Noelle Higgins

Michael Doherty

David M. Doyle

Amina Adanan

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.

A Review of Successes and Challenges

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Seventy

Cultural defences, i.e. claims that certain aspects of a defendant’s cultural background should be taken into consideration by courts when adjudicating on their guilt or innocence, have been raised before domestic courts in a variety of jurisdictions. This has been a very sensitive and controversial issue. However, the issue of cultural defences at international tribunals is one that has not yet been fully explored. The main objective of this book is to analyse if the International Criminal Court can, and should, accommodate cultural defences as answers to legal charges, or if the Court should accommodate cultural considerations in other ways.

Cultural Defences at the International Criminal Court

This work reconsiders the legal framework governing wars of national liberation in light of conflicts in the South Moluccas and Aceh against Indonesia. It recommends how the framework should be amended to deal adequately with modern self-determination conflicts.

Noelle Higgins

Books

Your next favorite book is out there