Product Description

"Defining Rights and Wrongs" investigates the day-to-day practices of the officials who manage human rights complaints. Rosanna Langer documents agencies' struggle to reconcile a huge body of claims within expansive standards and restrictive rules. She also examines how independent human rights advocates and organizations challenge the agency to respond to calls for change. Langer concludes that tensions remain between rights, enforcement ideals, and operational imperatives; between the public interest and particular individual complainants; and between perpetuation and change. In its defence of the public interest and offering a strong anti-discrimination framework at a time when public complaint administration is under attack, "Defining Rights and Wrongs" opposes the formalization and privatization of discrimination complaints. It will interest practitioners, students, and academics interested in human rights, politics, public policy, and law and society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1031826 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 191 pages

Review
"Human rights agencies have been the subject of intense scrutiny, and sometimes criticism, over the past decade. There have been numerous studies, reports, and commissions across the country, but none of them ask the questions that this book asks about how the perceptions and values of the participants in the process shape the outcomes. This is important work that will add new information to the discourse around human rights reform and may lead it in new directions. - Tom Patch, Associate Vice President, Equity, University of British Columbia"

About the Author
Rosanna L. Langer is an assistant professor of law and justice at Laurentian University.