Synopses & Reviews
Are human rights universal or the product of specific cultures? Is democracy a necessary condition for the achievement of human rights in practice? And when, if ever, is it legitimate for external actors to impose their understandings of human rights upon particular countries? In the contemporary context of globalization, these questions have a salient religious dimension. Religion intersects with global human rights agendas in multiple ways, including: whether universal human rights are in fact an imposition of Christian understandings; whether democracy, the rule of the people, is compatible with God's law; and whether international efforts to enforce human rights including religious freedom amount to an illicit imperialism. This book brings together leading specialists across disciplines for the first major survey of the religious politics of human rights across the world's major regions, political systems, and faith traditions. The authors take a bottom-up approach and focus particularly on hot-button issues like human rights in Islam, Falun Gong in China, and religion in the former Soviet Union. Each essay examines the interaction of human rights and religion in practice and the challenges they pose for national and international policymakers.
Review
"For three decades, scholars have shown that religion and human rights need each other. The volume opens an important new chapter of scholarship by illustrating precisely how religion and human rights interact today. Judiciously edited and strikingly original, the volume combines case studies of local communities with broad surveys of major religions and regions of the world that illustrate the complex and diverse controversies that remain, especially over women's rights, religious freedom, and the rights to life and bodily integrity."
-- John Witte, Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, Emory University
Synopsis
The democratic revolution of the past century has heightened expectations in many parts of the world about human rights, including the rights of representation and free speech, protection for women and children, and fair treatment for minorities. This book brings together leading scholars from across disciplines to explore the efforts of religious communities to advance human rights agendas, often against internal and government opposition. Through an exploration of key cases, ranging from female genital mutilation in Africa through capital punishment in the United States, the volume moves beyond well-known controversies about the compatibility of particular religious traditions with human rights and explores instead how national and local faith communities invoke and adapt international human rights norms to specific policy challenges.
About the Author
TB: Director, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University RW: Andlinger Professor of Sociology and Director, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Thomas Banchoff and Robert Wuthnow
2. The International Human Rights Regime
Thomas Banchoff
PART I : ISLAM AND THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
3. Human Rights and Democracy in Islam: The Indonesian Case in Global Perspective
Robert W. Hefner
4. Muslims, Human Rights, and Women's Rights
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
PART II : THREE REGIONS: LATIN AMERICA, SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
5. Religious Pluralism, Democracy, and Human Rights in
Latin America
Paul Freston
6. Gender Justice and Religion in Sub-Saharan Africa
Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf
7. Buddhism, Human Rights, and Non-Buddhist Minorities
Charles Keyes
PART III : FOUR KEY COUNTRIES: INDIA, CHINA, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES
8. Hinduism and the Politics of Rights in India
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
9. Religion, State Power, and Human Rights in China
David Ownby
10. Religious Communities and Rights in the Russian Federation
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
11. Human Rights, the Catholic Church, and the Death Penalty in the United States
Thomas Banchoff