ABSTRACT
Human rights has become one of the dominant moral and political discourses in the world today. Pessimism about the legitimacy and effectiveness of human rights law, institutions, and movements pervades scholarly and policy debates. Many attacks on the legitimacy of human rights are based on the faulty premise that human rights ideas emerged in the Global North and were imposed on the Global South. Scholars and activists disagree about the effectiveness of human rights because they use different yardsticks and data to measure progress. One of the main ways that governments and scholars attack the legitimacy of human rights law, institutions, and movements is to portray them as foreign or anti-national. Latin American states and other small states and NGOs were decisive is securing the human rights language in the UN Charter, often in opposition to the great powers.
