Critical Readings in Human Rights and Peace

Contents: Foreword. Preface. Introduction. 1. Basic concepts of human rights, society and the state. 2. Citizenship: its Hierarchies, ambivalences and exclusions. 3. Conflicts and the politics of peace in South Asia. 4. The "War on terror" and the challenges to democracy and human rights from the emergent world order. 5. Of nations and states. 6. Rights-based approach to development. 7. Globalization and human rights. 8. The issues of conflict in Nepal. 9. Conflicts of history and humanism in South Asia. 10. Universal rights, cultural sensitivity, and engagement with religion. 11. The human rights discourse: flaws, weaknesses and problems. 12. The war on terror, Islam and Wahabi fundamentalism. Index. Contributors.

"Talking and teaching human rights and peace not only require strong convictions but also the capacity to question and verify their logical foundations as well as their potential to prevail over the equations of power within the world of reality.

It is a book that mingles zeal for social transformation with a critical intellectual Rigour that is resolute in interrogating the philosophical foundations of human rights; their political histories and their future under the new challenges attending on the emergent world order.

The implications of the pedagogical method the book follows are, indeed, far reaching. Students of human rights, peace researchers and policy makers should find the book to be indispensable." (jacket)