Thomas Cushman is Deffenbaugh de Hoyos Carlson Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College, USA. He is the Founding Editor and former Editor-in-Chief of Human Rights Review, and Founding Editor, former Editor-in-Chief, and Editor-at-Large for the Journal of Human Rights. He is a Faculty Associate of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University and an Honorary Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Handbook maps out the field of human rights for the humanities and social sciences. It provides a solid foundation for the reader who wants to learn the basic parameters of the field, but also to promote new thinking and frameworks for the future study of human rights in the twenty-first century.

Introduction Thomas Cushman Part 1: Foundations and Critiques 1. Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights Andrew Fagan 2. The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Rights Edward Feser 3. Kant's Theory of Human Rights Luigi Caranti 4. Hate Speech, Human Rights, and G. W. F Hegel Richard Mullender 5. Hannah Arendt on Human Rights Roger Berkowitz 6. Democracy as Human Rights Michael Goodhart 7. Human Rights, Justice and Pluralism Fabrizio Sciacca 8. Human Rights and Democracy Luigi Caranti 9. Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights Robert Fine 10. A Critique of Positive Rights Tibor R. Machan 11. Nonsense on Stilts Roger Scruton 12. Communitarian Critique of Human Rights Amitai Etzioni Part 2: New Frameworks for Understanding Human Rights 13. What Are Human Rights? Four Schools of Thought Marie-Benedicte Dembour 14. Social Suffering and Human Rights Iain Wilkinson 15. Human Rights as Cultural Practices Fuyuki Kurasawa 16. Human Rights as Status Relations: A Sociological Approach to Understanding Human Rights Murray Milner, Jr. 17. Becoming Irrelevant: The Curious History of Anthropology and Human Rights, Mark Goodale 18. Economics and Human Rights Lorenz Blume 19. Rights, Reform and Resources: Malthusian Reflections on Scarcity and Old Age Bryan S. Turner Part 3: World Religious Traditions and Human Rights 20. Buddhism and Human Rights Damien Keown 21. Christianity and Human Rights Esther D. Reed 22. Confucianism and Human Rights Justin Tiwald 23. Islamic Conceptions of Human Rights Irene Oh 24. A Non-Religious Basis for the Idea of Human Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as Overlapping Consensus Ari Kohen Part 4: Social, Economic, Group, and Collective Rights 25. Group Rights: A Defense David Ingram 26. Economic Rights: Past, Present, and Future Gerald J. Beyer 27. Language Rights: The Forgotten Dimension of Human Rights Stephen May 28. Children's Rights David Archard 29. The Development of International Child Law: The Definition of "The Child" and Implementation Mechanisms Jenny Kuper 30. The Right to Food Claire Apodaca 31. The Rights of Refugees Hakan G. Sicakkan 32. The Rights of the Disabled Doris Zames Fleischer 33. Fetal Rights Jonathan B. Imber 34. The Human Rights of the Elderly Frédéric Mégret 35. Environmental Human Rights Richard P. Hiskes 36. Climate Change and Human Rights Nancy Tuana Part 5: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Organizations, Institutions, and Practices 37. The Tension between Peace and Justice in the Age of Peace-Building Henry F. Carey 38. Social Responsibility and Human Rights Morton Winston 39. The Ethics of International Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations Daniel A. Bell 40. International Financial Institutions and Their Impacts on Human Rights: Current and Prospective Research M. Rodwan Abouharb 41. Transnational Corporations and Human Rights Elena Pariotti 42. Reparations for Human Rights Abuses Ereshnee Naidu and John Torpey 43. Memory and Human Rights Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider 44. Truth Commissions and Human Rights Margaret Urban Walker 45. The International Rights of Migrants Raquel Aldana 46. The Humanitarian-Human Rights Nexus: A Global Culture Perspective Joshua J. Yates 47. Bystanders to Human Rights Abuses: A Psychosocial Perspective Irene Bruna Seu 48. The Proportionality Problem and Human Rights NGOs Don A. Habibi 49. Jewish Non-Governmental Organizations Michael Galchinsky 50. Have Human Rights Failed Humans? The Discord between Human Prosperity and Human Rights Mirko Bagaric Part 6: Law and Human Rights 51. International Law and Human Rights Brian D. Lepard 52. The Prosecution of Human Rights Abuses Dan Saxon 53. International Human Rights Law and the War on Terror Robert J. Delahunty and John Yoo Part 7: Narrative and Aesthetic Dimension of Rights 54. Cultures of Rescue and the Global Transit in Human Rights Narratives Sidonie Smith 55. Literature and Human Rights Kerry Bystrom 56. Theater and Human Rights Florian Becker and Brenda Werth 57. Architecture and Human Rights Graeme Bristol 58. Photography Without Borders Ariella Azoulay Part 8: Geographies of Rights 59. Human Rights in China as an Interdisciplinary Field: History, Current Debates, and New Approaches Marina Svensson 60. Human Rights and Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone Luis Roniger and Mario Sznajder 61. Human Rights in the African State Bonny Ibhawoh