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Cover image for book The Hidden Face of Rights

The Hidden Face of Rights

Toward a Politics of Responsibilities
By:Kathryn Sikkink
Publisher:Yale University Press
Print ISBN:9780300233292
eText ISBN:9780300249248
Edition:0
Format:Reflowable

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Why we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize human responsibilities

When we debate questions in international law, politics, and justice, we often use the language of rights—and far less often the language of responsibilities. Human rights scholars and activists talk about state responsibility for rights, but they do not articulate clear norms about other actors’ obligations. In this book, Kathryn Sikkink argues that we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize and practice the corresponding human responsibilities.
  
Focusing on five areas—climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault—where on-the-ground (primarily university campus) initiatives have persuaded people to embrace a close relationship between rights and responsibilities, Sikkink argues for the importance of responsibilities to any comprehensive understanding of political ethics and human rights.