ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a presentation 'NGOs in Transition: the Teeming World of the International Human Rights Movement', at the International Symposium on the Development of Social Organizations in China, Beijing Since 1978, November 2008, organized by the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Law School of Utrecht University. It is interesting to note that in the world of sports, many national and international bodies exercise great executive and quasi-judicial powers although they are 'just' NGOs are, of course, non-governmental. A short and easy answer to the question of what constitutes the main area of work of the international human rights movement is the universal human rights as laid down in 'The International Bill of Human Rights'. it does not address the issue that many government officials, including those in China, have in mind when they describe human rights as a 'Western' or 'foreign' product, alien to their culture.
