The idea of universal rights, rights shared by all, regardless of nationality, creed, wealth, or geography, has a powerful grip on the way many people feel about justice and global politics. No one should be subjected to torture or disappearance, to starvation or sex trafficking, to economic exploitation or biased treatment under the law. But when it comes to actually enforcing these rights, the results rarely resemble the ideal. In this book, the author, a legal expert reveals how attempts to apply "universal" human rights principles to specific cultures can hinder humanitarian causes and sometimes even worsen conditions for citizens. In certain regions, human rights ideals clash with the limits of institutional capabilities or civic culture. Elsewhere, rights enforcement actually leads to further human rights violations. And in some countries, offending regimes use human rights commitments to distract attention from or justify their other abuses. The author explores how our haste to identify every ideal as a universal right devalues rights as a whole, so that even the most important protections, such as that against torture, become negotiable. He also explores cases ranging from food distribution to the poor in India to sex work in Japan, illustrating how a rights-based approach to these problems often impedes more effective measures, the pragmatic politics of cost-weighing, compromise, and collective action. The bad news is that improving lives worldwide isn't as easy as making a declaration. But the good news, as demonstrated, is that if we are clear-eyed and culturally aware, it can be done.