Are human rights gaining or losing ground? This question has   become relevant after two decades of unprecedented progress in developing   human rights standards and institutions. The political climate during the   Cold War created many obstacles, but the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989   and its aftermath during the following decade created a sense of promise   and progress among human rights scholars and actors.     Yet, today, actions, statements and initiatives questioning the legitimacy   and validity of human rights, or even threatening their very existence,   have become a regular part of current political realities, even in states   traditionally dedicated to the rule of law. This would have been   inconceivable ten or twenty years ago. At the political level human rights   are gaining as well as losing ground.    The question of the adequacy, legitimacy and scope of human rights is still   a live one. And weaknesses in supra-national human rights protection   systems have emerged over the last twenty years. It is now clear that human   rights mechanisms are not well adapted to the handling of the   ever-increasing number of complaints or to the effective implementation of   human rights.  This thought-provoking collection of essays by leading scholars and   practitioners in the field of human rights explores the ways in which human   rights are currently being challenged and weakened, but also strengthened   in important and groundbreaking ways in different areas and settings. They   explore the many current debates which centre on human rights concerns:   debates about secularism and religious norms, about minimum social   standards and social security, about the future regulation of citizenship,   about prison reform and the use of less inhumane methods of detention; as   well as the reform of the UN system and the challenges facing the now   overburdened European Court of Human Rights.

Human Rights in Turmoil: Facing Threats, Consolidating Achievements (International Studies in Human Rights) PDF

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