The Colonialism of Human Rights: Ongoing Hypocrisies of Western Liberalism

Three key features of the book: 1. It argues that colonialism is not only a feature of the European past, but an ongoing presence that is apparent in contemporary human rights conflicts. 2. It argues that the European/Western conception of human rights was never universal. Human rights always contained exclusions for the enslaved and colonized, and these are apparent today in the legal and extra-legal treatment of African descended and indigenous peoples in Western countries. 3. It argues that new movements for reparations, the return of material cultures, and recognition of human rights violations under colonialism combined with undemocratic conduct in Western polities have signaled that notions of universal human rights need to be set against the ongoing effects of Western human right violations.