These essays critically examine the functions, procedures, and performance of each of the major UN organs dealing with human rights, including the Security Council and the International Court of Justice as well as the more specialized bodies such as the Commission on Human Rights and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. They also look at the relationship between the various bodies and the potential for major reforms and restructuring. Most of the contributors have been key participants in the United Nations Human Rights regime and all are ideally placed to critically evaluate its...

Can transnational corporations ignore human rights as long as governments don't hold them accountable? If the UN is put in charge of a territory, is it bound by human rights law? Under traditional approaches to human rights, non-state actors cannot be parties to the relevant treaties and so they are only bound to the extent that obligations accepted by States can be applied to them by governments. This situation threatens to make a mockery of much of the international system of accountability for human rights violations. The contributors to this volume examine the different approaches that...

Are efforts to protect workers' rights compatible with the forces of globalization? How can minimum standards designed to protect labor rights be implemented in a world in which national labor law is more and more at the mercy of international forces beyond its control? The contributors to this volume argue that international agreements and institutions are of central importance if labor rights are to be protected in a globalized economy, exploring some of the options that are open to governments, civil society, and the labor movement in the years ahead.

Only in the past 15 years or so, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the realization that freedom and economic well-being are empirically linked, have the professional communities dealing with development and human rights issues begun to communicate effectively. But too much of the dialogue has been confined to an abstract or theoretical level. The eminent contributors to this volume address highly specific but crucial aspects of the human rights and development interface, including the economics of social rights; land rights and women's empowerment; child labor and access to education;...

The imperatives of sovereignty, human rights and national security very often pull in different directions, yet the relations between these three different notions are considerably more subtle than those of simple opposition. Rather, their interaction may at times be contradictory, at others tense, and at others even complementary. This collection presents an analysis of the irreducible dilemmas posed by the foundational challenges of sovereignty, human rights and security, not merely in terms of the formal doctrine of their disciplines, but also of the manner in which they can be configured...

Fact-finding is at the heart of human rights advocacy, and is often at the center of international controversies about alleged government abuses. In recent years, human rights fact-finding has greatly proliferated and become more sophisticated and complex, while also being subjected to stronger scrutiny from governments. Nevertheless, despite the prominence of fact-finding, it remains strikingly under-studied and under-theorized. Too little has been done to bring forth the assumptions, methodologies, and techniques of this rapidly developing field, or to open human rights fact-finding to...

Fact-finding is at the heart of human rights advocacy, and is often at the center of international controversies about alleged government abuses. In recent years, human rights fact-finding has greatly proliferated and become more sophisticated and complex, while also being subjected to stronger scrutiny from governments. Nevertheless, despite the prominence of fact-finding, it remains strikingly under-studied and under-theorized. Too little has been done to bring forth the assumptions, methodologies, and techniques of this rapidly developing field, or to open human rights fact-finding to...