577

BOOK REVIEWS

THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS (2002). By Upendra Baxi. Oxford

University Press, New Delhi. Pp. xvm + 184. Price Rs. 495

IN RECENT times the concern for human rights has become a fashion
both at national and international levels. Various NGOs, international
institutions and individuals fret about human rights. Consequently,
human rights in contemporary power politics are being used as new
instruments of neo-colomsm by the Euro-American countries
International concern for human rights during the 20th century may
be traced in the conventions of the International Labour Organisation
since 1921 However, the western writers claim the privilege of spreading
the movement of international human rights. The brutality of the Second
World War shocked the conscience of mankind and the framers of the
UN Charter moved by human suffering included the protection of human
rights in the charter. Since then the struggle for universal human rights
is on with significant achievements in the form of a plethora of normative
instruments.

II

Normative human rights including written constitutions guaranteeing

such rights have not ameliorated the condition of suffering humanity.1
It is a travesty of human rights that they kindle in the hearts of human
beings and paradoxically are extinguished by the brutality of human
beings. Thus, the birth of human rights is innocuous but their application
is fraught with politics of power. Therefore, the emergence and affluence
of human rights and their application are two different things both at
national and international arenas. Professor Upendra Baxi in his book

1 Constitutional guarantee of human rights (part III of the Constitution of India)

has not given requisite succour to almost fifty per cent humanity - the women, in
India In Air India v Neigesh Meerza, AIR 1981 SC 1829, the Supreme Court
enforced equality without completely obliterating the discrimination against women
as contemplated by Arts 15(1) and 16(2) of the Constitution See, S P Sathe,
"Constitutional Law", XVII ASH 198-201 (1981)
Existence of certain socio-political culture is more important than written
guaiantees See, Paul Jackson, O Hood Philips' Constitutional and Administrative
Law 39 (7th Ed, ELBS, 1989)

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578 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LA W INSTITUTE [Vol. 44 4

The Future of Human Rights has highlighted this phenomenon in

international perspective with special reference to human suffering and
human rights.

Ill

Human rights are those rights which every human being (irrespective
of any distinction including sex) is entitled to enjoy. Thus, human rights
are supposed to be universal in their character and application.
Unfortunately, the tyranny of powerful individual or group of individuals
has always obstructed the universal enjoyment of human rights. The
French Revolution resulted, inter alia, into the Declaration of the Rights
of Man on August 26, 1789 and end of autocracy and old regime opposed
to human rights. This Declaration is presumed to be a precursor of
modern human rights. With an objective of avoiding any confusion about
applicability of these rights, Mrs. Roosevelt substituted the Rights of
Man by Human Rights in 1940. Prof. Baxi, nevertheless, finds the phrase
sexist and therefore, wishes to replace it with the word Huper2
However, use oi huper of human seems an innovative exercise only.
His observation that the "sonorous declarations on human rights" have
been subjected to the innovations of the 20 th century politics remains
valid at the threshold of the 21 s t century. Constitution of two international
criminal tribunals 3 for former Yugoslavia (1993) and Rwanda (1994)
by the UN Security Council (which includes five vital permanent
members including the U.S.A., China and Russia) and vehement
opposition to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
in 1988 by the U.S.A., China and Russia is indicative of this power
politics. 4

IV

Baxi, cautious of the over production of human rights since the

inception of the United Nations and adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is genuinely worried about the
future of human rights. Besides other factors 5 , he has pointed out the
grey areas which includes politics of difference and identity, which

2. Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights 1 (2002).

3. Sheila O' Shea, "Interaction Between International Criminal Tribunals and
National Legal Systems," 28 NYUJ Intl L & Pol 367 (1998).
4. The ICC came into existence on April 12, 2002. But its efficacy is doubtful in
view of the US opposition. The Security Council conceding the Bush administration
demand has exempted US soldiers from the jurisdiction of ICC. See, The Hindu
Delhi, July 14, 2002 at 14.
5. Supra note 2 at 3-4.

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2002] BOOK REVIEWS ^79

views human rights as having not just an emancipative potential but

also a repressive one, the metanaratives having the potential of converting
human rights languages into texts or tricks of governance of domination,
danger of conversion of human rights movements into human rights
markets and emergence of a trade related, market friendly (TRMF)
paradigm of human rights seeking to supplant the paradigm of the UDHR
Dealing with ambiguities of human rights, Baxi refers to them as
ethical imperatives, grammar of governance, languages of global
governance, syndrome of shared sovereignty, insurrectionary praxis,
judicial production and culture 6 Referring to international criminal
trials of Nuremberg and Tokyo 7 , the learned author finds them as
practices of radical evil - that nurtures the embryo of the 'Contemporary'
human rights 8 Baxi rightly denigrates such practices and eulogizes
Nelson Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a device of
pushing human rights movement ahead 9 He perceives insecurity of
human rights in the "egregious-violation by the neo-colonial practices
of global governance by a coterie of Euro-American hegemonic
powers " l 0 Thus, m the very first chapter "An Age of Human Rights" 9 ,
Baxi impugns the contemporary movement of human rights

Chapter 2 deals with "Two Notions of Human Rights Modern and

Contemporary" Baxi is critical of the imposed origin of human rights
"from the west to the rest" He pleads for giving due cognition to the
non-western countries where the concept of human rights existed In
support, he refers to such non-western thought 11 He also feels that
wilting human rights history from intercultural and multicivihzational
points will assure a better future of human rights This is possible only
when the Euro-American writers shed their prejudice
Dividing human rights into "modern" and "contemporary" categories
he views "contemporary" human rights m exuberant and considers them
as encompassing wholly new justice constituencies such as rights of the
girl child, migrant labour, etc n Tracing the history of "contemporary"

