A powerful and urgent explanation and vindication of our human rights and freedoms Our human
rights are endangered. After the devastation of World War Two the international community
united to enshrine fundamental rights to refuge health education and living standards. They
protected privacy fair trials and free speech and outlawed torture slavery and
discrimination. Their goal was greater global justice equality and peace. That settlement is
now under attack from opponents on both left and right and populist and authoritarian movements
worldwide. Simultaneously we are threatened by war inequality new tech and climate
catastrophe crises human rights can help us address. In this urgent powerful book Shami
Chakrabarti demonstrates why human rights matter and why we need to secure further rights to
deal with challenges of the present and future. Outlining the historic national and
international struggles for human rights from ancient Babylon to the present day Chakrabarti
is an indispensable guide to the law and logic underpinning human dignity and universal
freedoms. This book equips supporters in the battle of ideas and will encourage doubters to
think again. To believe in human rights is to believe in human beings. If they - and we - are
to survive these rights must be owned and understood by everyone.
