All too frequently, governments kill social movement leaders in an attempt to halt challenges to state power. Sometimes, such repression yields its intended effect; other times, it produces a powerful backlash, strengthening mass commitment and bolstering protest. In this article, we propose...

Free expression and privacy are key aspects of Internet governance. Both, however, vary tremendously across countries and are contested internationally. Regarding free expression, since the advent of the Internet, governments around the world have sought to control speech using political,...

In social justice advocacy in the United States today, activists often use international human rights rhetoric, methods, standards, and institutions. What are the scope, purposes, and effects of this strategy? Is this something new? If so, how and when did this trend begin? This paper discusses...

Who do NGOs represent, and to whom should they be accountable? In this brief essay, I argue that most NGOs represent only themselves, if the term is defined according to its ordinary meaning in democratic politics. But that fact should not prevent NGOs from involvement in international security...

This article analyzes recent efforts by India's Dalits (Untouchables) to transform centuries-old caste-based discrimination into an international human rights issue. Comparing early failures and later successes in international activism, the article demonstrates that the Dalits have achieved...

This paper develops new theory about the clash of conservative and progressive networks over numerous global issues. Focusing on the battle over sexual rights at the United Nations, the paper explores how opposing networks shape one another and how their conflict affects policy. The conflict...

Rights are usually viewed as defensive concepts representing mankind’s highest aspirations to protect and uplift the vulnerable. Since the Enlightenment, however, political combatants have also used rights belligerently -- to batter despised communities, demolish existing institutions, and...

In recent years, aggrieved groups around the world have portrayed their problems as human rights issues. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is expansive, for most of its history civil and political rights have garnered the bulk of resources. Yet today groups such as the...

How do a few Third World conflicts become international causes célèbres, while most remain isolated and unknown? Why, for instance, has there been so much recent attention to the Darfur crisis but so little to ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite vastly more casualties...