Rethinking the Meaning of Human Rights

The second edition of Kalin and Kunzli's authoritative book provides a concise but comprehensive legal analysis of international human rights protection at the global and regional levels. It shows that human rights are real rights creating legal entitlements for those who are protected by them and imposing legal obligations on those bound by them.

BL Explains why the respect in which the UN is held is not matched by admiration for its practical attempts to safeguard human rights.

International Human Rights Protection is addressed to judges and lawyers, diplomats and civil servants, researchers and students. It is based on the author's personal research and personal involvement with a wide range of subjects, such as: the basic concepts of civil and social rights; discrimination and affirmative action; issues of procedure and jurisdiction; the death penalty; and issues such as the protection of refugees, minorities and victims of armed conflicts. At the universal level, the book introduces the reader to the labyrinth of United Nations Charter-based and treaty-based procedures. As well as an overview of the Inter-American and African systems, it deals at the regional level-particularly with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and also looks at the national level at the case law of the US Supreme Court and the South African Constitutional Court. This book adopts a particularly critical approach to the so-called "dynamic" interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights by the Court of Strasbourg. It is the author's feeling that judges, in particular those belonging to courts specialising in human rights, have a tendency to systematically support interpretations benefitting the applicants, while overlooking too easily the far-reaching implications of judgments for society as a whole. The author, instead, puts forward a more balanced and more realistic approach which takes into account the difficulties democratic governments face in coping with the challenges of our present time and with the pressing needs of the realities of today's world. Subject: International Law, Human Rights Law]

This book examines the most recent trends in the constitutional and legal regulations in all Latin American countries regarding the amparo proceeding. It analyzes the regulations of the seventeen amparo statutes in force in Latin America, as well as the regulation on the amparo guarantee established in Article 25 of the American Convention of Human Rights.

This publication reproduces the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the nine core international human rights treaties and their optional protocols in a user-friendly format to make them more accessible, in particular to government officials, civil society, human rights defenders, legal practitioners, scholars, individual citizens and others with an interest in human rights norms and standards.

The value and legitimacy of using courts to limit the powers of governments in the domain of human rights is a significant ongoing debate. This book provides a critical review that explores the alternative means for protecting and promoting human rights. This group of twenty-four leading human rights scholars from around the world present a variety of perspectives on the disappointing human rights outcomes of recent institutional developments and consider the prospects of reviving the moral force and political implications of human rights values.

The Global Citizenship Commission was convened, under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the auspices of NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Study, to re-examine the spirit and stirring words of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The result – this volume – offers a 21st-century commentary on the original document, furthering the work of human rights and illuminating the ideal of global citizenship. What does it mean for each of us to be members of a global community? Since 1948, the Declaration has stood as a beacon and a standard for a better world. Yet the work of making its ideals real is far from over. Hideous and systemic human rights abuses continue to be perpetrated at an alarming rate around the world. Too many people, particularly those in power, are hostile to human rights or indifferent to their claims. Meanwhile, our global interdependence deepens. Bringing together world leaders and thinkers in the fields of politics, ethics, and philosophy, the Commission set out to develop a common understanding of the meaning of global citizenship – one that arises from basic human rights and empowers every individual in the world. This landmark report affirms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and seeks to renew the 1948 enterprise, and the very ideal of the human family, for our day and generation.