In a world that is increasingly disillusioned with formal politics, people are no longer prepared to wait for governments and international institutions to act on human rights concerns. This book identifies activism as a key means of realizing human rights and as a new form of politics.
Fighting for Human Rights documents and compares successful high profile campaigns to cancel debt in the developing world, ban landmines and set up the International Criminal Court as well as emerging campaigns that focus on HIV/AIDS, environmental justice, democratization and blood diamonds.

Introduction 1. Human Rights and Global Civil Society: On the Law of Unintended Effects 2. Debt Cancellation and Civil Society: A Case-Study of Jubilee 20003. 'New' Humanitarian Advocacy?: Civil Society and the Landmines Ban 4. International Law Making of Historic Proportions: Civil Society and the International Criminal Court5. The Pinochet Case: The Catalyst for Deepening Democracy in Chile?6. Civil Society and Environmental Justice 7. 'The Most Debilitating Discrimination of All': Civil Society's Campaign for Access to Treatment for AIDS 8. Climb Every Mountain: Civil Society and the Conflict Diamonds Campaign

Paul Gready is a Lecturer at the Institute of Commonwealth. His practical experience relating to human rights includes working for the research department of Amnesty International's International Secretariat and a number of civil liberties organisations in South Africa, as well as consultancies for institutions including the British Medical Association and the South African Police Service.