Social Justice and Human Rights in India

I am delighted to have been called upon by the publisher to write an editorial note for the Social Justice and Human Rights in India, a series of articles dealing with different issues of human rights. While I am writing this editorial note, I am conscious of vast and multifarious areas of human rights. The movement for integration of international standards into the mainstream human rights law has been ever increasing. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a comprehensive international human rights law embracing many international instruments has been created. The concept of human rights is often criticised because of its individualistic character, emphasizing rights rather than responsibilities. The relation between human rights and justice has proved to be controversial, however. When we look into the progress of social justice over the years, we come across a slow and steady transformation of moral clauses into positive rights and greater assertion of protection of human rights.