Mobilizing for Human Rights in Latin America - Brossura

In the follow-up to his widely read The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America, author Edward Cleary examines some of the robust human rights movements of the past two decades in Mobilizing Human Rights in Latin America. Advocates of the rights of women, indigenous groups, the landless, and street children have achieved notable gains, so much so that in 1999 The New York Times claimed that women have achieved more rights in Latin America than any other region. Cleary establishes a record of why, how, where, and when human rights reached this level.It is often assumed that the concept of human rights is something that must be imported by western liberal democracies to developing countries. Cleary shows that human rights have a long history in Latin America distinctive from other traditions and that this tradition has expressed itself profoundly after the military period. He argues that the region’s unique history is not only creating solutions to issues like corruption and minority rights, but can also offer a valuable balance to the larger international discourse on human rights.