The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (henceforth UDHR) is both a point of arrival and a point of departure regarding our contemporary understanding of human rights. As a point of arrival, the UDHR is the result of an attempt to collate the “wisdom of the ages,” in order to find the best way to ensure the protection of the rights of all—especially after the atrocities committed during the two world wars.

As an introductory course on contemporary challenges in international human rights law, the course is designed to offer basic insights on various topics.  Students are encouraged to do further reading so as to deepen and expand their appreciation of the complexity that characterises the various topics.

Often legislation is based on the consensus of the majority feeling of a group of people rather than on solid philosophical and theological arguments. This frequently leads to superficial legislation with short term benefits for a group of people, but long-term misery for all. The author of this book provides us with a foundation upon which healthy legislation can be built.

Human dignity based on the concepts of the image of God and Christ’s redemption becomes the basis for human rights debate from a Christian theological perspective. It is in the community of the human family that a human person realizes his/her being the imago Dei.

The notion of human rights refers to the norms, basic rights and freedom that protect people from political, economic, legal, and social abuses or unjustified infringements. There is clearly a profuse assertion of rights which individuals, groups and institutions make. Today, people encounter claims of rights frequently and in a greater variety than before. The main aim of this section is to help one understand the concept of “rights”. Having dealt with the notion of “rights” itself, this section will explore the categories and forms of rights in general. The section will conclude by discussing the concept of human rights.