An inside story of asbestos, death, and the fight for justice by thousands of South Africans against a multinational mining corporation intent on denying responsibility.For nearly 90 years, a British company called Cape used local labor to mine and mill asbestos in South Africa. Poor and mostly black men, women, and children—some as young as seven—worked every day in clouds of asbestos dust that they carried home to their families, caked onto their skin, hair, and ...

How do we balance freedom with the responsibilities we owe each other as members of society?Are we free to do whatever we want? This idea challenges us throughout our daily lives, from how to tackle pandemic restrictions and vaccine mandates to how to respond to technological innovations and climate change warnings. In The Liberty Paradox, David Kinley argues that we must rehabilitate the notion of liberty by rescuing it from the myopic demands of freedom ...

Economic, social and cultural rights are finally coming of age. This book brings together all essential documents, materials, and case law relating to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) - one of the most important human rights instruments in international law - and its Optional Protocol. This book presents extracts from primary materials alongside critical commentary and analysis, placing the documents in their wider context and situating economic, ...

Finance is the evil we cannot live without. It governs almost every aspect of our lives and has the power to liberate as well as enslave. With the world's total financial assets--valued at a staggering $300 trillion--being four times larger than the combined output of all the world's economies, there is, apparently, plenty to go around. Yet, while proponents of finance-driven capitalism point to the trickle-down effect as its contribution to wealth redistribution, there are still nearly a ...

Finance is the evil we cannot live without. It governs almost every aspect of our lives and has the power to liberate as well as enslave. With the world's total financial assets--valued at a staggering $300 trillion--being four times larger than the combined output of all the world's economies, there is, apparently, plenty to go around. Yet, while proponents of finance-driven capitalism point to the trickle-down effect as its contribution to wealth redistribution, there are still nearly a ...

What is the best way to promote human rights in grossly repressive states when neither sanctions nor trade and investment have much effect? This book examines the concept of Principled Engagement as an often overlooked alternative strategy for alleviating human rights violations and improving the framework of human rights protection. Beginning with an explanation of the concept and a comparison with the alternatives of Ostracism and Business as Usual, the book argues that Principled Engage...

The erstwhile unlikely coupling of human rights and corporations is now a typical feature of corporate/community relations. High-profile corporate infringements of human rights, the rise and rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and on-going efforts to regulate corporate behaviour through legal regimes, at both domestic and international levels, have spawned a mountain of academic literature and commentary. This volume assembles the leading essays from this body of work. Together t...

Economic globalisation and universal human rights both have the aspiration and power to improve and enrich individuals and communities. However, their respective institutions, methods, practices and goals differ, leading to both detrimental clashes and beneficial synergies. In this book, David Kinley analyses how human rights intersect with the trade, aid and commercial dimensions of global economic relations, taking the view that, while the global economy is a vitally important civilising...

A large factor in the appeal of neo-conservatism in the early 1980s was its sustained attack on the welfare state. Even those most dependent on public services were frustrated by a system that allowed them no say in decisions directly affecting their lives. A decade later, the alternative offered by the new right—free market competition—has only deepened the need for effective state assistance. The solution must lie not in privatizing the public sector, but in making it more responsive; the r...

The Message of POWER SHIFT:Fed up with politics-as-usual? Most Canadians are. They (83%) want their MP to represent them and not a party in the House of Commons. Political parties, however, do not consider reforms that would shift significant power from them to citizens. Professor Lyon, breaking the party silence, speaks strongly in support of the interests of his fellow citizens.Drawing on years of experience as a political activist and political scientist, he sho...

Global governance is here--but not where most people think. This book presents the far-reaching argument that not only should we have a new world order but that we already do. Anne-Marie Slaughter asks us to completely rethink how we view the political world. It's not a collection of nation states that communicate through presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and the United Nations. Nor is it a clique of NGOs. It is governance through a complex global web of "government networks....

For decades, liberal democracy has been extolled as the best system of governance to have emerged out of the long experience of history. Today, such a confident assertion is far from self-evident. Democracy, in crisis across the West, must prove itself.In the West today, the authors argue, we no longer live in "industrial democracies," but "consumer democracies" in which the governing ethos has ended up drowning households and governments in debt and resulted in paralyzing partisan...