International Human Rights Part I: Sections A, B & C

2026 Update.

International Human Rights by Philip Alston is the leading textbook on international human rights. Published as an open-access resource, it is widely used by students, educators, researchers, and practitioners around the world for its critical approach to international human rights law. Across 18 chapters, the book examines the world of contemporary human rights, including legal norms, political contexts and underlying ethical and moral ideals. It acknowledges the regime’s strengths and weaknesses, and focuses on today’s principal challenges. These include authoritarianism, radical inequality, resurgent racism, the rise of anti-gender ideology, artificial intelligence, the continuing marginality of economic, social and cultural rights, climate change, and the evermore central role of the private sector.

Part I

• Section A: Introduction to the International Human Rights Regime
• Section B: Normative Foundations of International Human Rights
• Section C: Rights, Duties and Dilemmas of Universalism