Jean H. Quataert. Advocating Dignity: Human Rights Mobilizations in Global Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. XIII, 355 S. $59.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8122-4163-1.

Reviewed by Robert M. Press (Department of Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs, University of Southern Mississippi)
Published on H-Human-Rights (January, 2010)
Commissioned by Rebecca K. Root (Ramapo College of New Jersey)

Passions and Policies in the International Struggle for Human Rights

Prize-winning historian Jean H. Quataert sees a link between the courage and passion of human rights activists and the slowly developing and often confusing politics and policies of the United Nations and other international bodies regarding the dignity of man. Her premise is that individuals and groups pushing for greater respect for rights do make a difference, and international human rights institutions are important: “Individual decisions [of activists] have made a difference in global politics” (p. 297). 

In the author’s words, “As a historical inquiry, the book explores the emergence and development of human rights thinking and organizing and their impact on the course of global and domestic politics since 1945" (p. xi).Starting with the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and ending around 2005, the author traces how both the UN and major powers address and adapt to human rights crises. Her case studies are not new: the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, South Africans’ struggle against apartheid, and Soviet dissidents, among others. But her contribution is an attempt to trace how such cases helped shape what we today call human rights "norms." She attempts to place in a trajectory of change growing activism and evolving institutions. She argues that the UN, her main focus, has been invigorated by the activism, and vice versa.

We meet Gladys Tsolo (pp. 80-85), an anti-apartheid activist who grew up in a coal-mining district in Natal and went on to join the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Through participation in various international meetings, she helped bring attention to the struggles of women in the South African campaigns. We also meet the Argentine mothers who courageously challenged the regime responsible for causing the disappearance of so many suspected political dissidents in the 1970s. “Their public persona helped loosen the rule of silence in the U.N. human rights monitoring system” (p. 120), the author contends. 

This work takes its place in the literature somewhere between accounts of activism and studies of institutions and law by analyzing both and their inter-connection. Does Quataert make her case? It is not an easy question to answer. Correlations studies in human rights tend to claim, often with great confidence, that relationships on a macro level are significant. Micro-studies of human rights activism and movements sometimes attempt  to link such movements to the rather vague concept of international “norms.” Both kinds of investigation, like most social movements studies, often struggle to show precise impact.

Quataert does not try to pin down specific activism to specific change of policies; generally what she argues is that over time (sixty years in this case), the UN has gradually moved from noninvolvement in the affairs of human rights-violating countries due to respect for national sovereignty, and from listening just to other governments, to also listening to nongovernmental organizations and victims of violence. This, she contends, has been part of the momentum behind greater sensitivity by the UN toward the people who suffer human rights abuses. She ends her close examination of the UN as of 2005, when the UN embarked on new reforms.

But one senses a frustration on the part of the author with statements such as this one: “Only great powers make things happen in the global community” (p  295). One of the cases she refers to is the decision by the United States to go to war with Iraq without the blessing of the UN. Despite objections from the Security Council--and protests by millions of demonstrators worldwide, the United States went to war anyway. Speaking from the historian’s point of view, Quataert writes that the decision really made little sense. “A longer time horizon ... shows unmistakably that the so-called project of 'democracy' was arbitrary and cynical. For decades the United States had been one of the major supporters of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East” (p. 298).

For those of us who find it difficult to keep track of the many UN treaties and special bodies, she not only provides a chart (pp. 138-139), she digs into archival records of human rights conferences to highlight agenda items and other historical details easily overlooked. Though the author modestly points out that many such records are on the Internet, tracking them down, along with earlier records not so accessible, is a real service.

Yet, more would have been better in some cases. On three of the biggest human rights tragedies of recent years involving the international community (Somalia, Rwanda, and Sudan), there is a disappointing lack of material. Somalia is discussed in general terms, but there is little to expose the trials and tribulations of various UN agencies working there on humanitarian and political issues, or the rather awkward U.S. role of humanitarian-turned- political intervener. Rwanda’s ethnic manipulation through propaganda is included, but what are missing are the major blunders the UN committed in responding (or rather not responding) to the genocide. And considering the failure of the world community to end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan is not given enough attention.

In addition to the introduction and conclusion chapters, the book is divided into three sections, each with two chapters. The first section deals with Cold War politics, including the anti-apartheid and Soviet dissident movements along with the case of the Argentine mothers. The second addresses critics and new mechanisms, including gender issues, citizenship, and transnational migrations. The third covers human rights in the context of conflict, including ethnic violence, humanitarian intervention, and criminal accountability, as well as the UN World Conference against Racism.

With no bibliography, it is difficult to evaluate sources except through a page-by-page analysis, but the author has drawn from history, women's studies, political science, and other literatures. There is no doubting the amount of research that has gone into this detailed political history.

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-human-rights.

Citation: Robert M. Press. Review of Quataert, Jean H., Advocating Dignity: Human Rights Mobilizations in Global Politics. H-Human-Rights, H-Net Reviews. January, 2010.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25898

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.