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Castellino, Joshua --- "Foreword" [2012] ELECD 783; in Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne (eds), "The Challenge of Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Challenge of Human Rights

Editor(s): Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939005

Section Title: Foreword

Author(s): Castellino, Joshua

Number of pages: 3

Extract:

Foreword
Joshua Castellino

It gives me great pleasure to write the Foreword for this important
volume, which addresses a range of human rights issues which are likely
to be of enduring interest. It is clear that the world in which we find our-
selves in the twenty-first century is significantly different from that which
confronted the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
post-World War Two. Their challenge was to design a system that would
be truly universal in coverage, and create the foundations for the preven-
tion of the kinds of atrocities that have regularly occurred in the past. The
track record of the Universal Declaration has been mixed; it has generated
an important legacy in the creation of an entire system of international
human rights law, but with inconsistent results, not only failing to prevent
large-scale human rights violations but proving inconsistent in tackling the
slower drip of discriminatory treatment of individuals and communities.
In the context of these failures it is significant to note that they are often
underpinned by lost opportunities in engaging the entire range of the
vision of the drafters of rights. At various points in the history of human
rights, sets of norms seeking the emancipation of individuals and commu-
nities have been realized. However only a selection of the potential range
of human rights has been implemented, usually based on the self-interest
of those that have chosen to engage. In addition many of the models
derived have ...