Social Movements, Human Rights, and the Challenge to Power

Despite some acknowledgement that there is a link between social movements and human rights, the dominant literature from both proponents and critics of human rights has not recognized this link as analytically significant. Consequently, its impacts have been effectively "hidden" from consideration and discussion. I argue that if we analyze the relationship between social movements, human rights, and power, we get a very different picture both of the origins and development of human rights and, significantly, of their potentials and limitations