Newly published scholarly work combines domains of human rights and communication rights.

Communication and Human Rights written by Aliaa Dakroury (Kendall Hunt, USA, 2009) makes a significant contribution to the democratization of communication and the global debate around communication rights set firmly in the framework of human rights. As Cees J. Hamelink comments in his foreword, 'It was about time someone offered a broad study in which communication was conceptualized as a fundamental human entitlement and in whiuch the historical context of that conceptualization was diligently reported and analyzed.'

That someone is Aliaa Dakroury, currently Lecturer in the Department of Communication, Sociology, and Law at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) and joint editor of The Right to Communicate: Historical Hopes, Global Debates, and Future Premises (also recently published by Kendall Hunt).

Communication and Human Rights aims to set forth and underline the historical, intellectual, philosophical, and theoretical roots of communication as a human right. 'The main argument is that, although there is an implicit relationship between the Right to Communicate and the previous literature and research in this field of study, the study of communication lacks an explicit link between the fields of communication and human rights' (Introduction).

Six chapters cover: 'Is Communication a Basic Human Right?', 'Early Context of the Right to Communicate', 'A Debate on What Is a Right to Communicate', 'Philosphical Foundation of Communication as a Human Right', 'Toward a Theorization of Communication as a Human Right', and 'The Question of the Right to Communicate'.

Communication and Human Rightsby Aliaa Dakroury. (Kendall Hunt, USA, 2009). Paperback 210pp. ISBN 978-0-7575-6406-2. http://www.kendallhunt.com/