We all have inherent rights that we must be free to enjoy regardless of our status- nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, or any other. That’s why many of us are now more cautious and advocate for rights entitlement without discrimination.
Authors have not been left behind, and they are playing their part through human rights books.
These books typically address human rights such as freedom from torture and slavery, liberty and life rights, work and education rights, freedom of expression and opinion, etc.
If you are passionate about human rights and justice like I am, I’m sure you always look for different points of view about human rights from books.
Let's see the list of recommended books about human rights.
What Are The Most Insightful Books About Human Rights?
What Good Law Can Do, by Jolyon Maugham (2023)
The Good Law Project is a UK-based legal campaign group founded by Jolyon Maugham QC with the belief that the law should work for everyone, not just for people with power and privilege. The organization has gained recognition for its landmark cases against the government and has won some of the most significant constitutional cases in recent memory. It is now the largest legal campaign group in the UK.
In his book, Jolyon Maugham shares his inspiration and purpose behind The Good Law Project and presents a new vision for how the law can be used to fight against injustice and work for the benefit of all. He argues that the current legal system often fails to serve those without power or privilege, and that it is time for the law to be reformed to better serve the needs of society as a whole.
Police Fragility, by Joseph Schaefer
Police Fragility is a must-read if you are passionate about bigotry and keen on the mistrust that exists between law enforcement and the community. The book is an excellent account of why African Americans live in constant fear of the police.
It has incredible facts and hard truths about the history of policing in America with excellently detailed unknown information. The author clearly states that for everyone to survive in America, they must make an effort to be concerned about the other person. People must come together to treat each other with dignity, remain respectful, and avoid unfair judgment based on skin color.
This book is excellent because we have lived to witness or even experienced police brutality. Many people can relate.
The book also highlights the mistakes that concerned parties have made along the way, and the author gives suggestions about what can be done by law enforcement and communities for improvement.
Community engagement must always be the platform for the police to work every day, even before any concerns can be brought to light but not after issues are made known. You will find crucial discussions with which communities and police agencies must get to terms. By knowing more, we become more and act more.
Bodies on the Line, by Lauren Rankin
For almost five decades, abortion has been legalized in the United States. However, with substantial street opposition and a new conservative Supreme Court majority, abortion existence is now under threat, and the matter has become even more pressing.
Even so, numerous volunteers and clinic escorts are ready to stand up and guard abortion access even if it means facing violence and terrorism, just like it has been through decades. The quest has been deadly for some.
Clinic escorts have been fighting abortion conflicts at the front line, and it is they that will win as they focus on replacing hostility and resistance with humanity.
This book collects different stories of the country’s volunteers who have been brave enough. It accounts for the author’s interviews with patients and clinic staff members and has input and researched information collected from experts on abortion rights.
The book makes a clear case that abortion is fundamental for human dignity and that there are possible stakes if it is ended. It calls us to celebrate the unsung but crucial abortion heroes and for us to protect this primary health care right before time runs up.
Scanned, by Nick Corbishley
We couldn’t even think of being denied physical access to our workplaces, businesses, or general livelihood the other day. It never occurred to many of us that entering a grocery store, sitting at a restaurant for a bite, visiting a loved one in the hospital, or even accessing health care would become challenging, if not impossible.
But these are the scenarios we have to face every day, and worse now, they are happening worldwide, even in the so-called democracies. They may even become our collective future, as revealed by Big Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and state-sponsored apps. All this is in the name of public health “protection” with vaccine passports.
The stakes are rising. If you lack a vaccine passport, you will be denied access to essential services, including earning a living or touring. You will also be exposed to unaccustomed corporate and government surveillance levels, behavioral control, and data mining, even with one.
In the book, Nick analyses and exposes the highly growing rates of lies and transcends that underpin the complete erosion of personal freedoms. Backed by rigorous research, Nick unravels how the vaccine passports rollout represents the violation of bodily autonomy and privacy. It only immortalizes the notion that ‘minor’ collective sacrifice may bring back normalcy.
We may never return to normalcy if we keep following these paths. Instead, a harsh existence form will result, and we won’t even be in control over our lives.
The Intersectional Environmentalist, by Leah Thomas
This book examines the inseparable entanglement between racism, privilege, and environmentalism. It aims to promote awareness of the fundamental fact and truth that to save the planet, we must uplift the voices of the people, most importantly, the unheard ones.
The author is a prominent voice and an activist who invented “Intersectional Environmentalism,” and you can be sure to get crucial insights about human rights. Leah calls us to instigate change for everyone and work towards empowering everyone for the betterment of the planet.
The book discusses pressing issues we and the planet face and dismantles problems of privilege. Often, proposals and platforms meant for environmentalism or climate change seem more willing to sacrifice the vulnerable. Leah shows how people of color are treated unequally or unfairly affected by environmental injustices.
We can only achieve sustainability if we spotlight underrepresented communities in building a greener and equitable future. The fight for a better planet is linked to the civil rights fight. None can exist without the other.
Free Speech, by Jacob Mchangama
Free speech may be hailed by many as the ‘first freedom’ and the foundation of democracy. However, it is a challenging concept that is prone to become eroded during times of disorder.
