A Dictionary of Human Rights

Robertson attributes the increased legal and political concern for human (or civil) rights in the post‐Second World War period to two main factors. First, the United Nations and constitution makers in the Federal Republic of Germany, and elsewhere, were able to start afresh. Constantly before them was recent history which provided convincing evidence that internal suppression and disrespect of human rights brought major international repercussions. It was as if the horrors of attempted (and almost successful) genocide in National Socialist Germany focussed many countries’ attention on their own human rights record. Similarly, the condemnation of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe,...