Suggested activities. сWrite down all the unanimous decisions of the judges.

с Write down all the unanimous decisions of the judges.

d Translate the other two decisions into Russian.

e Repeat what the opinion of the British judge was.

f What's your opinion?

g Agree or disagree and substantiate your point of view: The Tyrer case seems to be a storm in a tea-cup.

h Discussion in class. Be ready to discuss with your group mates the following topics:

• The most important human rights.

• International organisations defending human rights.

Section 2: The 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights

Text 1

December 10 1998 marked the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since 1948, the idea embodied in that document helped accelerate the independence movements in the developing world and triggered the civil rights revolution in the Western world. It provided legitimacy for the struggle against tyranny all over the world and played a crucial role in bringing down some undesirable regimes. Not a bad record for one idea. Only the concept of individual liberty at the end of the 18th century and of equality 100 years later have exerted a comparable impact on mankind. And whereas the political application of the original ideas of liberty and equality resulted in more exploitation, dictatorships and bloodshed, the idea of human rights secured for a great part of mankind orderly freedom, equality before the law and more equal opportunities than humanity had ever had before.

And yet a funereal aura hovered about that year's celebrations. For the industrialized West, expanding exports to China seem to be more important than defending the human rights of its citizens. In the post-communist world many former dissidents who entered politics have traded their interest in human rights for support of " law and order" and, quite often, populist, anti-minority positions. Even in the United States a growing number of politicians perceive human rights as a subversive liberal idea fueling to many demands for guaranteed benefits and for toleration of nonconformist behaviour at home and resulting in too many costly adventures abroad.

The very idea of human rights is complex. In fact, an international consensus has never formed as to what the concept includes. During the cold war, the West stressed civil liberties and political rights enforceable by courts. Communist regimes emphasized social and economic rights. It seemed for a while that the political definition had emerged victorious, but in the past decade leaders of third world countries have formulated a new variant - the «right to development», which consists of a claim to the transfer of resources, capital and technology from rich Northern countries to poor Southern ones.

§ Vocabulary notes