The Modes of Human Rights Literature: Towards a Culture without Borders by Michael Galchinsky

Excerpt

Unusual for a book of its brevity, The Modes of Human Rights Literature: Towards a Culture without Borders by Michael Galchinsky is an exceptional and significant text that weaves together (with erudition and analytical insight) commentary on how literature informs the human imagination and its willingness to imagine and demand human rights for all. Galchinsky’s writing is open-minded, conveys deep knowledge, and is consistently thoughtful and nuanced in its presentation. His critique of the limitations of governments, NGOs, the United Nations, and other formal organs of public policy and law at advancing human rights – without a concurrent culture of human rights grounded in literature and the arts – is particularly astute. This includes UN declarations that are rhetorically oriented, international human rights treaties that often lack enforcement mechanisms, and the practical efforts of organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. He makes a convincing and rarely acknowledged argument that human rights culture develops at the grassroots level as much from literature and the arts that break boundaries and bridge divides – real and imagined - and cultivate emotions of compassion and care. …