The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Seventy: A Review of Successes and Challenges

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a landmark instrument in the history of human rights. This instrument was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, and sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. It has significantly influenced the development of human rights law and policy internationally, regionally and domestically.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Seventy: A Review of Successes and Challenges celebrates the seventieth anniversary of the Declaration and provides an analysis of how it has contributed to the protection of human rights globally. It also identifies and discusses a number of the challenges to the realisation of rights set out in the instrument. The chapters, authored by academics and practitioners in the field of human rights, provide insights into the drafting of the UDHR, human rights activism, the rights protected by the instrument, as well as the relationship between the Declaration and other human rights protective mechanisms.