This study of human rights argues for a greater openness in the ways we approach human rights and international rights promotion. Starting with the realities of abuse rather than the liberal architectures of rights, it casts human rights as a language for probing the political dimensions of suffering, and shows Western rights models as substantial but problematic. Brown shows that rather than a message from "us" to "them", rights promotion is a long and difficult conversation about the relationship between political organisation and suffering. Three case studies are explored - the Tiananmen Square massacre, East Timor and the circumstances of indigenous Australians.