Explores the rise of human rights discourse and its relationship to moral and religious discourses on suffering and social justice. Focuses on the experience of victims of human rights abuse and the politics of meaning. Critiques law as a reductionist discourse on the social by exploring the relationships between human rights and cultural difference eg. gender, ethnicity, religion and indigenous cultures. Considers the cultural validity of human rights as a universalist discourse and as a globalising discourse. Looks at the emergence of a global human rights machinery and the ethics of humanitarian intervention.