The first 50 years of the human rights movement were hindered by the Cold War.

With that hindrance removed, the 1990's were a period of growth and improvement

in human rights law and institutions. Since 2001, the period has been marked

by preoccupations regarding terrorism: the latter has taken much attention and

energy away from other human rights problems. We live a world order in which

some sovereign states beat primary powers and responsibilities in the life of their

populations. Success in promoting human rights requires hard-to-achieve success in

other areas including building more capable, responsive, efficient, and non-corrupt

governments, dealing with failed states, increasing economic productivity, improving

the power and status of women, improving education, and managing international

tensions and conflicts. Even if there are some grounds for optimism, making sure that

human rights are respected worldwide will take centuries, not decades...

How to think through and implement human rights and individual sovereignty

imperatives? How to address the demands of international justice and the rights

associated with them? How to implement a multilateral culture without having it

become a tool of Western extension and colonization? How to handle the effects of

the paradox of contemporary democratic culture? Dealing with such Human rights

and State responsibility problematics, Nasser Zammit signs a major reflexion about

the globalized post-2001 world.