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Article: Never heard of them: human rights. (United Nations conference planned for June 14, 1993)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- June 12, 1993
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE idea was to give the United Nations more power to promote and protect human rights. Some 5,000 delegates, official and non-official, are meeting in Vienna from June 14th for a two-week conference. But all that this vast talkfest will reveal, or so it is feared, is that the world cannot even agree on what human rights are.
The draft final document, ground out after endless confabulations, is a sad thing that reveals the depth of disagreement. Though mercifully short, it is signally lacking in concrete proposals; large parts of it, including all the interesting bits, are in brackets to show that there was no consensus in letting them through; alternative chunks of ...