A Sociology of Human Rights: Rights through a Social Movements Lens

This article offers a framework for developing a sociology of human rights using social movements to understand local rights cultures. The idea of human rights has historically been highly statist, but grass-roots activism has been at the heart of the most profound human rights advances in Canada. The article also raises questions about the current state of sociological writing about Canada. The author contends that there is a serious lack of engagement among English and French sociologists, and too few scholars provide genuine "national" studies. Moreover, restrictive access to information legislation represents a serious obstacle to academic research in Canada.