International Journal of Legal Information: Volume 10 -

Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Roger S. Clark
Published online by Cambridge University Press:

28 February 2019, pp. 287-307
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The award of the 1981 Nobel Peace Prize to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has again focused attention on an organ that has received surprisingly little analysis in the scholarly literature. In what follows, after some preliminary remarks about the needs and rights of refugees, I plan to discuss (1) the mandate and functions of the Office, (2) the types of projects in which it is currently engaged (through an examination of the High Commissioner's 1980–81 Report), and then, (3) to make some comments about the significance of the diplomatic protection functions of the Office to conceptions of international law and organization.

Why and How Human Rights
S. Prakash Sinha
Published online by Cambridge University Press:

28 February 2019, pp. 308-319
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The existing state of human beings, to which the present international movement for human rights addresses itself, is no reason for applause for the success of that movement. It is true that there are several reasons for the lack of success and not all blame is to be borne by the deficiencies in the present approach. True also is the fact that the struggle for protection of the human being from excesses of the state or powerful elements within society is a continuing saga of organized society with only the promise that the struggle and its causes have more of an enduring existence than the various efforts for seeking protection for the human being attempted in the history of mankind, of which human-rights is one instance. However, to the extent it is legitimate to explore if improvements in the present approach are possible, one might well be permitted to raise anew questions about the philosophical foundation for human rights and the pragmatic approach to their achievement.