Introduction

Abstract

Until recently, the scholarly debate over human rights has been dominated by normative theorists who have asked some very basic and important questions. Do human rights exist? What are they? Are they universal? While there is still considerable difference of opinion, many have answered those questions, at least to their own satisfaction, and would like to move on to others. They want to find ways to measure the extent of respect for human rights around the world. Although statistical measures of human rights practices may seem repugnant to some, measurement is the first step towards objective social science inquiry, towards the development of successful strategies of human rights activism by non-governmental organizations and towards implementation of a well-conceived human rights policy by national governments and multinational agencies. Then they want to develop theories relevant to the human rights practices of nation states from which testable hypotheses may be derived. This volume contains some efforts towards those ends.