In 2018 we commemorate the 70 years of the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, within the United Nations and the Organizations of American States, respectively. Both instruments represented a milestone in articulating, from a legal standpoint, core human rights to be applied to all people. Even if initially adopted as aspirational documents, both Declarations have reshaped the debate on the protection of human rights at the international and regional levels and influenced the debate on the implementation of these rights in domestic jurisdictions. The panel, made up of distinguished experts with long-standing experience in international human rights law, will discuss the impact that these instruments have had in the development of the international human rights movement and assess to what extent they continue to empower seeking respect for their basic human rights.
Speakers:
Tom Buergenthal, Lobingier Professor Emeritus of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence, George Washington University
Margarette May Macaulay, President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Robert K. Goldman Professor of Law and Louis C. James Scholar, American University Washington College of Law
Moderator: Elizabeth Andersen, Director, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative