Peace, Justice and Freedom: Human Rights Challenges for the New Millennium

Joseph Garcea is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan.

This book is the product of papers prepared and presented by leading
human-rights analysts and advocates from various countries, including
Canada, at a conference held on the 50th anniversary of the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The papers are organized
into 16 thematic sections that cover various dimensions of the
human-rights phenomenon.

There are sections on crimes against humanity and infringements on the
human rights of indigenous people, refugees, women, gays and lesbians,
religious groups, the disabled, the poor, children, journalists, and
activists dedicated to advancing various human rights, as well as
political rights and freedoms. The book also touches on the implications
of biotechnology for the right to life and the implications of war for
the right to life and the right to peace. The principal value of the
articles, which are relatively short, is the sense they provide of the
multifaceted nature of human rights and the numerous ways they are
infringed on a daily basis throughout the world, including in Canada.
The book is a timely reminder that, notwithstanding claims that we live
in a civilized postmodern world, we have in fact not progressed much
beyond the middle ages on the human-rights front.