How does the focus on human rights change the study of population governance? What, if any, new insights, perspectives and challenges do human rights bring to population policies? How, if at all, can protection and respect for human rights be integrated with national and global problems of population management? These questions are looming in light of contemporary recognition that dealing with the world’s population is an increasingly urgent, challenging and complex issue of global governance. Cutting across standard academic disciplines and often challenging the divide between social theory and practice, this collection brings together contributions from experts in the area of population studies and human rights. Drawing upon cases from different parts of the world (China, India, Tanzania, Nigeria, Germany, Iran, Cuba, Poland, Israel, Peru and Australia) the contributors address questions of the often strained relationship between national population governance and global human rights discourses within four mutually connected thematic clusters: global developments, paradoxes of social engineering, religious and nationalist influences on reproduction, and minority politics.