Diverse Political Values: Human Rights and Global Democracy

In this chapter, I want to briefly examine some of the ways in which the values associated with human rights and democracy are contested at the global level. First, I look at the nature of human rights in global politics at our present juncture - with an emphasis on the way in which actors in the politics of human rights privilege different discourses of value. The issues here are illustrated by looking briefly at developments with two inter-governmental organisations as they engage with ever increasing normative performance expectations linked to the global human rights regime.