Emerging states-The next 60 years on human rights

The United Nations University (UNU) brought emerging thinkers together this week at UN headquarters to examine human rights law in the next 60 years. The briefing was organized as a follow up to the 60th anniversary celebrations of  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being held around the world.

Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and Jean-Marc Coicaud, head of the UNU in New York, proposed re-examining human rights law and the fundamental components for democratic self-government, civil rights and economic sufficiency. They suggested that continuous efforts by civil society -NGO’s (non-governmental organizations, local groups), could counteract damaging forces like the WTO (World Trade Organization) and IMF (International Monetary Fund) that often work to reduce the value of currency in developing countries and leave many governments in the hands of Western powers due to foreign aid debt.

Pogge underscored that international human rights law policy must be geared towards protecting individuals from the actions of the state. He argued that human rights initiatives in countries must be better developed to meet these growing human security challenges.

The UNU is a think-tank of the UN system and generates policy research on global issues on the UN agenda and serves as an intellectual and policy-bridge among the UN system, member-states and NGO’s and academia. Its headquarters are in Tokyo.