'Basic Documents on Human Rights' provides a collection of key documents and covers all elements of the subject. It is an account of the most important instruments adopted by the UN, its agencies, regional organizations and other actors.

Less Than a Roar

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.

A forceful, penetrating critique of the Oslo Accordsand their devastating aftermath.

Content: I. Revolution and Law: H.P. Glenn: Law, Revolution and Rights u M.A. Simon: Must a Revolution Preserve Rights? u C. Wellman: Locke's Right to Revolution Reexamined u W.E. Murnion: Aquinas on Revolution u Shing-I Liu: Menschenrecht, Widerstandsrecht u. Revolution u II. Human Rights and Democracy: A. Mineau: L'origine des droits de l'homme u H. Kochler: Menschenrechtskonformitat demokrat. Systeme u M. Scheinin: Legal Protection of Human Rights and Different Conceptions of Democracy u J.F. Doyle: Fulfilling Revolutionary Promises u N. Lopez-Calera: Naturaleza dialectica de los derechos humanos u J. Wetlesen: Inherent Dignity as a Ground of Human Rights u M.-R. Ollila: Virtue Ethics and Violations of Human Rights u P. Duran y Lalaguna: Human Rights in Democratic Society u C.B. Gray: Fraternity and Nonobstante u III. Human Rights and International Law: A. Bragyova: Is it Possible to Base Human Rights on Internaional Law? u L. Lukaszuk: The Concept of Protection of Human and Civic Rights According to the Principles and Rules of Both the International and Constitutional Law u A.N. Georgiadou: Les droits fondamentaux en droit communautaire u IV. Human Rights and Socialism: K.A. Mollnau: Entwicklungsdenken in der Rechtswissenschaft u W. Sokolewicz: Constitutionality as a Precondition of the Rule of Law u R. Wieruszewski: The Principle of Interrelation Between Human Rights and Duties u P.D. Swan: The Contributions of J. Habermas and C. Lefort u A. Lopatka: Revolution and Socialist Renewal in Poland u M. Samu: The Connection Between Human Rights and Democracy u D.J. Galligan: The Foundations of Due Process in Socialism u R. Bellamy: Liberal Rights and Socialist Goals . (Franz Steiner 1990)

Part 1. Theory.

Human rights have a deep and tumultuous history that culminates in the age of rights we live in today, but where does Africa's story fit in with this global history? Here, Bonny Ibhawoh maps this story and offers a comprehensive and interpretative history of human rights in Africa. Rather than a tidy narrative of ruthless violators and benevolent protectors, this book reveals a complex account of indigenous African rights traditions embodied in the wisdom of elders and sages; of humanitarians and abolitionists who marshalled arguments about natural rights and human dignity in the cause of anti-slavery; of the conflictual encounters between natives and colonists in the age of Empire and the 'civilizing mission'; of nationalists and anti-colonialists who deployed an emergent lexicon of universal human rights to legitimize longstanding struggles for self-determination, and of dictators and dissidents locked in struggles over power in the era of independence and constitutional rights.