Shivji's book lies in stripping the concept of human rights of its universal pretensions and placing it in an ideological context. - Index of Censorship