Human Rights and 21st Century Challenges: Poverty, Conflict, and the Environment

The world is faced with significant and interrelated challenges in the 21st century which threaten human rights in a number of ways. This book examines three of the largest issues of the century - armed conflict, environment, and poverty - and examines how these may be addressed using a human rights framework. It considers how these challenges threaten human rights and reassesses our understanding of human rights in the light of these issues.

This multidisciplinary text considers both foundational and applied questions such as the relationship between morality and the laws of war, as well as the application of the International Human Rights Framework in cyber space.

Alongside analyses from some of the most prominent lawyers, philosophers, and political theorists in the debate, each section includes contributions by those who have served as Special Rapporteurs within the United Nations Human Rights System on the challenges facing international human rights laws today.

Dapo Akande, Professor of Public International Law & Co-Director, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict, University of Oxford, Jaakko Kuosmanen, Senior Analyst and Project Manager, Demos Helsinki, Helen McDermott, Research associate, Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict, Universityof Oxford, Dominic Roser, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, University of Fribourg

Dapo Akande is Professor of Public International Law and Co-Director of the Oxford Institue for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at the University of Oxford. From 2012 to 2017 he was Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations. He has held visiting professorships at Yale Law, the University of Miami School of Law and the Catolica Global Law School, Lisbon. He was the 2015 Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne Law School’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law. He has acted as consultant, expert, or adviser on international law issues to United Nations bodies, the African Union Commission, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Jaakko Kuosmanen is a Senior Analyst at the Demos Helsinki think tank. Before joining Demos, he was the Coordinator of the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations at the University of Oxford. Kuosmanen has also worked for the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe and for the Blavatnik School of Government. He also works as a policy consultant providing advice for governments and international organisations around the world. Kuosmanen is a member of the Foresight Team at the Prime Minister’s Office in Finland.

Helen McDermott is an Associate with the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict, University of Oxford. From 2015-2016, she was a Research Associate with the Individualisation of War Programme, European University Institute, Florence. In 2015- 2016, She was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in law and armed conflict with the Oxford Martin School Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations at the University of Oxford. She has been a visiting scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and at the Center for Human Rights & Global Justice, NYU. She has lectured and published on various international law subjects.

Dominic Roser’s research in political theory focuses on global justice, intergenerational justice, human rights, risk, non-ideal theory, and the normative underpinnings of economics. He is particularly interested in applying his work to the challenge of climate change. With a background in economics and philosophy, he was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations at the University of Oxford before taking up a position as a senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Fribourg.