The interest, awareness and importance of human rights has continued to dominate public discourse. This is partly because human rights help us to recognise and respect our shared rights and responsibilities so that we may be able to co-exist while upholding the values and principles of democracy. This voluminous contribution provides a systematic and comprehensive reflection on the state of human rights in Southern Africa. The main aim is to deepen the understanding of human rights from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Contributors analyse how human rights are not only promoted and protected from possible violations, but also abused with reference to divergent contexts in Southern African. The wide-ranging themes, perspectives and theoretical frameworks in this work provides for a deeper and boarder understanding of human rights in the region.