- Compiled by S. Meader
Universal Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles).
Women's Human Rights by 
Human Rights along the U. S. -Mexico Border by 
Until We Are Free by 
Human Rights and U. S. Foreign Policy by 
The United Nations by
Through its specialized agencies, the UN plays a major role in the nuclear non-proliferation regime, coordinates worldwide research on AIDS, battles illicit drugs and provides massive refugee assistance. At the same time the UN is a seriously flawed institution, an arena of mischief wherein the PLO and radical Arab states seek to delegitimize Israel. It is rampant with waste and mismanagement. During the Reagan administration, Ambassador Williamson began to confront these problems as the United States permanent representative to the UN offices in Vienna and as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in charge of America's UN policy. In the articles collected here, he shows how the US has challenged the UN to live up to the ideals of its Charter.
Disposable People by
Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bales's disturbing story of slavery today reaches from brick kilns in Pakistan and brothels in Thailand to the offices of multinational corporations. His investigation of conditions in Mauritania, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, and India reveals the tragic emergence of a "new slavery," one intricately linked to the global economy. Bales offers suggestions for combating the new slavery and provides examples of very positive results from organizations such as Anti-Slavery International, the Pastoral Land Commission in Brazil, and the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan. He also calls for researchers to follow the flow of raw materials and products from slave to marketplace in order to effectively target campaigns of "naming and shaming" corporations linked to slavery. Disposable People is the first book to point the way to abolishing slavery in today's global economy. All of the author's royalties from this book go to fund anti-slavery projects around the world.
Beyond This Harbor by
A memoir of an extraordinary life-poet, international human rights activist and founding member of Amnesty International USA,
Pathologies of Power by
Author Paul Farmer argues that promoting the social and economic rights of the world's poor is the most important human rights struggle of our times.
Human Rights: a Very Short Introduction by
From the controversial incarceration of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, to the brutal ethnic cleansing being practiced in Darfur, to the widespread denial of equal rights to women in many areas of the world, human rights violations are a constant presence in the news and in our lives. Taking an international perspective, and focusing on highly topical issues such as torture, arbitrary detention, privacy, health, and discrimination, this Very Short Introduction will help readers to understand for themselves the controversies and complexities behind this vitally relevant issue.