Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Assumptions and principles -- Crime and (occasional) punishment -- The importance of government, for better or worse -- Human rights and... whatever -- Undermining old rights with new ones : you can't always get what you want -- Women, sex, and gender -- The flexibility of human rights norms : universality is not uniformity -- Human rights hawks -- The indispensable state? : the United States and human rights -- The way forward : less is more.

The development of human rights norms is one of the most significant achievements in international relations and law since 1945, but the continuing influence of human rights is increasingly being questioned by authoritarian governments, nationalists, and pundits. Unfortunately, the proliferation of new rights, linking rights to other issues such as international crimes or the activities of business, and attempting to address every social problem from a human rights perspective risk undermining their credibility. This book calls for understanding 'human rights' as international human rights law and maintaining the distinctions between binding legal obligations on governments and broader issues of ethics, politics, and social change.