ABSTRACT
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the first museum in the world to make the history, meaning, and practice of human rights its primary subject. This museum not only aims to educate visitors about the concept of human rights and its transnational and Canadian applications, but also has another purpose: to “inspire” and to produce deeper, emotional levels of identification with and commitment to the human rights project. Through a case study of the museum, this essay explores how the new genre of the human rights museums that has emerged in recent decades has transformed museological practice and teaches viewers to invest in the rights project through an appeal to emotions. It demonstrates how the layout of the museum narrates the history and practice of human rights through an emphasis on “empathy” and examines what this commitment tells us about human rights discourse in Canada and in global contexts.
