Review. Méndez, Juan E.; Wentworth, Marjory, A Place of Struggle. Human Rights in Evolution, trans. Ada Podolsky Zylbersztajn, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Universidad Iberoamericana, Oacnudh, 2021.

Abstract

Anyone who has contact with human rights may come to mind some of the most recurring and perhaps also most reflective questions on the subject: Do human rights make sense? Is it necessary to create new rights and defend the ones we have if in the end they are violated everywhere? Is it worth fighting for them if they are not respected and cannot be effectively enforced? What can we do to ensure they are guaranteed?

To all these questions, the book under review offers several keys to approaching possible answers. In particular, there is a clear message presented in it that I allow myself to summarize with these words: we are certainly very far from seeing a world where human rights are guaranteed, but this should not lead us to lose heart. On the contrary. Human rights, as the author says, are a “place of struggle” that require many sustained actions to achieve and enforce them, and at the same time, to promote their development or, as the book’s subtitle indicates, to make them evolve.