This title was first published in 2003. The series of volumes prepared by UNESCO for teaching human rights at higher education level comes to a conclusion with the publication of this volume. "Human Rights: International Protection, Monitoring, Enforcement" takes an institutional approach to the international protection of human rights, examining first the United Nations system, which may be seen as universal, and then analysing regional systems of protection. A useful source of information on the protection of human rights, the volume can also be employed as a practical guide to the use of existing procedures in the defence of human rights.

Intellectual history is placed in the broadest possible contexts of economic, political, and social contexts.

Human rights are internationally agreed values, standards or rules regulating the conduct of states towards their own citizens and towards non-citizens. Human rights are, in the words of the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 'a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.' These rules, which states have imposed upon themselves , serve to restrict the freedom of states to act towards their entire population : Citizens as well non-citizens, men as well as women /adults as well as children, whites and nonwhites, believers, married persons and the unmarried , heterosexuals as well as homosexuals. The situation is different from the past, when states, or rather their princes.

This work offers an insightful guide to the global struggle for human rights, the problems and shortcomings of the international human rights regime, and the resources essential to human rights studies. From royal decrees in the ancient kingdoms of Persia and Babylon to the latest controversies over reform of the United Nations, establishing international human rights norms has been a recurrent, if sometimes elusive, objective in world affairs. Internationally and domestically, controversies over human rights continue to fuel endless debate in politics, legal discourse, and the media. International human rights norms and treaties have helped to put Balkan war criminals behind bars, but genocidal acts continue in other parts of the world. Can governments, equipped with coercive power, eliminate human rights abuses? Who will counterbalance the increasing power of transnational corporations? How effective are the NGOs? Do human rights become a luxury under threats to the national security?

When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 50 years ago, Eleanor Roosevelt, its principal architect, predicted that a 'curious grapevine' would carry its message behind barbed wire and stone walls. This book tells the extraordinary story of how NGOs became the 'grapevine' she anticipated - sharpening our awareness about the violations of human rights, 'shaming' its most notorious abusers and creating the international mechanisms to bring about implementation of the Declaration. Korey traces how NGO's laid the groundwork for the destruction of the Soviet empire, as well as of the apartheid system in South Africa, and established the principle of accountability for crimes against humanity. The notion of human rights has progressed from being a marginal part of international relations a half century ago to stand today as a critical element in diplomatic discourse and this book shows that it is the NGOs that have placed human rights at the centre of humankind's present and future agenda.

Independence from colonial rule did not usher in the halcyon days many North Africans had hoped for, as the new governments in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria soon came to rely on repression to reinforce and maintain power. In response to widespread human rights abuses, individuals across the Maghrib began to form groups in the late 1970s to challenge the political practices and structures in the region, and over time these independent human rights organizations became prominent political actors. The activists behind them are neither saints nor revolutionaries, but political reformers intent on changing political patterns that have impeded democratization. This study, the first systematic comparative analysis of North African politics in more than a decade, explores the ability of society, including Islamist forces, to challenge the powers of states. Locating Maghribi polities within their cultural and historical contexts, Waltz traces state-society relations in the contemporary period. Even as Algeria totters at the brink of civil war and security concerns rise across the region, the human rights groups Susan Waltz examines implicitly challenge the authoritarian basis of political governance. Their efforts have not led to the democratic transition many had hoped, but human rights have become a crucial new element of North African political discourse. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995.

This thoroughly revised edition of what has become the standard work in its field continues the original focus on the "nuts and bolts" of international human rights law and practice. Hurst Hannum and the contributors to this volume describe in detail regimes and procedures which have been developed during the past decade and evaluate the effectiveness of procedures which were only in their infancy in the early 1980s. The fifteen contributors, all specialists in their fields, offer a panoramic yet meticulously detailed survey of the many and varied techniques now available for the protection of human rights at global, regional, and national levels. A fully revised and updated set of appendixes, including a bibliographic essay which itself serves as a miniguide to the flourishing human rights literature, contains additional information useful to human rights lawyers, nongovernmental personnel, academics, and others interested in making the promotion and protection of human rights a reality. As democratization and other changes sweep through the world, the Guide seeks to ensure that human rights will have an important and influential place in whatever "new world order" the diplomats may devise.