Human Rights and Social Policy in the 21st Century: A History of the Idea of Human Rights and Comparison of the United Nations Universal Declaration

This volume traces the history and practice of human rights from ancient times until the present. It identifies major sources and stages of this quest, which has culminated in this century in the unopposed adoption, by the United Nation, of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration is gradually being perceived as customary international law and as a standard by which the policies and practices of different societies ought to be guided and judged. An important aspect of Dr Wronka's study is a comparison of human rights as defined by the United Declaration on the one hand, and by the Constitutions of the United States and its 50 States on the other. This comparison reveals significant gaps between the standards of the Universal Declaration and those of the American Constitution, and the policies and practices based on them.