Ending childhood obesity: a challenge at the crossroads of international, economic and human rights law

Abstract

discusses the interplay of law, politics, diplomacy, and human rights in terms of four pillars of his reform for human rights in Cambodia—judicial, electoral, parliamentary and land. The personal tone of the last chapter makes it a convincing read, promoting the need for a long-term view of human rights through institutional reforms. Where the book falters, and does so in an inimical fashion, is the brushing aside of systematic subjugation of Dalits through the caste system. The book acknowledges that Manusmriti, the scripture the author extensively cites, as the sourceof codificationof the rigid anddiscriminatory caste system, but repeatedly tries to assert the narrative that discriminationwas not the original purpose of the caste system. The book espouses the brahmanical worldview, wherein a false dichotomy is created between tolerant, pluralistic, inclusive, non-violent, and libertine nature of a society and the violent discrimination and oppression which the majority Dalit population face. Merely allowing people to exist, with economic, cultural, political, and social subjugation is neither tolerance, nor pluralism, nor non-violent, nor libertine. One would expect that a book exploring the interactions between human rights and Hinduism would analyse such inherent contradictions in the limelight of extensive literature on caste-based human rights violation, to the minimum from the Ambedkarite school of thought, but the book offers none. Overall, the book offers a perspective on the interaction of human rights, as we understand them today, with Hinduism and Buddhism, and contemporary human rights issues around China and Cambodia. The niche nature of the book might lead to it becoming a primer for western audiences aiming to critically analyse the intersection of human rights and eastern theology from a brahmanical lens. The rich and candid offering of Subedi’s thought processes during his tenure as a principled and brave UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur, as highlighted in the last chapter, is unparalleled and it is this section alone that stands highly recommended for historians, political scientists, social anthropologists, human rights academics, and activists focussing on Cambodia.