Recommended Citation
Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Review of Gender, Alterity and Human Rights, by Ratna Kapur, 27 Feminist Legal Stud. (2018).
Abstract
Ratna Kapur’s latest book Gender, Alterity, and Human Rights: Freedom in a Fish Bowl masterfully tackles a normative claim that has been gaining increasing momentum over the last few decades: the human rights agenda has hit an impasse and needs serious transformation. Using unique comparative contexts, Kapur illustrates how the liberal rights regime - despite gesturing towards freedom enhancement - operates as a counter hegemonic governance system furthering mainly state and market interests. But unlike other critical scholars who have similarly criticized the rights project from the perspective of reviving or resurrecting it, Kapur’s contribution is decidedly committed to a retreat altogether.