Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A PATH LEAST TAKEN: ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS AND THE PROSPECTS OF CONFLICT PREVENTION AND PEACEBUILDING IN AFRICA

2003; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0221855303001974

0021-8553

Shedrack C. Agbakwa,

Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the initiators of the UN system and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) were convinced that respect for human rights and the dignity of the individual was essential to peace and conflict prevention. Perhaps, this was a realistic assessment of events informed by the experience of the failure of interwar agreements to protect especially minorities from genocidal butchery and dehumanization. Human rights was therefore seen as a primary means of conflict prevention and of promoting peaceful coexistence. Having evolved into a formidable global moral and political language of our time, human rights has since become the battle cry of many oppressed persons or groups.