Moving past theoretical critiques of human rights, this book considers how we might translate situational analyses of torture into effective strategies for preventing it.

Danielle Celermajer is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. She received a grant from the European Union to establish a Masters of Human Rights and Democratization in the Asia-Pacific course and a further one to work on the prevention of torture. Her books include Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apology (Cambridge, 2009), Power, Judgment and Political Evil: Hannah Arendt's Promise (with Andrew Schaap and Vrasidas Karalis, 2010), and A Cultural History of Law in the Modern Age (with Richard Sherwin, forthcoming).

Introduction; 1. The principal approaches preventing torture; 2. How effective has torture prevention been? 3. The situational conditions of institutional violence; 4. The production of worlds of torture; 5. Agents, structures and the social imaginary of human rights; 6. Taking situational theory to the field; 7. The promises and hazards of practice; Conclusion.