The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen Richard Pierre Claude The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen, by Paul Gordon Lauren (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998) 385 pp. Paul Gordon Lauren seeks to reclaim the largely forgotten, or at least frequently overlooked, heritage of the global (not just Western) struggle for human rights. In so doing, he successfully establishes the theme of the universalism of human rights and carries it forward by reliance on many well researched references to colonial and minority liberation struggles. This is a book of broad scope and depth covering centuries of historical development, tied together by the themes of “visions and visionaries.” For example, the first chapter draws from widely diverse sources, including the Islamic visionary, Al-Farabi, cultural treasures such as Burundi proverbs, philosophical mus-ings of Chinese Confusion sages, reflections of the Roman stoics, and the clarion pronouncements of Thomas Paine. The second chapter recounts early organized international efforts to free the enslaved and to care for the wounded. These and other ancient sources, along with people’s struggles of centuries past, lay the basis for the third chapter, which profiles the sensibilities of those pursuing peacemaking efforts and human rights innovations in the twentieth century. Subsequent chapters detail the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1 and the key role of the modern human rights movement and NGOs in transforming its vision into reality through political and legal processes. The author sets an appealing and somewhat radical thematic tone in terms of the grassroots basis of historical developments, referring, e.g., to World War II as a peoples’ struggle and human rights as a peoples’ victory. These perspectives are set out with a refreshing lack of “Western triumphalism,” reinforced by appropriate critical comments on the hypocrisy of early US and European support of human rights symbolism, presenting side by side their policies and practices of racism and their gendering of power. Lauren gives the lie to the proposition that human rights as we now understand them are the products of white male lawyers among the World War II victors. He shows that, drafting language aside, human rights came to us from people’s struggles in every quadrant of the globe. The author observes that myriad political, religious, scholarly, and labor organizations collectively contributed to the crusade for human rights culminating in the International Bill of Rights. These themes—universalism, the struggle against racism and sexism, and the popular and nonelitist basis of human rights—are strong qualities of the book. They should carry critical attention beyond historical quibbles about the parochial origins of human rights, going even beyond the “hall of fame” mindset of those whose writings falsely suggest that human rights flowed from the pens of great luminaries and only incidentally from the blood of nameless struggling millions, the civilly disobedient, and activists carrying outrageous placards. The author’s aspirations as a historian [End Page 251] are reminiscent of H.G. Wells in trying to achieve the uncommon feat of both presenting a complex review of history, relying on meticulous scholarship, while at the same time offering a narrative presentation in a style that is accessible and inspiring. This kind of work is needed now because we have reached a post-Cold War juncture when global human rights provide the elements for cultural change and therefore must be taken seriously. Lauren’s commanding scholarship and at many points his original research establish the seriousness and credibility of his treatment of the origins of modern human rights. While sensitive to technical detail, the author avoids unnecessary reliance on the leaden language of the law. In emphasizing the human beings in human rights, he effectively supplies the “motivator” that many teachers are looking for in introducing students to this new field of international study. Lauren invests his efforts with an inspirational quality that will make the book an important resource for teaching human rights in colleges and universities. Some legal historians may justifiably find fault with the author’s blending of human rights law and humanitarian law. Lauren does not fully lay out the very different underlying premises offered for the two fields. This may be...