To promote change, it is necessary to take action. In accordance with the theme of this issue, the book ‘Evidence for Hope: making human rights work in the 21^st century’ by Kathryn Sikkink (2017) demonstrates how continuous action has been central to achieving positive changes in the context of human rights and how effective change is not only possible but has been achieved in a wide set of contexts.

Sikkink’s book is divided into four sections. The introduction exposes some instances where individuals and institutions actually made a change through the struggle for human rights; it also sets the structure for the discussion in the following two parts: the legitimacy and effectiveness of human rights. Finally, the introduction develops an answer to the many contemporary critics of human rights – both from the inside and the outside of the movement – and shows how to move beyond criticism in a manner adequate to what the movement proposes and achieves.

Part two, on legitimacy, brings both the diverse origins of the movement for human rights worldwide – in a somewhat unconventional manner – and its more conventional development during the Cold War. According to the author, the movement’s origins are much more diverse than postulated by the scholarship, tracing back to before WWII, for instance, in the fight against slavery, and the work of many individuals from the Global South that are often forgotten by the hegemonic literature. The second section of this part highlights how there was a ‘multi-centric shift’ in the movement during the Cold War, which ‘gave human rights more traction’, leading to lasting shifts after the end of the conflict.

Part three, on effectiveness, raises a debate on the difficulties of measuring human rights (and activism) and the actions and measures that actually work to promote human rights. The first section of this part focuses on how a series of biases and paradoxical trends generated by the movement itself lead to a blurring of its achievements over time and defends a ‘reasoned, well-informed’ approach to the matter. Following the argument, the second section draws a series of recommendations for making human rights work in the 21^st century based on recent data on the major causes of violation of such rights.

Finally, the conclusion sums up the argument in view of the recent global unfoldings, at the time, and develops a framework for making human rights work in the 21^st century, with ‘evidence for hope without complacency’. Based on the relationship between legitimacy and effectiveness, it then proposes that ‘the collaboration between movements and institutions has been a central motor for human rights change’ and that, for change to occur, beyond ‘anger about injustices’ it is necessary to have ‘hope, resilience, and the belief that we can make a difference’.

In line with the proposal of this issue, the book makes a powerful defence of taking action as a means to achieve positive change through human rights. Optimistically, it shows the reader how this action translates into effective and enduring change. Fighting for rights and their enforcement – youth, women, LGBTQI+ and other rights – is a challenging endeavour; however, as exposed by Sikkink, the struggle often bears fruit.