Brian Gran – författare

As sociologists deepen their examinations of human rights in their teaching, research, and thinking, it is essential that such work is conducted in a manner that is both mindful and critical of the knowledge we are building upon in sociology and human rights. As the authors of this volume reveal, creating sociological knowledge that examines human rights for the expansion of human rights is something that sociologists are well equipped to undertake, whether through the use of mathematics, comparative-historical analysis, the study of emotions, conversations, or social psychology. In these chapters you will find the roots of the study of human rights deep within sociological research and thinking as well as emerging techniques that will push the discipline as it seeks to expand understanding of human rights together with so many other aspects of the social condition.

As sociologists deepen their examinations of human rights in their teaching, research, and thinking, it is essential that such work is conducted in a manner that is both mindful and critical of the knowledge we are building upon in sociology and human rights. As the authors of this volume reveal, creating sociological knowledge that examines human rights for the expansion of human rights is something that sociologists are well equipped to undertake, whether through the use of mathematics, comparative-historical analysis, the study of emotions, conversations, or social psychology. In these chapters you will find the roots of the study of human rights deep within sociological research and thinking as well as emerging techniques that will push the discipline as it seeks to expand understanding of human rights together with so many other aspects of the social condition.

How do people work together to advance human rights? Do people form groups to prevent human rights from being enforced? Why? In what ways do circumstances matter to the work of individuals collectively working to shape human rights practices?

Human society is made of individuals within contexts—tectonic plates not of the earth’s crust but of groups and individuals who scrape and shift as we bump along, competing for scarce resources and getting along. These movements, large and small, are the products of actions individuals take in communities, within families and legal structures. These individuals are able to live longer, yet continue to remain vulnerable to dangers arising from the environment, substances, struggles for power, and a failure to understand that in most ways we are the same as our neighbors.

Yet it is because we live together in layers of diverse communities that we want our ability to speak to be unhindered by others, use spirituality to help us understand ourselves and others, possess a space and objects that are ours alone, and join with groups that share our values and interests, including circumstances where we do not know who our fellow neighbor is. For this reason sociologists have identified the importance of movements and change in human societies. When we collaborate in groups, individuals can change the contours of their daily lives.

Within this book you will find the building blocks for human rights in our communities. To understand why sometimes we enjoy human rights and other times we experience vulnerability and risk, sociologists seek to understand the individual within her context. Bringing together prominent sociologists to grapple with these questions, Movements for Human Rights: Locally and Globally, offers insights into the ways that people move for (and against) human rights.

How do people work together to advance human rights? Do people form groups to prevent human rights from being enforced? Why? In what ways do circumstances matter to the work of individuals collectively working to shape human rights practices?

Human society is made of individuals within contexts—tectonic plates not of the earth’s crust but of groups and individuals who scrape and shift as we bump along, competing for scarce resources and getting along. These movements, large and small, are the products of actions individuals take in communities, within families and legal structures. These individuals are able to live longer, yet continue to remain vulnerable to dangers arising from the environment, substances, struggles for power, and a failure to understand that in most ways we are the same as our neighbors.

Yet it is because we live together in layers of diverse communities that we want our ability to speak to be unhindered by others, use spirituality to help us understand ourselves and others, possess a space and objects that are ours alone, and join with groups that share our values and interests, including circumstances where we do not know who our fellow neighbor is. For this reason sociologists have identified the importance of movements and change in human societies. When we collaborate in groups, individuals can change the contours of their daily lives.

Within this book you will find the building blocks for human rights in our communities. To understand why sometimes we enjoy human rights and other times we experience vulnerability and risk, sociologists seek to understand the individual within her context. Bringing together prominent sociologists to grapple with these questions, Movements for Human Rights: Locally and Globally, offers insights into the ways that people move for (and against) human rights.

