Review by Choice Review
Fraser (Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht Univ.) argues that the international law of human rights and related legal procedures should be supplemented by more attention to social institutions within nations. Using a case study of a liberal Islamic organization in Indonesia manifesting female leadership, she shows that such local action can advance the values found in human rights law. Her case focuses on women's rights. She suggests that those interested in human rights have paid too much attention to legal processes at the international and governmental level and not enough to grassroots social movements and institutions. In world affairs today some interested in the laws of war, development, climate change, even fighting locusts, have sought to build bridges to deeply embedded religious institutions in various nations. There is often recognition that international norms can sometimes be advanced by filtering them through locally respected actors such as religious leaders. Even in developed nations like the United States, human rights norms like racial and gender nondiscrimination might advance more by local action, sometimes religious, than by international and governmental procedures alone. But there are illiberal social institutions as well. Originally a dissertation, this well-organized and systematic book reads like one. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students, researchers/faculty, professionals/practitioners. --David P. Forsythe, emeritus, University of Nebraska
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review