Cry of the Oppressed: The History and Hope of the Human Rights Revolution

Comparing the human rights movement to the Magna Carta and the abolition of slavery, one of its most eloquent advocatesa Jesuit priest, former congressman, Georgetown University professor of law and author of God and Caesar on the Potomac, among other bookstraces the movement's dramatic growth since the 1945 adoption of the United Nations human rights covenants. Ratified by 160 nations, but never by the U.S., these universal moral standards transcend all national and local laws and apply to all individuals regardless of race and gender. Violations are monitored and vigorously protested by dozens of nongovernmental legal, academic, scientific and religious groupsAmnesty International, Freedom House, Americas Watch and Helsinki Watch, among them. Other watchdog groups are the 19-nation European Convention and Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and similar regional organizations in South America and Africa. Drinan deplores the Reagan administration's scuttling of President Carter's efforts on behalf of human rights and stresses the need for a permanent international criminal court and a UN high commissioner for human rights. (November 25)