Human Rights at a Crossroads? Experts Discuss What's Next for the International Human Rights System

On Thursday, October 31, 2019, the WJP was pleased to participate in a panel event in partnership with the American Society of International Law discussing what ails the human rights movement today and how the international human rights system should respond. 

The international human rights agenda has come under attack from critics both outside and inside the system. While it has proven largely effective in establishing new norms over decades of development and contestation, some worry it has become too broad and diffuse to have real traction, particularly in an era of rising nationalism and majoritarian populism. The United States, for example, a leader in crafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has recently established a Commission on Unalienable Rights to provide "fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation's founding principles of natural law and natural rights."

In his new book, Rescuing Human Rights: A Radically Moderate Approach, Prof. Hurst Hannum proposed an approach rooted in international legal principles that he believes may be the better way to shore up international human rights compliance. Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of WJP, moderated a discussion with Hannum and experts from both sides of the spectrum on what the response to ongoing challenges to the human rights system should be. Watch the discussion from October 31, 2019 below.