100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery πŸš€ Thank you for supporting our 100% NZ-owned bookstore ❀️

Human Rights

Series: Key Concepts
3.66 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 115 ratings, 7 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Human Rights by Michael Freeman offers a comprehensive introduction to one of today’s most significant political concepts through an interdisciplinary lens. The book traces the evolution of human rights, examining the tensions between legal, philosophical, and social-scientific perspectives. It explores pressing questions such as the causes of human-rights violations, cultural relativism versus universality, and whether we are entering a 'post-human rights' era. The latest edition has been thoroughly revised to include discussions on recent global developments like the Trump and Biden administrations, colonial histories, neoliberalism, ongoing conflicts, the Covid-19 crisis, and challenges facing liberal democracy. This clear and thorough text remains an essential resource for social science students and those studying human-rights law who seek insights beyond legal frameworks.
Read More
Format: Hardback
$13199
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for social science students, human-rights law students seeking interdisciplinary perspectives, academics, and anyone interested in the theoretical and practical challenges surrounding human rights today.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Human Rights, now in its fourth edition, is an introductory text that is both innovative and challenging. Its unique interdisciplinary approach invites students to think imaginatively and rigorously about one of the most important and influential political concepts of our time.

Tracing the history of the concept, the book shows that there are fundamental tensions between legal, philosophical, and social-scientific approaches to human rights. This analysis throws light on some of the most controversial issues in the field: What are the causes of human-rights violations? Is the idea of universal human rights consistent with respect for cultural difference? Are we living in a β€˜post-human rights’ world?

Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition engages with recent developments, including the Trump and Biden presidencies, colonial legacies, neoliberalism, conflict in Syria, Yemen and Myanmar, the Covid-19 pandemic, new technologies and the supposed crisis of liberal democracy. Widely admired and assigned for its clarity and comprehensiveness, this book remains a β€˜go-to’ text for students in the social sciences, as well as students of human-rights law who want an introduction to the non-legal aspects of their subject.

Series: Key Concepts

View all
  • Intersectionality
    The concept of intersectionality has become a central topic in academic and activist circles alike. But what exactly does it mean, and why has it emerged as such a vital lens through which to explore how social inequalities of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and ethnicity shape one another? In this fully revised and expanded second edition of their...
    Paperback
    $4299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Martha Freud
    Who was Martha Bernays, the Hamburg-born woman who, after a long and turbulent engagement and against the opposition of her mother, married the Viennese doctor Sigmund Freud and lived at his side for more than fifty years as wife and mother of six? How did she feel, coming from a traditional Jewish family but living in a household with no...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Community
    People often yearn for a sense of belonging and connection: they long to live in a meaningful community. In the modern age, however, this often seems to be a chimera. Does modernity doom us to be atomised individuals? Does the promise of community imply a loss of autonomy and freedom and entrench inequality and hierarchy? In Community, J. Toby Reiner...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Network Society
    In The Network Society, Darin Barney provides a compelling examination of the social, political, and economic implications of network technologies and their application across a wide range of practices and institutions. Are we in the midst of a digital revolution? Have new information and communication technologies given birth to a new form of society, or do they reinforce and extend...
    Hardback
    $11999
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Families
    In this accessible and engagingly written book, Vanessa May invites readers into the rich world of thought, research, and study of the highly diverse phenomenon of families and family life. The book explores what is and has been understood by family in different sociocultural contexts and how family life intersects with social spheres such as the state, the labour market,...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Ideology
    Over its long history, the concept of ideology has acquired a vast and at times incommensurable roster of meanings: positive and negative, analytic and critical, philosophical, psychological, and scientific. But how precisely should we understand and study ideology today? What is its connection to key issues in social life and social research, such as capitalism and class, democracy and partisanship,...
    Paperback
    $3599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Poverty
    Poverty remains one of the most urgent issues of our time. In this fully updated edition of her important and widely acclaimed intervention on the topic, Ruth Lister introduces readers to the meaning and experience of poverty in the contemporary world. The book opens with a lucid discussion of current debates around the definition and measurement of poverty in industrialised...
    Paperback
    $4299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Socialization
    How does society form and transform individuals? Sociology has been asking this question since its inception, and socialization has been analysed from different vantage points by various prominent thinkers. Socialization offers an overview of some of these perspectives in the classic work of key theorists and in contemporary research that has either developed or challenged these ideas. The book argues...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The City
    This book is a fresh and engaging analysis of the city as a central concept in contemporary social thought. It probes the contested and negotiated ways in which cities are built, understood, lived and imagined. Taking a thematic approach and drawing on a range of theoretical, methodological and empirical points of reference, it examines such subjects as urban inequality, public...
    Paperback
    $4099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Social Capital
    Social capital is a principal concept across the social sciences and has readily entered into mainstream discourse. In short, it is popular. However, this popularity has taken its toll. Social capital suffers from a lack of consensus because of the varied ways it is measured, defined, and deployed by different researchers. It has been put to work in ways that...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Literary Terms and Criticism
    This third edition, which contains updated material, additional discussion of critical terms and approaches and a revised further reading list, is a guide to the study of English literature. This text offers a comprehensive introduction to English poetry, drama and the novel, complete with practical advice on how to analyze texts.
    Paperback
    $6295
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Class
    Class is not only amongst the oldest and most controversial of all concepts in social science, but also a topic which has fascinated, amused, incensed and galvanised the general public. But what exactly is a β€˜class’? How do sociologists study and measure it, and how does it correspond to everyday understandings of social difference in the twenty-first century? In a...
    Paperback
    $4299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised for its breadth and clarity, Freeman’s Human Rights adeptly covers diverse eras, concepts, and disciplines with balanced debate and accessible writing. Shareen Hertel highlights the book’s complex yet approachable nature, while Andrew Fagan emphasises its detailed, objective perspective on contemporary human-rights challenges and its value for both students and established scholars. David Forsythe recognises Freeman as a respected scholar whose insights benefit readers tackling theory and practice in human rights.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781509546039

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 11 February 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Polity Press

Edition: 4th edition

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 138.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 680g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Michael Freeman is Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Essex.

