ABSTRACT
Activities at the international level designed to protect and promote human rights have a history going back well over a century and a half. Except on very limited issues and for limited territories, however, the most extensive and impressive developments in this area have occurred since World War II. Activities of the United Nations in particular have undergone considerable growth, with the UN General Assembly playing an important role in this growth. A number of recent studies discuss the expanding UN tasks in the area of human rights, but most have been either moral and philosophical in orientation or essentially descriptions of events and specific measures! Except on a highly impressionistic basis, few serious efforts have been made to determine the extent to which a consensus has
1The author is indebted to the University of Connecticut Research Foundation for financial assistance; to William Waggoner for programming; and to the University Computer Center for use of the IBM 360. The Computer Center receives the support of National Science Foundation Grant GJ9.
