Human Rights

Human rights advocates are preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first comprehensive charter of individual freedoms. Fifty years later, most of the world's countries have ratified a series of binding treaties committing them to respect key civil, political, social and economic rights. Human rights advocates say that conditions have improved since 1948 and that the U.N.'s human rights machinery has been strengthened. But they also say that flagrant abuses continue to occur in countries throughout the world. The United States itself has been criticized for failing to ratify many human rights treaties and for opposing a new proposal to create an International Criminal Court for serious human rights violations.