When America walks again in the big footprints of Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Jackson, law...will reassert itself as an instrument for peace, justice, security, freedom, equality, and human dignity.
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour ponders international human rights including its philosophy, ideas, and future. Her extensive legal background includes former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and a Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. This international account hopes to extend the human rights blueprints created in part by activists Eleanor Roosevelt and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Jackson.
Louise Arbour explores the history of international human rights, from the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) over sixty years ago to the current ideologies and necessary steps to ensure progress. The United States has adopted the UDHR but continues to remain a secondary player after refusing to join the 47-member UN Human Rights Council and the Rome Treaty creating the International Criminal Court. Arbour sees human rights as an undervalued topic requiring more concrete guidelines by the UN and greater involvement internationally.