A new ebook by York Professor Emerita Evelyn Kallen aims to clear up misconceptions about human rights.
Human Rights for Human Beings: Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada grew from Kallen’s desire to help create a public understanding of human rights as internationally endorsed moral principles, which apply equally to all human beings. The book provides a basic understanding of human rights and is intended for a general audience.
“This book is designed to make you THINK. I want my readers to think critically about the relationship between human rights and human beings,” Kallen writes in the book’s first chapter. “I also hope that you will question your own assumptions about similarities and differences between human beings. The key question to keep in mind is, ‘How do you know?’ ‘Can you provide concrete proof for your beliefs and opinions?’”
Kallen is professor emerita of social science and anthropology at York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) since 1991. She joined York as an assistant professor in 1970 and served as a full professor from 1984-91. In 1989, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She also served as honorary Chair of the Human Rights Research & Education Centre at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law from 1989 to 1990. In 2012, she was named a Distinguished Professor of Humans Rights at York’s Department of Equity Studies.
Kallen has been teaching and writing about human rights and issues related to human rights for over 30 years. Her writing has been published widely and she is the author of several books, journal articles, book chapters and encyclopedia entries.
Human Rights for Human Beings can be purchased on Amazon.