Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 140 pages, £ 26.99

In his latest book, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim examines the relationship between human rights, the lack of success in protecting them, and the continuing neocolonial infl uence of former colonial powers in international relations, but also in terms of the framing of human rights. The author analyses the reasons for the ineff ectiveness of global human rights protection and identifi es viable alternatives, on a theoretical and practical level, to overcome these challenges.

In the first two chapters, An-Naim argues that the main reason for the lack of success of existing human rights protection is that the treaties are not based on universally valid values, but, rather, are a product of postcolonial power relations created by the Global North to maintain its power relations. He therefore accuses Western Europe, Russia, and the United States in particular, of ‘protecting their strategic interests and expanding their geopolitical and economic hegemony’, while pretending to defend and promote universally valid human rights. He supports his arguments with realpolitik observations, and illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of international law by depicting the massive infl uence of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. According to his arguments, decisions and interventions of the Security Council are not aimed at improving the living conditions of the ‘protected’, but are instead primarily aimed at maintaining national interests. In this context, the author accuses the United States of hypocrisy when it comes to the protection of human rights by highlighting the paradox of having minimal ratification rates of human rights treaties, coupled with extensive reservations and other restrictions on the scope of the treaties, while at the same time the United States claims global leadership in this area.

A second inherent problem wiThexisting human rights frameworks is the Eurocentric theoretical concept on which they are based. The imposition of European (liberal) values, legal systems and institutions as the sole sources of human rights leads to two major implications: on the one hand, to a renewed projection of the normative authority of former colonial states, and, on the other hand, this exclusive framework protects only certain rights, namely those that follow the European narrative of liberal rights.