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.

This volume is based on the theme that justice cannot be confined within limitations of space, time or academic discipline, a theme which Judge Christopher Weeramantry has consistently applied in the valuable writings which are collected here. Justice breaks out beyond the bounds of particular cultural traditions and territorial boundaries. It transcends generational barriers and imposes on every generation duties towards those who are to follow. It reaches beyond the bounds of the discipline of law and fertilizes the interface area between law and any discipline one may care to name. This representative selection of lectures and writings, delivered and published over the past three decades in many parts of the world, reveals the depth and significance of Judge Weeramantry's contribution to the ongoing debate on the nature and scope of Human Rights in the international community. Some of his essays foreshadowed future dangers which have since materialized, and they all represent a resistance to attitudes of legal formalism which often seem to override considerations of justice in the handling of the problems under examination. All of these discussions portray the all-pervasive nature of justice, its universality, and its timelessness. This volume is the first of several which will cover Judge Weeramantry's contribution to legal literature. The remaining volumes will contain essays on Justice in a Global Context, Justice in the Age of Technology and The Votaries of Justice.

Withdrawing from international organizations / Niels Blokker -- Sovereignty as responsibility exercising permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the interest of current and future generations / Daniëlla Dam-de Jong -- Non-state actors and human rights obligations perspectives from international investment law and arbitration / Eric De Brabandere and Larissa van den Herik -- Global threats and fragmented responses climate change and the extra-territorial scope of human rights obligations / Helen Duffy -- What is a state in international law? How is this to be determined? / John Dugard -- The role of customary international law as a tool for the progressive development of international criminal law undermining the sovereignty of states for the sake of humanity? / Robert Heinsch -- The responsibility of the Netherlands for its nationals abroad / Erik Koppe -- How about consolidating the frontiers but furthering the effectiveness of human rights? Lessons from Yerevan / Rick Lawson -- Shifting the frontiers of International Human Rights Law / Titia Loenen -- Waters rising possible effects of sea level rise on the legal regime of baselines and delineation of maritime zones / Xuechan Ma -- The International Criminal Court and human security looking ahead complementarity? / Andrea Marrone -- The establishment of flight information regions and Air Defence Identification Zones Air Law is Air Law and Maritime Law is Maritime Law; shall the twain ever meet? / Pablo Mendes de Leon -- Maritime security and sustainable development and the coastal communities of India an empirical analysis / Bimal N. Patel -- To speculate or not? On determining adequate remedies for denial of justice and other judicial wrongs / Vid Prislan -- Human Rights Law and the return of stolen assets / Cecily Rose -- Principles for the sustainable governance of shared natural resources / Nadia Sánchez Castillo-Winckels -- Economic, social and cultural rights and customary International Law / William A. Schabas -- World law's modern master builders / Otto Spijkers -- The world in disarray. Great-power competition and the decline of multilateralism / Alfred van Staden -- How can we justify international criminal justice? / Carsten Stahn -- China's perception of state sovereignty in international dispute settlement / Linlin Sun -- Public administration and ordinary virtues the Venice principles on the ombudsman Institution / Luc Verhey -- The right to marry as a right to equality about same-sex couples, the phrase "men and women", and the travaux préparatoires of the universal declaration / Kees Waaldijk.

Part A: General perspectives.

Analysis of when, where, and how American law recognizes and responds to claims made in the name of human rights.

The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.

Countries solemnly intone their commitment to human rights, and they ratify endless international treaties and conventions designed to signal that commitment. At the same time, there has been no marked decrease in human rights violations, even as the language of human rights has become the dominant mode of international moral criticism. Well-known violators like Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan have sat on the U.N. Council on Human Rights. But it's not just the usual suspects that flagrantly disregard the treaties. Brazil pursues extrajudicial killings. South Africa employs violence against protestors. India tolerate child labor and slavery. The United States tortures. In The Twilight of Human Rights Law--the newest addition to Oxford's highly acclaimed Inalienable Rights series edited by Geoffrey Stone--the eminent legal scholar Eric A. Posner argues that purposefully unenforceable human rights treaties are at the heart of the world's failure to address human rights violations. Because countries fundamentally disagree about what the public good requires and how governments should allocate limited resources in order to advance it, they have established a regime that gives them maximum flexibility--paradoxically characterized by a huge number of vague human rights that encompass nearly all human activity, along with weak enforcement machinery that churns out new rights but cannot enforce any of them. Posner looks to the foreign aid model instead, contending that we should judge compliance by comprehensive, concrete metrics like poverty reduction, instead of relying on ambiguous, weak, and easily manipulated checklists of specific rights. With a powerful thesis, a concise overview of the major developments in international human rights law, and discussions of recent international human rights-related controversies, The Twilight of Human Rights Law is an indispensable contribution to this important area of international law from a leading scholar in the field.