Thanks to the dedication of dozens of US Human Rights Network members and allies, twenty books were submitted for evaluation by the “Writer’s Symposium” review committee. The Committee was composed of academics and activists, who are members of the Network and familiar with its principles and values of the coalition, from the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. This symposium highlights the scholarship of authors utilizing the human rights framework as a central referent in their analyses of social movement activity, social justice campaigns and human rights abuses in the United States. The subjects of submissions ranged from economic rights and welfare reform, human rights and healthcare and a multi-volume human rights anthology. During our national conference, each of the three authors (editors) will be provided a space to discuss their books on Friday, April 18. Six finalists were initially selected and reviewed by the Symposium Committee. The following three books were not a part of the top three selections however they were awarded “Notable Contributions in the Field of Human Rights Scholarship” by our Committee:

Hope Lewis and Jeanne M. Woods, (2004) Human Rights and the Global Marketplace:
Economic, Social, and Cultural Dimensions. Transnational Publishers.

Belden Fields. (2003) Rethinking Human Rights for the New Millennium. Palgrave Macmillan.

Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann and Claude E. Welch, Jr. (2006). Economic Rights in Canada and the United States. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.

We are pleased to announce the following books selected for the first ever US Human Rights Network Writers Symposium “best book in the field of human rights.”

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Kenneth J. Neubeck (2006) When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights. Routledge. Come and Meet Ken Neubeck, author of “When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights” on Friday, April 18th from 3:00-3:45pm in Salon 8

Book Description: While welfare rolls have dramatically dropped across the United States during the last decade, the high poverty for mothers and their children has not. In fact many of new welfare reform initiatives pose increasingly negative effects on poor children and youth. As these startling statistics mount, federal and state governments continue to cut back on the very services and funds on which impoverished families rely.

This groundbreaking new book offers a history of welfare, an accurate portrayal of welfare recipients and an understanding of the relationship between race and welfare. Through detailed research and compelling interviews, award-winning author Ken Neubeck offers a unique comparison of other industrialized nation's welfare policies compared to ours, and presents a new argument for curtailing the end of welfare as we know it: the case for making economic human rights.

What civil rights was to the 1960s, human rights have become the movement of the 1990s and today. Just as many doctors have campaigned to have health considered a human right, Neubeck provocatively suggests that people should be entitled to economic human rights. When Welfare Disappears examines the important ways in which our government has refused to recognize these rights of its most impoverished and vulnerable citizens.

Cynthia Soohoo (ed.), Catherine Albisa (ed.), Martha F. Davis. (2007). Bringing Human Rights Home. Portsmouth, NH: Greenwood Publishing Group.Come and Meet Cynthia Soohoo, one of the editors of “Bringing Human Rights Home,” to discuss their books on Friday, April 18th from
5:00-5:45pm in Salon 8

Book Description: This three-volume set chronicles the history of human rights in the United States from the perspective of domestic social justice activism. First, the set examines the political forces and historic events that resulted in the U.S.'s failure to embrace human rights principles at home while actively (albeit selectively) championing and promoting human rights abroad. It then considers the current explosion of human rights activism around issues within the United States and the way human rights is transforming domestic social justice work. The first volume provides a historical perspective on the United States' ambivalent relationship with the international human rights movement. It examines the implications of recognizing domestic rights violations as a matter of international concern and the relationship between international and domestic law. It also addresses the role the Cold War and Southern opposition to international scrutiny of its Jim Crow policies and segregation played in shaping U.S. attitudes toward human rights generally and social and economic rights in particular. These factors forced social justice organizations to largely abandon employing a human rights framework in their domestic work and had a lasting impact on U.S. perspectives about fundamental rights and the role of government. The set also chronicles current domestic human rights work. Volumes two and three consider why domestic activists currently are using human rights and the tactical advantages and practical challenges posed by such strategies. These volumes cover everything from globalization to terrorism and the erosion of civil rights protections that led to a renewed interest in human rights; human rights versus civil rights strategies; and the different ways human rights can support social activism.

Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute (2005) Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11. New York: Prometheus Books. Come and Meet Judge Clauda Morcom of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties
Institute to discuss their Report “Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11” on Friday, April 18th from 4:00-4:45pm in Salon 8

Book Description: This book is the culmination of 16 months' work collecting information from Government and NGO reports, newspapers, magazines, emails, web pages, MCLI Board members and friends, etc. This Report to the people of the U.S. provides information to chart new paths for action to stop human rights violations and to enforce the Government's duties under the Constitution, US statutes, UN Charter, and the UN human rights treaties.

Book Titles Submitted by the Membership for Review

Belden Fields. (2003) Rethinking Human Rights for the New Millennium. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann and Claude E. Welch, Jr. (2006). Economic Rights in Canada and the United States. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.
Cynthia Soohoo (ed.), Catherine Albisa (ed.), Martha F. Davis. (2007). Bringing Human Rights Home. Portsmouth, NH: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Elisabeth Reichert. (2003). Social Work and Human Rights: A Foundation for Policy and
Practice. New York: Columbia University Press.

Elisabeth Reichert (2006). Understanding Human Rights: An Exercise Book. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Elisabeth Reichert (Ed.) (2007). Challenges in Human Rights: A Social Work
Perspective. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hope Lewis and Jeanne M. Woods. (2004) Human Rights and the Global Marketplace:
Economic, Social, and Cultural Dimensions. New York: Transnational Publishers.
Kenneth J. Neubeck. (2006) When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights. New York: Routledge.

Elizabeth Beck, Sarah Britto and Arlene Andrews. (2007). In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families. New York, Oxford University Press.

Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute (2005) Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11. New York: Prometheus Books.
Carol Anderson. (2003) Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights. New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Scott Myers-Lipton. (2007) Social Solutions to Poverty, America's Struggle to build a Just Society. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

Joseph Wronka. (2007) Human Rights and Social Justice: Social Action and Service for the Helping and Health Professions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Mark Ensalaco. (2000) Chile under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Mark Ensalaco (2008) Middle Eastern Terrorism: From Black September to September 11. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Parul Sharma. (2007) Right to Life: The Pluralism of Human Existence. New Delhi: India Research Press.

Paul Farmer. (2003) Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Laura Magnani and Harmon L. Wray (2006) Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for our Failed Prison System. Minneapolis, Fortress Press.

Tara Herivel and Paul Wright, eds. (2007) Prison Profiteers: Who makes money from mass incarceration. New York and London: The New Press.

Lora Jo Foo. (2007) Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy. New York: iUniverse, Inc.