Abstract
‘Introduction’ in Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, Identity, Belonging and Human Rights (Brill, 2019), vii-xiii.
It seems that almost universally individuals want to belong. This need to belong manifests itself in several ways: from the most mundane pleasure one receives by being a member of a football or singing club, to the much more fundamental need to be a part of a religious group or socialise with people from the same ethnic background. This need to belong stems from the central role that identity plays in our lives and from the fulfilment most of us enjoy when we express and experience our identity without any hindrance. It is these concepts of belonging and identity that the volume explores, by bringing together both chapters that engage with them on a theoretical level and through more practical contributions that discuss the effects of identity and belonging in our everyday lives. The final chapters in the edited volume seek to take the discussion further and explore how these twin concepts relate to and can be seen through the prism of human rights.