Resisting Canada

Download or read book Resisting Rights written by Jennifer Tunnicliffe and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2019-02-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1948 to 1966, the United Nations worked to create a common legal standard for human rights protection around the globe. Resisting Rights traces the Canadian government’s changing policy toward this endeavour, from initial opposition to a more supportive approach. Jennifer Tunnicliffe takes both international and domestic developments into account to explain how shifting cultural understandings of rights influenced policy, and to underline the key role of Canadian rights activists in this process. In light of Canada’s waning reputation as a traditional leader in developing human rights standards at the United Nations, this is a timely study. Tunnicliffe situates policies within their historical context to reveal that Canadian reluctance to be bound by international human rights law is not a recent trend, and asks why governments have found it important to foster the myth that Canada has been at the forefront of international human rights policy.