Human Rights In The United States: Beyond Exceptionalism

Description

This book brings to light emerging evidence of a shift toward a fuller engagement with international human rights norms and their application to domestic policy dilemmas in the United States. The volume offers a rich history, spanning close to three centuries, of the marginalization of human rights discourse in the United States. Contributors analyze cases of US human rights advocacy aimed at addressing persistent inequalities within the United States itself, including advocacy on the rights of persons with disabilities; indigenous peoples; lone mother-headed families; incarcerated persons; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people; and those displaced by natural disasters. It also explores key arenas in which legal scholars, policy practitioners and grassroots activists are challenging multiple divides between 'public' and 'private' spheres (for example, in connection with children's rights and domestic violence) and between 'public' and 'private' sectors (specifically, in relation to healthcare and business and human rights). Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 2 Dedication......Page 3 Title Full......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Contributors......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 18 Foreword: Are Americans Human? Reflections on the Future of Progressive Politics in the United States......Page 20 1 - Paradoxes and Possibilities: Domestic Human Rights Policy in Context......Page 28 SECTION I - STRUCTURING DEBATES, INSTITUTIONALIZING RIGHTS......Page 50 2 - The Yellow Sweatshirt: Human Dignity and Economic Human Rights in Advanced Industrial Democracies......Page 52 3 - The U.S. Welfare State: A Battleground for Human Rights......Page 73 4 - Drawing Lines in the Sand: Building Economic and Social Rights Norms in the United States......Page 95 5 - State and Local Commissions as Sites for Domestic Human Rights Implementation......Page 116 SECTION II - CHALLENGING PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVIDES......Page 138 6 - The Curious Resistance to Seeing Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Violation in the United States......Page 140 7 - At the Crossroads: Children's Rights and the U.S. Government......Page 159 8 - Entrenched Inequity: Health Care in the United States......Page 180 9 - Business and Human Rights: A New Approach to Advancing Environmental Justice in the United States......Page 202 SECTION III - FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: MAKING HARMS VISIBLE THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMING......Page 224 10 - The Law and Politics of U.S. Participation in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities......Page 226 11 - The Anomaly of Citizenship for Indigenous Rights......Page 244 12 - Human Rights Violations as Obstacles to Escaping Poverty: The Case of Lone-Mother-Headed Families......Page 261 13 - The Human Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law: Lessons for the U.S. Human Rights Movement......Page 282 14 - LGBT Rights as Human Rights in the United States: Opportunities Lost......Page 301 15 - No Shelter: Disaster Politics in Louisiana and the Struggle for Human Rights......Page 318 APPENDIX 1 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights......Page 340 APPENDIX 2 - International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights......Page 347 APPENDIX 3 - International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights......Page 359 Index......Page 382