{"id":369,"date":"2012-11-28T11:56:05","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T16:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/?page_id=369"},"modified":"2016-05-03T20:34:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T00:34:28","slug":"human-rights","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Ronald, Publisher<\/a> – Paperback, January 2013, 400 pages<\/p>\n

Paperback edition:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Amazon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"specialideas\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kindle edition:<\/strong>
\n\"Amazon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From ONE COUNTRY<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are human rights merely a list of good ideas, to be discussed and agreed upon? Or are they intrinsic to human existence, founded on something more fundamental? And, either way, are rights universal, applicable to all cultures and times?<\/p>\n

These are among the questions addressed in a new book by Aaron Emmel, titled Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization<\/em>….<\/p>\n

His main theme is that to fully comprehend or define human rights, we must first arrive at an understanding of what it means to be a human being\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

In exploring this theme, Mr. Emmel takes readers on a tour of the history of human rights, going back to the concept of sanctuary in Jewish and, later, Roman law. He discusses the rights of citizens in Greek city-states, and the contributions made by Christianity and Islam. He then moves through the Enlightenment philosophers and to the modern day, covering the history of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he breaks the discussion into discrete topics, such as minority rights, rights and development, and the rule of law. He discusses, for example, the issue of individual and community identity \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and how those concepts impact the evolving conception of human rights.<\/p>\n

Too often in the past, he notes, a society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s limited view of human identity has led to a limited view of rights for some \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as, say, when minorities or women are seen as having fewer rights.<\/p>\n

But \u00e2\u20ac\u0153communities and societies change,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and ideas about identity and rights \u00e2\u20ac\u201d how members of the community define themselves, and the rights and expectations they have of themselves and others \u00e2\u20ac\u201d change with them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From The Review of Faith & International Affairs<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 20 chapters of Emmel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book are organized into three sections to explore these basic teachings. The first\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Identity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dargues that every account of human rights depends upon some concept of human nature. Parts two and three\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Society\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rights and Responsibilities\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201drespectively argue that notions of human rights are framed by social patterns and our sense of the duties we have to others, ourselves, and the divine. Some of Emmel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most thought provoking insights emerge in the two chapters that narrate the gradual expansion of human rights from the time of ancient empires to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In these chapters we see the clear developmental link between Greece, Rome, medieval Islam, Enlightenment Europe, the Revolutionary US, and the post-WWII global society. One of his more interesting claims is that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153United States of America represented an experiment in government based upon new ideas of human reality that had emerged, in large part, from the Enlightenment and its elevation of reason\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (p. 38). This idea helps us to see that each of the historical societies he describes likewise arose as social experiments carried out by those who were spurred on by belief in a new vision of human reality. There is certainly a lesson here for all who believe that any social configuration that is fundamentally different from the one we have today would almost certainly be worse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The international human rights system is both the process and the product of an ongoing dialogue between peoples and cultures throughout the world. But what do human rights mean today? How we have arrived here? And where are human rights going?<\/p>\n

Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization examines these questions and makes four claims:<\/p>\n