Nightmare and Noble Dream: The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights

This article examines the relationship between different visions expressed in the World Conference on Human Rights which took place in Vienna in June 1993. Much of the Conference was devoted to the drafting of a final statement, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. The Declaration addresses a great many aspects of human rights law and practice and it is not possible here to anvass all of them. Instead, attention will be focused on five issues that figured prominently in debate at the Conference: (i) the universality of human rights; (ii) the relationship between different human rights and between human rights and development and democracy; (iii) women's rights as human rights; (iv) institutional reform within the UN human rights system; and (v) the role of non-governmental organizations.