Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation: Every Organ of Society

Having articulated numerous human rights norms and standards in international treaties, the pressing challenge today is their realisation in States' parties around the world. Domestic implementation has proven a difficult task for national authorities as well as international supervisory bodies.

This book examines the traditional State-centric and legalistic approach to implementation, critiquing its limited efficacy in practice and failure to connect with local cultures. The book therefore explores the permissibility of other measures of implementation, and advocates more culturally sensitive approaches involving social institutions. Through an interdisciplinary case study of Islam in Indonesia, the book demonstrates the power of social institutions like religion to promote rights compliant positions and behaviours. Like the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the book reiterates the role not just of the State but indeed 'every organ of society' in realising rights.

• Provides an inter-disciplinary and qualitative case study on implementing human rights with concrete examples of human rights in practice and the factors impacting their adoption or rejection
• Combines empirical results from field work with legal analysis of the international law framework, demonstrating the value of inter-disciplinary research and the relevance of practice for theory
• Identifies and elaborates critiques of present approaches and proposes solutions and clearly explains the current challenges as well as providing straightforward remedies