ABSTRACT
Since the end of World War II human rights has become a major issue in world politics and “the single most magnetic political idea of the contemporary time,” in the words of former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Yet the politics of human rights cannot be explained by realism or other dominant international relations theories. The United Nations (UN) has played a key role in the process of globalizing human rights. States have seldom been prime movers in this process, although their acceptance and support for human rights is clearly critical. Certain events have also been critical to the UN’s role in the development of human rights, particularly when the communications revolution has magnified their impact. The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the downfall of Communist regimes there and in Eastern Europe liberated international efforts to promote human rights from the ideological conflict and propaganda campaigns of the Cold War.