6 Id at 5-13
7 We may add Yugoslavian and Rwanda also
8 Sup/ a note 2 at 19
9 Id at 21 Incidentally, the former Assistant Secretary of State for International
Organisation Affairs of United States, John Bolton had put forwaid the similar
techniques to replace the ICC, See, David A Nil!, "National Sovcieignty Must it be
Sacnftced to International Citminal Court?" 14 BYUJ Pub I 119, 148 (1999)
10 Id at 23
1 1 id at 26
12 Id at 31-32

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580 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE |Vol 44 4

human rights in the resistance of the global formations of the politics of

cruelty, he narrates the resultant distinction between the politics of human
rights and the politics for human rights?3

VI

"The Practices of 'Contemporary' Human Rights Activism" is the

title of chapter 3 of the book. In this chapter the role of NGOs in the
future of human rights has been discussed. Baxi visualizes the quid-
pro-quo nexus between the NGOs and business associations with a "quest
for power and profit that constitute global corporate culture". 14 He has
listed the intended or achieved missions of contemporary NGOs that
include future inventing, agenda setting, norm creative, implementation
et cetera. The contemporary human rights, according to the learned
author, can be strengthened by people's praxes. In support, he cites
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gandhi. Tilak sowed the seeds of
decolonisation and the Mahatma laid the foundation against apartheid.

VII

Baxi in chapter 4 of the book points out the over production of

human rights and their application to Third World countries in the similar
way as the over production of goods and services are passed on to
"captive consumer constituencies of the Third World." In characteristic
Baxiesque style, he concludes: 15
This riot of perceptions concerning over or under production of
human rights normavity arises due to titanic clash of two cultures
of human rights: the culture of the politics of human rights and
those of politics for human rights.

VIII

The following chapter carries the caption, "Politics of Identity and

Difference". In this chapter, the author shows the situations of
contemporary human rights where multiplicity of identifications and
collective identities constantly subvert each other. 16 The following few

13. Id at 40-41.
14. Id. at 48.
15. Id. at 76,
16. Baxi has referred to Shah Bano ruling AIR 1985 SC 946 and the review
petition filed in 1985. The "political accommodation between the supreme executive
and supreme judicial power" against the constitutional directive has further
been reinforced in Ahmedabad Women Action Group v. Union of India, AIR 1997
SC 3614 and Lily Thomas v. Union of India, AIR 2000 SC 1750.

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2002] BOOK REVIEWS 581

strident words of the author bring out his thought: 17

The summons for the destruction of "narrative monopolies" in
human rights theory and practice is of enormous importance, as
it enables us to recognize that the authorship of human rights
rests with communities m struggle against illegitimate power
formations and politics of cruelty. The local, not the global, it
needs to be emphasized, remains the crucial site of struggle for
the enunciation, implementation, enjoyment and exercise of
human rights.

IX

A distinction has been made between globalisation and universality

of human rights. Globalisation consists of those practices of governance
by the dominant state that selectively target the enforcement of certain
sets of rights upon subaltern states of globe. 18 Baxi also points out
various factors including culture or religious traditions 19 , which influence
the practical application of universal human rights.

Limited resources, according to Baxi, have compelled human rights

movements to organize themselves into human rights markets. 20 Human
misery and suffering provide raw material for investment in these
markets. The author had listed seven operational techniques adopted by
a set of various sorts of actors, agencies and agenda 21

XI

In the end of the book, 22 Baxi is convinced that the philosophy of

the UDHR has certainly been supplanted by TRMFHR. The new
paradigm puts emphasis on promotion and protection of collective human
rights of global capital. He strengthens his thesis with reference to WTO
and TRIPS like agreements and cites the explanation given by the
protagonists of those who link global capital with human rights. To
make the impact of global capital more clear on contemporary human
rights, Baxi with minor variations quotes his Draft Charter of Human
Rights of Global Capital23 which he asserts, reflects many elements of

17 Supra note 2 at 88-89 (Footnotes have been omitted)

18 Id chapter 6, What is Living and Dead in Relativism9
19 Id at 106
20 Supra note 2, chapter 7
21 W a t 127-128
22 Id at chapter 8
23 Id at 149-151

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582 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 44 ■ 4

configurations of collective rights of global capital currently firmly in

place. This paradigm shift is influenced by the technoscientific mode
of production. Consequently:24
Notions based on the integrity of the body, for example make
very little sense because the 'body' is now big business. Genetic
information in body issues, parts, fluids, emanations, and wastes,
including the DNA of 'vanishing' indigenous people has now
become the common corporate heritage of human kind.

XII

In sum, The Future of Human Rights is a significant contribution by

an illustrious writer. Professor Upendra Baxi and opens new vistas of
human rights. He has examined the future of human rights from a
pragmatical angle and has raised a number of issued including "(I)s the
contemporary human rights mode of resistance to globalisation
historically adequate to retrieve the human rights movement from the
market". 25 The immediate solution may be found in a fair balance
between the rights of huper and interests of TRMFHR.
For understanding the contents of the book one has to fathom the
arduous waves of Baxian deep insights of the subject and face hard
rocks of difficult language punctuated by copious references and quotes.
This sojourn ultimately leads to new horizons of human rights. Besides
theme index, a detailed bibliography has been given. This enhances the
utility of the book. The printing and get up of the book perfectly conform
to the standards of Oxford.

K.CJoshi*

24. Id. at 162. (footnotes omitted).

25. Id. at 166.
* Professor, Head and Dean (Rtd.), Faculty of Law, Kumaon University,
Uttaranchal.

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