ABSTRACT
In the fifty years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international action has moved from human rights standard-setting and promotion to the protection of human rights through the development of a nexus of global, regional, and national mechanisms. Clear connections have been made between human rights and correlative duties to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill human rights. The interrelatedness, interdependence, and indivisibility of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights has been recognized. The challenge is now to enter what United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called “an age of prevention,” 1 including prevention of human rights violations that, in many cases, spur violent conflicts and tragic devastation.
