At the dawn of a new era, this book brings together leading activists, policy-makers and critics to reflect upon fifty years of attempts to improve respect for human rights. Authors include President Jimmy Carter, who helped inject human rights concerns into US policy; Wei Jingsheng, who struggled to do so in China; Louis Henkin, the modern "father" of international law, and Richard Goldstone, the former chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav and Rwandan war crimes tribunals. A half-century since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the time is right to assess how policies and actions effect the realization of human rights and to point to new directions and challenges that lie ahead. A must have for everyone in the human rights community and the broader foreign policy community as well as the reader who is increasingly aware of the visibility of human rights concerns on the public stage.

Autorentext

LOUIS HENKIN Director of Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, USA ANNA HUSARSKA Politics Analyst and New Yorker Correspondent, USA MAKAU MUTYA Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission MARY ROBINSON UN High Commissioner for Human Rights JOHN SHATTUCK USA Ambassador to the Czech Republic SHIRLEY WILLIAMS British Member of Parliament

Zusammenfassung
A half-century since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the time is right to assess how policies and actions effect the realization of human rights and to point to new directions and challenges that lie ahead.

Inhalt
Contents: The Road to the Twenty-First Century - Human Rights: Ideology and Aspiration, Reality and Prospect; L.Henkin - Human Rights: Not Merely an Internal Affair; W.Jingsheng - The American Road to a Human Rights Policy; J.Carter - Opening Totalitarian Societies to the World Outside; L.Romankov - Human Rights Enforcement: State and Individual Accountability - Human Rights in Europe; S.Williams - The Inter-American System of Protection: Its Contribution to the International Law of Human Rights; J.Mendez - The Construction of the African Human Rights System: Prospects and Pitfalls; M.Mutua - Human Rights in Pakistan: A System in the Making; A.Jahangir - Advancing the Cause of Human Rights: The Need for Justice and Accountability; R.Goldstone - Human Rights Policy Ideas, Institutions, and Instruments - Human Rights Organizations: A New Force for Social Change; K.Roth - Democracy and Human Rights: An Argument for Convergence; M.H.Halperin - Diplomacy with a Cause: Human Rights in US Foreign Policy; J.Shattuck - Economic Sanctions and Human Rights; A.Neier - Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention; K.Annan - Human Rights and Deadly Conflict: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure; D.Hamburg - 'Conscience Trigger': The Press and Human Rights; A.Husarska - Afterword - The Challenges Ahead: Analysis and Integration; M.Robinson