THE COLONIALISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Publisher: Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020, 254pp. ISBN: 9781509529988.

The contemporary discourse on human rights conveys the impression that it is motivated by a concern for the downtrodden, the oppressed and the politically, economically, and culturally subjugated people who exist mostly in the developing and former colonised Asian and African countries.

An objective study and review of ground realities unveils a totally different scenario. Colin Samson’s well documented research exposes the hollowness of the slogans used by the UN and its agencies about the so-called “humanitarian” policies of western nations. The declarations, charters and conventions of the UN have been shamelessly violated by their signatories in the case of the native Americans in Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), in the conflict at Standing Rock Indian reservations, in the discrimination against the Algerians by the French, etc.