Changes and updates to  the fourth edition:
·     is substantially revised and updated to spring/summer 2021;
·     includes a critical review of recent social science literature on human rights, particularly debates for and against the real-world effectiveness of human rights law;
·     surveys recent real-world events, including the rise of authoritarian populism across the world, the presidency of Donald Trump, the initial moves of President Biden, Brexit + post-Brexit UK,  the `rise’ of China, the latest developments in the Middle East, especially the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.;
·     considers and evaluates recent critiques of the human rights idea and the human rights movements, and the responses by human rights academics and activists.;considers and evaluate recent arguments for and against the proposition that we are witnessing a crisis and/or decline in liberal democracy.
·     investigates and evaluates the `new history’ of human rights and its challenges to traditional histories and understandings of human rights;
·     explores the historical relationship between human rights, liberalism, racism and colonialism in the context of contemporary debates about `decolonising the curriculum’;
·     brings up to date the handling of human rights at the United Nations;
·     examines the implications of Realist and constructivist theories of international relations for the theory and practice of human rights;
·     examines changing relationships between human rights organizations in the Global North and the Global South;
·     includes up-to-date survey of recent developments in thinking about the global economy, global inequality and human rights, including recent debates about the relationship between human rights and neoliberalism.;
·     surveys the latest developments and thinking about the human rights implications of climate change;
·     investigates the human rights implications of the Covid-19 pandemic;
·     includes a  new section on technology and human rights: the internet, social media, big data, artificial intelligence, global tech corporations;
·     summarizes the state of the theory and practice of human rights in the early 2020s.