Human rights in the European Union and the Euro-Mediterranean partnership

Abstract

In recent years, human rights have received increasing attention in political and academic spheres as a basis for international pol icy. Very often, international diplomacy is carried out in the lan guage of human rights, and the press maintains a central role in publicising human rights violations. Not only do politicians ap peal to universal standards of human rights, but organisations have been founded to document and assess human rights cases. Although almost five decades ago the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a universal ex pression of human rights doctrine, it remains a highly contentious issue in current world politics. It is tragic but true that the inter national community has not yet been able to find effective ways of preventing or solving gross human rights violations.