I Book Review: Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410902700412 |
| Published date | 01 December 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 27/4, 649–668, 200 9.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 649
PART D: DOCUMENTATION
I BOOK REVIEWS
Brooke A. Ackerly, Universal Human Rights in a World o f Dierence, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, New York, etc., 2008 , xiii + 373 p., ISBN: 978–0–521–
88126–5 (hbk), 978–0–521–70755–8 (pbk)*
‘… for the weaker are always asking for equality and jus tice, but the stronger care for none of
these’ (Aristotle, i n: Ackerly, p. 67).
is book can be characterised as the work of a theoretical activist. Ins pired by the
experiences and insights of feminist and women’s rights activists, the author critical ly
examines existi ng theories on the universality of human rights. Finding these theories
inadequate, she sets out to develop her own critical theory to make human rights
activism more eect ive.
Starting point for Ackerly, a politica l scientist , is the assumption that human
rights activi sm w ill not be fully eective whil st activists are lacking convinci ng
arguments to back up the leg itimacy of their human rights cla ims, that is s o long as
the purported u niversality of human rights remai ns deeply contested. ose denying
the possibility of univers al human rights hold the view that norms and practice s vary
so widely throughout the world th at the idea of universally shared sta ndards is either
unthinka ble or only fea sible for a very short list of human r ights. Supporters of the
(liberal) idea of un iversal human rights have a tendency to downplay t he importance
of cultural d ierences and to emphasise the similarit ies between cultures.
Ackerly sides with t he proponents of universa lity. She nevertheless criticises bot h
camps for t heir always implicit claims of authority. Bot h opponents and proponents
tend to ground their arg uments upon assumptions a nd principles that are not
universally shared, like the notion t hat human rights are about huma n essence, such
as human dign ity or rationality or the opposite, that t here is no such thing as human
essence, but merely cultural dierences . Such arguments ma ke an implicit authority
claim – one just has to believe the author of the claim, there is no way to argue beyond
that point or to verify it. e two sides will never meet: discussions wi ll invariably end
where two ‘bel iefs’ are at stake. us, huma n rights activists w ill always have trouble
overcoming this ki nd of unarguable resis tance and waste t heir valuable energy on
* Marjolein van den Brink and Jet Tigchelaar are both lecturers at the Ins titute of Legal eory,
School of Law, Utrecht Universit y, the Netherlands.
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