Never Again: Why Human Rights Charters Fail to Fulfill Their Mandates

Freedom. The Berber symbol adorns a monument outside the Museum of Slavery in The Gambia. It's also an emblem of hope, that "never again" will such wrongheaded political mindsets cloud our judgment about "rights" and "freedoms," now enshrined in human rights charters. Yet those fervent words—never again—as author Donald L. Lang points out, are also the title and rallying cry of a recent book on the aftermath of yet another mass high-school shooting. Where rights and freedoms are concerned, ...