Also by Michael Freeman

View all
  • The Photographer's Eye (Definitive Edition)
    FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION OF The Photographer's Eye FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR MICHAEL FREEMAN - COMING JULY 2025 With 30% new content and never-before-seen images, Michael Freeman brings his ground-breaking book, The Photographer's Eye, up to date with a fresh look and the latest developments in digital photography. Design is the single most important factor in creating a successful photograph....
    Paperback
    $7000
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Michael Freeman On... Black & White
    A quiet revolution has been gathering pace in photographyβ€”an exploration of the subtleties, excitement, and pleasure in making images in black and white. This is not a case of old traditions reasserting themselves, but rather a rediscovery of what imagery made purely out of tones can offer to the creatively curious. The fourth book in Michael Freeman's newest series, Michael...
    Paperback
    $7000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Photography Bible
    Created by expert professional photographer Michael Freeman, this convenient book is divided into the four essential areas for photographers to understand; the exposure, light & lighting, composition and editing. It's quick and easy to refer to in the field, by the computerIn a convenient take-anywhere format, this book packs in a lot of value for anyone interested in photography, and...
    Paperback
    $4499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Michael Freeman On... Composition
    Composition is the single most powerful tool in a photographer's armoury. Unconstrained by any outside influence, it can be a pure expression of individuality, and this is what makes it so important. Michael Freeman On… Composition details both why and how composition works, from perception to visual imagination, including many practical compositional templates - varying from the Walk-in to the...
    Paperback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Michael Freeman On... Creative Exposure
    Michael Freeman On... Creative Exposure is the latest book in the ultimate photography masterclass series, from best-selling author Michael Freeman. Shooting starts with the exposure, and setting it is the first decision in photography - one that determines everything else to follow in creating a satisfying image. It's very far from being a simple binary choice between right and wrong,...
    Paperback
    $7000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Michael Freeman On… Light & Shadow
    Drawing on over 40 years of practical experience, best-selling author and photographer Michael Freeman examines the most fundamental building-blocks of photography - light and shadow - bringing this key element of the picture-making process into the 21st century. In Michael Freeman On… Light & Shadow, Freeman takes a new and different view of photography's prime commodity, arguing that for the...
    Paperback
    $6000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Photographers Eye: A graphic Guide
    Taking a new look at composition, the theme of his bestselling classic The Photographer's Eye, Michael Freeman now explores the visual mechanics of photography in its own native terms. Lushly illustrated with straight-to-the-point diagrams and graphic deconstructions, this new, digitally remastered edition speaks in that intuitive, visual, and instantaneous language in which photographers think and work. Each section is organised...
    Paperback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Human Rights
    Human Rights, now in its fourth edition, is an introductory text that is both innovative and challenging. Its unique interdisciplinary approach invites students to think imaginatively and rigorously about one of the most important and influential political concepts of our time. Tracing the history of the concept, the book shows that there are fundamental tensions between legal, philosophical and social-scientific...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Light & How to Photograph It
    For professional photographers, chasing the light, waiting for it, sometimes helping it, and finally capturing it is a constant preoccupation and for some, an obsession. Drawing on four decades of working with light, Michael Freeman takes a simple but practical approach to interpreting, reacting to, and capturing photography's most valuable commodity. Practical advice is organised into three straightforward sections: Waiting,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Michael Freeman On... Color & Tone
    Colour isn't 'just there' in photography, an ordinary fact of life. It's much more special and can be a subject and pursuit in its own right, because it triggers an emotional and aesthetic response like no other. Colour is processed not in the eye, but in the mind, and that makes it personal. In this third book in the series,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Politics & Current Affairs

View all
  • One Last Question, Prime Minister
    From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Regime Change
    From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    A Different Kind of Power
    #1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Different Kind of Power
    Ockham Winner
    A Different Kind of Power
    What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...
    Hardback
    $4799
    Elsewhere:
    $5999
    (7)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Copy
    Go Hard or Go Home
    From the front bench to rock bottom:Β Go Hard or Go HomeΒ is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Pre-order
    Out 4 Aug 2026
  • New Release
    Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Careless People
    Shocking and darkly funny, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to the decisions that are shaping our world and the people who make them. Welcome to Facebook. Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook's potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there...
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Discipline
    Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Shattered Lands
    'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Handmaid's Tale
    The bestselling dystopian classic that became a cultural phenomenon and inspired an award-winning TV series. THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it.' Guardian I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
    'A howl from the heart of our age' β€” Richard Flanagan 'A unique and urgently needed book.' β€” Naomi Klein 'A powerful, uncomfortable but thought-provoking read.' β€” Dua Lipa 'Clear, elegant and devastatingly truthful... Read this shatteringly honest book.' β€” Max Porter From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, an urgent and necessary reckoning with what it means to...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.