ABSTRACT
This book owes a great debt to human rights scholars and practitioners who have written earlier guides to the UN human rights system. Without their contributions to the field this book could not have been written. This account, however, departs considerably from traditional approaches to the study of the UN human rights system, both in content and in methodology. It includes many topics and actors not often considered in an introductory guide, and offers familiar topics under a new organizational structure. This book proceeds from a new orientation to the UN to human rights practice more generally. Why the difference? The evolving content of human rights, the growing diversity of actors of the UN human rights system and the changing nature of human rights practice reflect a shift in the way in which the UN human rights system has tended to address human rights challenges.
