Beyond Parliament : Human Rights and the Politics of Social Change in the Global South

In Beyond Parliament, Horman Chitonge, draws from diverse experiences around the rights to water and food in the global South, to illustrate that giving effect to these rights require going beyond parliamentary politics to the radical politics of social change. In Beyond Parliament Horman Chitonge offers a unique combination of the conceptual dimensions with the practical examples of human rights discourse deployed as an instrument for social change in the global south. He uses the right to water and the right to food to illustrate that human rights are never given on a silver platter; giving effect to human rights is always an outcome of a continuous struggle to protect human dignity and value. To implement this view of human rights, the book argues, requires going beyond the parliamentary politics of recognising and acknowledging human rights in statutes and bill of rights to the radical democratic politics of giving effect to the recognised rights, especially among the poor and marginalised. Book jacket