The UNreal world of human rights

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The UNreal World of Human Rights breathes new life into the ethnography of international law at a time when transnational actors challenge its traditional principles. This study investigates the multi-actor relations and micro-practices that constitute international human rights monitoring, through an in-depth exploration of the work of the oldest among the UN human rights treaty bodies, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). As the study focuses on the practices of (re)constructing, interpreting, and evaluating human rights in a quasi-judicial and politicized context, it analyzes human rights monitoring from an embedded micro-perspective rather than as a functionalist macro-perspective. The book traces three groups of actors through their experiences of the 'UN-real world' of one of CERDs semi-annual sessions: state representatives, non-governmental organizations, and the members of the Committee. Vivid accounts and detailed analyses illuminate the tacit knowledge and subterranean diplomacy through which international human rights law evolves as a 'gentle civilizer' of states. (Series: Law and Society / Vereinigung fur Recht und Gesellschaft - Vol. 5)