While the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN created the conditions for international mobilization of nation states and organizations to intensify the internationalization of human rights issues, it was not until the 1990s (post Cold War era) that we began to witness sustained efforts by increasing number of local human rights groups for an effective universal human rights agenda. For several decades, the primary focus of human rights has been limited to issues around political prisoners, torture, refugees, and displaced persons. Decolonization and increasing demands for democratization across the developing world and Eastern Europe accelerated interest among local civil society groups, activists, academics, and human rights groups on broadening and strengthening the debate on the concept of universal human rights to include: the rights to a living income, to health, to food, housing and education, and to live in a world at peace. Thus, today, across cultures around the globe, local human rights groups are pressing demands beyond the narrow confines of human rights definitions to include: child rights; women rights and the elimination of female circumcision; the rights of indigenous populations; the rights of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities; the rights to shelter and development; and economic and social justice. If human rights are not to become provincial and limited to the mere interests of the state and its organs, human rights dividends cannot occur through monologue, but rather through dialogue among humans across cultures. This conference seeks to examine contemporary human rights issues from across the world and the effects of recent global transformations in strengthening the discourse on human rights.

To this end, we plan to engage in a collaborative effort to present and later publish a comprehensive volume on human rights in global perspective. The first part of the project will be a collaborative conference at Howard University (September 30- October 1, 2011). Second, we will publish selected conference presentations in an edited volume. We invite contributions that will pay particular attention to human rights issues/struggles from across the globe, as well as efforts by local groups especially in the developing world to broaden the focus of human rights beyond limited perspectives and traditional definitions. We welcome contributors from political science, law, social work, history, sociology, African American Studies, Africana Studies, Ethnic Studies, and other scholars of human rights.

Please email a 500-word abstract for an individual presentation, a short curriculum vitae, including institutional affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address (latest by December 30, 2010) to each of the collaborators below (Contact).

Selected participants will be informed by January 30, 2011.