This work offers an insightful guide to the global struggle for human rights, the problems and shortcomings of the international human rights regime, and the resources essential to human rights studies.

From royal decrees in the ancient kingdoms of Persia and Babylon to the latest controversies over reform of the United Nations, establishing international human rights norms has been a recurrent, if sometimes elusive, objective in world affairs.

Internationally and domestically, controversies over human rights continue to fuel endless debate in politics, legal discourse, and the media. International human rights norms and treaties have helped to put Balkan war criminals behind bars, but genocidal acts continue in other parts of the world. Can governments, equipped with coercive power, eliminate human rights abuses? Who will counterbalance the increasing power of transnational corporations? How effective are the NGOs? Do human rights become a luxury under threats to the national security?