Citation

Mendelson SE. Wash. Q. 2009; 32(2): 103.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Georgetown University, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/01636600902773313

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

About a month before the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the United States elected its first African-American president, Barack Obama. This historic event, a fitting milestone, brings to life that declaration, which human rights activists and legal scholars regard as the sacred text.1 Obama’s election fulfills a dream of the U.S. civil rights movement, a struggle that relied as much on the UDHR as on the courage of the men and women who for decades fought to make the United States a 'more perfect union.' For human rights defenders around the world, its significance cannot be overstated.

Despite this singular achievement, the mood in the secular temple of human rights these days is generally somber and introspective. Obama’s election comes after eight years of declining U.S. leadership in human rights and international law. In nearly two dozen interviews conducted from September to November 2008 with activists, scholars, and critics of the human rights movement, several contended that the UDHR in 2008 would never have been adopted by 48 states as it was in 1948. Many lamented its still-aspirational quality and the continued marginality of human rights.