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.

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

Preface to the first edition

Previous edition, 1st, published in 1992.

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.

The first edition of this text was a textbook on internationally recognized economic, social and cultural rights. While focusing on this category of rights, it also analyzed their relationships to other human rights, civil and political in particular. This revised edition updates the information.

Analyzes Asian perspectives on human rights in terms of cultural traditions, grassroots and regional organizations, and economic constraints on the expression of rights. The book asks: are human rights western in their inception, are they universal or do they differ by region and culture.

Less Than a Roar