A History of the UN Human Rights Programme and Secretariat. By Bertrand G. Ramcharan. Leiden, Boston: Brill Nijhoff, 2020. Pp. xvii, 262. Index
| Autor: | Doug Cassel |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | American Journal of International Law. 115:348-353 |
| ISSN: | 2161-7953 0002-9300 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/ajil.2021.4 |
| Popis: | The New York Times took the occasion to publish a downbeat assessment of the UN's current failures to prevent wars, curb refugee flows, alleviate poverty, meet development goals, confront the COVID-19 pandemic, reform the Security Council—and take human rights seriously 1 Discouraging recent signs in the field of human rights abound [ ]in a report cheekily entitled The People's Republic of the United Nations, a bipartisan U S think tank slams the increasing influence at the UN of China's “particularist view of human rights, in which governments can cite ‘unique’ local conditions to justify disregard for individual or minority claims ” Ranging well beyond a narrow institutional history, his book describes UN human rights norms and processes as they have evolved over time, and the broader forces that have shaped and continue to shape them: geopolitics, big power interests, Cold War divisions, the emergence and maturing of former colonies as independent states, and competing regional and ideological blocs Seventy-five years later the change is dramatic: (1) The UN has adopted and promoted a very widely accepted International Bill of Human Rights, covering not only civil and political, but also economic, social, and cultural rights;(2) Ten separate UN human rights treaty committees, and numerous experts appointed by the UN, monitor, report, review state reports, respond to complaints, and prod states on more than forty different human rights themes, ranging from the independence of judges and lawyers to the human right to safe drinking water;and (3) All UN members undergo a human rights peer review by other states every four and a half years which, however soft or politicized it may often be, reinforces a diplomatic culture in which states must regularly pledge allegiance to human rights [ ]these two regional systems have the advantage of memberships by states that are largely democratic and respect the rule of law 3 With 193 member states worldwide, the UN does not have that luxury |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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