We may have gained a lot from free speech, but we also stand to lose a lot if we don’t practice and advocate for it. Today, free speech retreats in authoritarian states and democracies worldwide.
In this book, Jacob tracks the fascinating legal, cultural, and political history of the idea. He puts Free Speech together using captivating tales told by defenders of free speech. You will find Demosthenes, Ida B. Wells, free thinker al-Rāzī, and other modern-day activists' input.
Jacob aims to let readers know that the freedom to exchange ideas without discrimination is the drive for intellectual achievement and an enabler of worldwide equality and advancement of freedom. However, the desire for speech restriction is still paramount and constant.
Jacob also analyzes how free speech champions can be driven to get into speech restrictions primarily due to growing new and opposing voices that seek to challenge privilege and power.
Greater Reset, by Michael D. Greaney & Dawn K. Brohawn
The Covid-19 pandemic hit nations and resulted in decimated lives, social norms, and economies. Instead of bringing people together to fight a common enemy, it created a broad demarcation and widened worldwide political, economic, and social divisions.
The pandemic also resulted in lost faith in reason and intensified global afflictions of racism, poverty, environmental destruction, and war. That’s not the end of its implications. It also brought up proposals to recreate the society and global economy.
The most notable and notorious one is the 2020 World Economic Forum recommendations for “the Great Reset.” This has only fused monopoly capitalism and welfare state socialism. It systematically eliminates the fundamental support for freedom and independence, referred to as rights of/to private property.
Is this simply a scheme for the elite to take charge of the lives of the ordinary people, or is it a good plan but one with a misguided approach aimed at correcting systemic ills?
Whatever the case, we must ask ourselves; how will everyone’s freedom, dignity, and power be guarded and fostered in moments like these when human rights and their inherent sources have been made irrelevant?
We must look into what natural law and economic personalism have in store for a prosperous, liberating, and hopeful future.
Taking Control!, by Anthony Barnett
This book is a clear-eyed perspective of the precipice that currently balances the world, and it also provides a qualified optimism vital for survival and creating a better world.
Anthony illustrates the details using Biden vs. Trumpism to show that shorthand in some historical moments can be misleading even when reasonably accurate.
What led to Biden vs. Trumpism goes beyond the two, and the people’s ability to make the society better depends on more than the two or their supporters. Many actions and results are currently generated by those who the shorthand represents.
Confrontations may be the creators of better things, or they may be the opposing forces for something worse. There are possible action avenues, but the fact remains; that the questions surpass the answers.
Can conflicting parties come together to oppose the greater evil and then sort out their differences afterward? Or will those already fractured remain that way with their right united in opposition instead of an actual ideology or policy becoming powerful and trying to stop socialist opposition or democratic forms?
We need to understand how coalitions hold together as we embrace open ecological politics but not allow the overturning of democratic rule.
The War on Disabled People, by Ellen Clifford
In 2016 a UN report established that the UK government was reprehensible for systematic and grave violation of the rights of the disabled. Interestingly, there has been an obsessive drive to cut public spending and irrational hostility against the society’s most disadvantaged.
The Tory government is responsible for this, and the conditions of the disabled Britain people keep deteriorating. There have been punitive welfare regimes and evident removal of vital support and services. What’s more, an ideological rule exists that aims to deny disability resulting in a “human catastrophe,” as the UN describes it.
Ellen has been an activist passionate about fighting the resistance war on the disabled. In this book, she reveals the reasons as to why and how this state of affairs came to be-the unsupportive political opposition, self-centered charities meant to support the disabled, media demonization, and ideological myopia. A wealthy government has marginalized the disabled with freedom exemption.
Despite the deep-biting austerity, there is now a vibrant activist movement ready to fight back, and there are supporters ready to hold the government responsible. The phrase “Nothing About Us Without Us” has now come alive and makes its point. But more importantly, we must all stand together and fight for an equitable society.
Military Justice, by Nigel D. White
Many of us narrowly understand military law and study specialist laws, institutions, and processes that govern service personnel. However, Military Justice takes a broader approach. The book examines military justice from a more excellent point of view for the consideration of the duties and rights of those involved with military operations. Military rights are complex and often contested.
Nigel explores the relationship between society and the military to develop a particular case for military justice. He makes a case for military justice to be continued alongside critical reforms. He also discusses the societal military role and recognizes the substantial influences of law and justice upon it.
As you read along, you will see military justice framed broadly to discuss relevant laws that include constitutional law, service law, international human rights law, the law of conflict, and international criminal law.
Nigel supports his discussion by analyzing different input from international and domestic courts. You will see various legal problems that may occur in military contexts and the need to position military justice as a component for balancing the duties and rights of soldiers and the government.
Final Thoughts on Books on Human Rights
If you want to broaden your knowledge about human rights, the books above are greatly informative with crucial and different human rights dimensions. Whether you are an activist, law enforcement, a seeker of justice, or just a passionate fan, you have a lot to gain.
If you are interested in human rights, check our following books about social issues.
My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.