Human Rights at the UN The Political History of Universal Justice [Paperback]

Human rights activists Roger Normand and Sarah Zaidi provide a broad political history of the emergence and development of the human rights movement in the 20th century through the crucible of the United Nations, focusing on the hopes and expectations, concrete power struggles, national rivalries, and bureaucratic politics that molded the international system of human rights law. The book emphasizes the period before and after the creation of the UN, when human rights ideas and proposals were shaped and transformed by the hard-edged realities of power politics and bureaucratic imperatives. It also analyzes the expansion of the human rights framework in response to demands for equitable development after decolonization and organized efforts by women, minorities, and other disadvantaged groups to secure international recognition of their rights.

Contents<\>
Series Editors' Foreword by Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss
Foreword by Richard A. Falk
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part 1. Human Rights Foundations in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
1. First Expressions of International Human Rights Ideas
2. The Decline of Human Rights between World Wars
3. The Human Rights Crusade in World War II
4. Human Rights Politics in the United Nations Charter

Part 2. UN Negotiations and the Modern Human Rights Framework
5. Laying the Human Rights Foundation
6. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
7. The Covenants

Part 3. The Impact of Civil Society and Decolonization
8. The Human Rights of Special Groups
9. The Right to Development
10. Looking at Human Rights since 1990 and in the Future

Notes
Index
About the Authors
About the United Nations Intellectual History Project