Steven L. B. Jensen – författare

This pioneering volume explores the long-neglected history of social rights, from the Middle Ages to the present. It debunks the myth that social rights are 'second-generation rights' – rights that appeared after World War II as additions to a rights corpus stretching back to the Enlightenment. Not only do social rights stretch back that far; they arguably pre-date the Enlightenment. In tracing their long history across various global contexts, this volume reveals how debates over social rights have often turned on deeper struggles over social obligation – over determining who owes what to whom, morally and legally. In the modern period, these struggles have been intertwined with questions of freedom, democracy, equality and dignity. Many factors have shaped the history of social rights, from class, gender and race to religion, empire and capitalism. With incomparable chronological depth, geographical breadth and conceptual nuance, Social Rights and the Politics of Obligation in History sets an agenda for future histories of human rights.

This book explores recent developments pointing towards a ‘domestic institutionalisation of human rights’, composed of converging international trends prescribing the setting up of domestic institutions, and the need for a national human rights systems approach. Building on new compliance theories, innovative arrangements have resolutely appeared around the turn of the millennium and some are now legally enshrined in human rights treaties. In their introduction, the editors capture these developments, their main elements and key points of debate. They outline a research agenda aimed at structuring and generating further attention from both academics and practitioners. As a stepping stone, the book singles out the purposeful attempt by the United Nations and others to frame these trends around the concept of ‘National Human Rights System’. The chapters assess various models and cases put forward for such systems. Each chapter highlights the specific forms of institutions being promoted and their intended domestic interactions, and discusses how these institutions are leveraged and strengthened by international bodies. Authors critically review their implications for the future of human rights, paving the way for additional research.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights.

This book explores recent developments pointing towards a ‘domestic institutionalisation of human rights’, composed of converging international trends prescribing the setting up of domestic institutions, and the need for a national human rights systems approach. Building on new compliance theories, innovative arrangements have resolutely appeared around the turn of the millennium and some are now legally enshrined in human rights treaties. In their introduction, the editors capture these developments, their main elements and key points of debate. They outline a research agenda aimed at structuring and generating further attention from both academics and practitioners. As a stepping stone, the book singles out the purposeful attempt by the United Nations and others to frame these trends around the concept of ‘National Human Rights System’. The chapters assess various models and cases put forward for such systems. Each chapter highlights the specific forms of institutions being promoted and their intended domestic interactions, and discusses how these institutions are leveraged and strengthened by international bodies. Authors critically review their implications for the future of human rights, paving the way for additional research.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights.

This book fundamentally reinterprets the history of international human rights in the post-1945 era by documenting how pivotal the Global South was for their breakthrough. In stark contrast to other contemporary human rights historians who have focused almost exclusively on the 1940s and the 1970s - heavily privileging Western agency - Steven L. B. Jensen convincingly argues that it was in the 1960s that universal human rights had their breakthrough. This is a ground-breaking work that places race and religion at the center of these developments and focuses on a core group of states who led the human rights breakthrough, namely Jamaica, Liberia, Ghana, and the Philippines. They transformed the norms upon which the international community today is built. Their efforts in the 1960s post-colonial moment laid the foundation - in profound and surprising ways - for the so-called human rights revolution in the 1970s, when Western activists and states began to embrace human rights.

This book fundamentally reinterprets the history of international human rights in the post-1945 era by documenting how pivotal the Global South was for their breakthrough. In stark contrast to other contemporary human rights historians who have focused almost exclusively on the 1940s and the 1970s - heavily privileging Western agency - Steven L. B. Jensen convincingly argues that it was in the 1960s that universal human rights had their breakthrough. This is a ground-breaking work that places race and religion at the center of these developments and focuses on a core group of states who led the human rights breakthrough, namely Jamaica, Liberia, Ghana, and the Philippines. They transformed the norms upon which the international community today is built. Their efforts in the 1960s post-colonial moment laid the foundation - in profound and surprising ways - for the so-called human rights revolution in the 1970s, when Western activists and states began to embrace human rights.

This pioneering volume explores the long-neglected history of social rights, from the Middle Ages to the present. It debunks the myth that social rights are 'second-generation rights' - rights that appeared after World War II as additions to a rights corpus stretching back to the Enlightenment. Not only do social rights stretch back that far; they arguably pre-date the Enlightenment. In tracing their long history across various global contexts, this volume reveals how debates over social rights have often turned on deeper struggles over social obligation - over determining who owes what to whom, morally and legally. In the modern period, these struggles have been intertwined with questions of freedom, democracy, equality and dignity. Many factors have shaped the history of social rights, from class, gender and race to religion, empire and capitalism. With incomparable chronological depth, geographical breadth and conceptual nuance, Social Rights and the Politics of Obligation in History sets an agenda for future histories of human rights.

The historical case studies featured respond to the need for wider historical research and to calls to examine global inequality in a more holistic manner.The Introduction 'Chapter 1 Histories of Global Inequality: Introduction' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.