ABSTRACT
It is without dispute that public opinion does not always coincide with the principles of human rights. Such opinion includes attitudes that discriminate against people based on race, gender, age, health, sexual orientation and other factors. It is closely associated with violence against people belonging to a particular group, including harmful customs and other practices that target women and children especially. If nothing is done to mobilise societal attitudes, this type of violence and its accompanying practices will never be eradicated and equality cannot be achieved. States typically cite public opinion as the reason to maintain certain practices that are increasingly being recognised as infringements on human rights, with the death penalty being at the vanguard. Confronting these situations, this book raises the question as to whether human rights should be confined to the development of public opinion, in the sense that human rights provisions are often bifurcated to the oversimplified statement that ‘the public is in favour or not in favour of such provisions’.
