Human rights work takes place everywhere, every day, and in every way, but good intentions don't always bring good results. Those who work to promote the dignity, opportunities, and quality of life of vulnerable and marginalized people are confronted daily with irresolvable ethical dilemmas.

Messy Ethics in Human Rights Work invites readers into a series of overlapping conversations, as activists, researchers, artists, and others reflect on the complex disorderliness of ethics in practice, and the implications for human rights work both within and beyond academia. Although professional, institutional, or even organic codes of conduct can be useful, their focus on avoiding ethical problems often misses the point. Human rights work entails intricate relationships of social, political, and economic power and responsibility that emerge only in the process of doing the work itself.

Contributors share situations when they were ethically stuck between a rock and hard place. What happened? How did they evaluate the situation and the options available to resolve it? Where did or didn't they seek guidance? What would they do differently next time? This honest, thoughtful work proposes that personal reflection and collective, sometimes uncomfortable discussion are essential components of critical human rights practice.