10 December 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundation of an international bill of rights crafted in the wake of the Second World War. Over the ensuing years the Declaration has for many become the yardstick by which to measure human behavior and progress. While the power of the human rights idea is difficult to weigh and appraise, this symposium reflects critically on the influence of the UDHR in international and domestic law, politics and affairs over the last sixty years. With keynote speeches by Arthur Chaskalson and Mary Robinson, the symposium will address questions concerning the state of the international human rights movement today; the influence of the Declaration as law; the place of human rights in the global economy; the growing practice of economic and social rights; women, power and politics; the claims of culture and religion; and international human rights as ideology.
Sponsored by the International & Comparative Law Program and the Women, Leadership & Equality Program.