Institutions--like education, family, medicine, culture, and law--, are powerful social structures shaping how we live together. As members of society we daily express our adherence to norms and values of institutions as we consciously and unconsciously reject and challenge them. Our everyday experiences with institutions not only shape our connections with one another, they can reinforce our binding to the status quo as we struggle to produce social change. Institutions can help us do human rights. Institutions that bridge nation-states can offer resources, including norms, to advance human rights. These institutions can serve as touch stones to changing minds and confronting human rights violations. Institutions can also prevent us from doing human rights. We create institutions, but institutions can be difficult to change. Institutions can weaken, if not outright prevent, human rights establishment and implementation. To release human rights from their institutional bindings, sociologists must solve riddles of how institutions work and determine social life. This book is a step forward in identifying means by which we can loosen human rights from institutional constraints.

Institutions--like education, family, medicine, culture, and law--, are powerful social structures shaping how we live together. As members of society we daily express our adherence to norms and values of institutions as we consciously and unconsciously reject and challenge them. Our everyday experiences with institutions not only shape our connections with one another, they can reinforce our binding to the status quo as we struggle to produce social change. Institutions can help us do human rights. Institutions that bridge nation-states can offer resources, including norms, to advance human rights. These institutions can serve as touch stones to changing minds and confronting human rights violations. Institutions can also prevent us from doing human rights. We create institutions, but institutions can be difficult to change. Institutions can weaken, if not outright prevent, human rights establishment and implementation. To release human rights from their institutional bindings, sociologists must solve riddles of how institutions work and determine social life. This book is a step forward in identifying means by which we can loosen human rights from institutional constraints.

First Published in 2016. The global struggle for human rights has been, fundamentally, a struggle by oppressed groups against the structures of their oppression. As such, sociological work into the experiences of women, racial and ethnic minorities, children, LGBTQ communities, the mentally ill, and others helps us understand the promises and challenges of pursuing human rights. This book presents the fundamental insights gleaned from the scholarship on groups in society for the study of, understanding of, and, ultimately, realization of human rights.

First Published in 2016. The global struggle for human rights has been, fundamentally, a struggle by oppressed groups against the structures of their oppression. As such, sociological work into the experiences of women, racial and ethnic minorities, children, LGBTQ communities, the mentally ill, and others helps us understand the promises and challenges of pursuing human rights. This book presents the fundamental insights gleaned from the scholarship on groups in society for the study of, understanding of, and, ultimately, realization of human rights.

Children’s rights appear universal, inalienable, and indivisible, intended to advance young people’s interests. Yet, in practice, evidence suggests the contrary: the international framework of treaties, procedures, and national policies contains fundamental contradictions that weaken commitments to children’s real-world protections.

Brian Gran helps us understand what is at stake when children’s rights are compromised. This insightful text grounds readers in core theories and key data about children’s legal entitlements. The chapters tackle central questions about what rights accrue to young people, whether they advance equality, and how they influence children’s identities, freedoms, and societal participation. Ultimately, this book shows how current frameworks hinder young people from possessing and benefiting from human rights, arguing that they function as cynical invitations to question whether we truly believe children are endowed with human rights.

The Sociology of Children’s Rights offers a critical and accessible introduction to understanding a complex issue in the contemporary world, and is a compelling read for students and researchers concerned with human rights in sociology, political science, law, social work, and childhood studies.

Independent children’s rights institutions (ICRIs) have been established across the world. Endorsed by the UN, they are independent of their governments and endowed with legal powers. Yet we know little about how ICRIs function. How do they work? What impacts their success? What objectives do ICRIs seek to achieve?

The contributors to this edited collection provide first-hand experiences in directing, working for, and studying ICRIs and detail their unique, in-depth accounts of factors shaping ICRIs’ efforts to monitor and advance children’s rights. Chapters examine ICRIs in Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States, as well as an extraordinary network of ICRIs, and introduce innovative ideas of how to think about ICRIs’ independence and legal powers. Offering perspectives from across the world, this volume provides both theoretical and practical insights on a crucial element of children’s rights, independent children’s rights institutions.

The Roles of Independent Children’s Rights Institutions in Advancing Human Rights of Children is essential reading for students, researchers, and scholars interested in studies of sociology of childhood, law and society, children’s rights, and human rights.