Book description
For the last half century, Latin America has been plagued by civil
wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism and racism, and
other evils. The region has also experienced dramatic-if uneven-human
rights improvements. The accounts of how Latin America's people have
dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights offer
lessons for people around the world.
Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope is
the first textbook to provide a comprehensive introduction to the
human rights issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of
the Western Hemisphere. Leading human rights researcher and educator
Sonia Cardenas brings together regional examples of both terror and
hope, emphasizing the dualities inherent in human rights struggles.
Organized by three pivotal topics-human rights violations, reform, and
accountability-this book offers an authoritative synthesis of research
on human rights on the continent. From historical accounts of abuse to
successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, Human Rights
in Latin America explores the tensions underlying a vast range
of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the
United States, relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions,
Cardenas covers newer ground in addressing the colonial and
ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns
for disability and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to
the International Criminal Court.
Engagingly written and fully illustrated, Human Rights in
Latin America creates an important niche among human rights and
Latin American textbooks. Ample supplementary resources-including
discussion questions, interdisciplinary reading lists, filmographies,
online resources, internship opportunities, and instructor
assignments-make this an especially valuable text for use in human
rights courses.
"Like the experience of human rights in Latin America which
it details, Cardenas' text is rich and complex. Human Rights in
Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope is a unique and
engaging approach to the study of human rights in Latin America. It is
a text that demands serious attention."-Carrie Booth Walling,
Human Rights Quarterly
Sonia Cardenas is Associate Professor of Political Science and
Director of the Human Rights Program at Trinity College, Hartford,
Connecticut. She is the author of Conflict and Compliance: State
Responses to International Human Rights Pressure, also available from
the University of Pennsylvania Press.
