Demands for Justice and Demands on Justice: Can Human Rights Practice Survive?

Abstract

Abstract How has the work of human rights organizations affected global politics? Do these practices achieve justice for those affected by human rights violations? Demands of Justice by Ann Marie Clark explores these questions using novel data from two prominent international nongovernmental organizations: Amnesty International and Oxfam. Her work expounds three effects of these organizations' work in infusing justice into the international system. First, this practice has expanded care and concern from a local level issue into a global neighborhood. Second, increasingly, human rights organizations appeal to growing international law and legal norms in their appeals, which aims to remedy injustice within the confines of practical limitations. Finally, those suffering from human rights violations place demands on nongovernmental organizations, which has changed the conceptualization of human rights beyond civil and political rights and toward broader questions of social justice. My review explores the impact of Clark's work on the field of human rights and recent concerns that human rights are under attack.