Concepts, Theories and Practice of Human Rights

The development of the international law of human rights has been paralleled by a growing public awareness worldwide of the meaning and significance of concepts of human rights "a sharpening global consciousness of inhumanity" which has in turn led to increased recognition by governments both of their internal accountability to the people they govern, and also of the need for "international legitimation" to conform and supplement their political legitimacy at home. The declaration cannot be regarded to be a binding international treaty, these statements can be taken to represent an important acknowledgment that the subject of human rights is no longer one of exclusively domestic jurisdiction, but rather of increasing international concern. This is confirmed by the increasingly frequent references to human rights in political negotiations between the superpowers. In practice, not all people enjoy all their human rights, let alone enjoy them equally. Nonetheless, all human beings have the same human rights and hold them equally and inalienably.