De Profundis..................................................................................................................... [5]
A Few Thankful Thoughts............................................................................................. [9]
Table of Cases................................................................................................................. [31]
1 Exordium 1–37
Infrastructure, access, aid, enforcement.................................................... 11
Unpropitius environs for human justice..................................................... 11
Disturbance is not abroad but it has laid hold of men’s minds.............. 13
A brief reflection on the human person...................................................... 16
The World War and after.............................................................................. 24
A glimpse of the past...................................................................................... 29
The current decadence................................................................................... 31
2 Human Rights Conceptual and Historical Reflections 38–55
Human rights instrumentalities.................................................................... 47
3 The Sega of Homo Sapiens and Omega of Human Rights 56–88
The violent world shocks humanity............................................................ 67
Pre-World War I chronicle of human rights—
embryonic emergence.................................................................................... 67
The French People’s demand to freedom.................................................. 72
The Impact of the French Revolution on the
Indian Freedom Movement.......................................................................... 76
The white world expansionism..................................................................... 81
An aside............................................................................................................ 82
4 Epistemological Foundation and Escalating Emergence of
Human Rights Jurisprudence .................................................................... 89–113
Hugo Grotius and secularisation of natural law........................................ 96
Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, its variations and human rights................. 102
The codification of human rights over the centuries................................ 104
The reeds at Runnymede.............................................................................. 107
5 Religions, Culture and Human Rights 114–138
Ancient Hindu law and human rights......................................................... 115
Christianity and humanity............................................................................ 121
The great plague: The masses are awake................................................... 125
Islam and human justice: some noble facets............................................ 127
Religion, the other side................................................................................... 136
6 The United Nations and its Structure: Whence, Whither
and What Hope for Human Rights? .................................................... 139–163
The golden jubilee of the UN: what is the prognosis................................ 155
7 Human Rights Revisited and United Nations Incarnates 164–187
Human rights: a peep into the past............................................................. 175
The League of Nation: a transitional phase.............................................. 183
8 Columbus, Gama and Colonial Domination of
Common People’s Rights 188–200
Asia and Gama............................................................................................... 191
Conclusion....................................................................................................... 196
9 Human Rights Realities in India—Prospects of an
Asian Charter, Other Continental Experiments 201–225
A rapid global survey of human rights instruments.................................. 208
Asian charter: a few more reflections......................................................... 210
Western science and human rights.............................................................. 213
Other experiments in regional charters........................................................ 215
Economic foundations of human rights..................................................... 216
10 The Dimensions of the Right to Development
as a Human Right ..................................................................................... 226–238
Conclusion....................................................................................................... 235
An Omega thought......................................................................................... 237
11 Basics of Judicial Independence and Defence of
Human Rights ........................................................................................... 239–267
A brief global tour........................................................................................... 246
U.S. and U.K.: how conditioned is the system?......................................... 251
The British System.......................................................................................... 255
Global norms and risks revisited.................................................................. 260
An aside............................................................................................................ 263
Back to the Desai Commission.................................................................... 264
12 Current Indian Realities vis-a-vis People’s Human Rights 268–310
A divagation.................................................................................................... 292
Nuclear menace to life................................................................................... 293
Mass disasters and jejune jurisprudence plus health justice................... 297
WHO Constitution (Premble)........................................................................ 300
Covention on the rights of the child............................................................ 300
African charter on human and people’s rights.......................................... 300
Convention on the elimination of all forms of
racial discrimination....................................................................................... 300
Convention on the elimination of all forms of
discrimination against women...................................................................... 301
13 Liberty—A Non-negotiable Value ......................................................... 311–343
Human rights of prisoners and sentencing jurisprudence........................ 313
Sentencing pluralism, social realism and judicial wisdom....................... 323
Death sentence on death sentence.............................................................. 329
14 Last Lecture—The Tale of Ten Cities ................................................... 344?366
Proclamation of Teheran.............................................................................. 345
The Hague: the humanitarian justice capital of the world..................... 346
The march of law after World War II......................................................... 350
Rio de Janeiro and its divine message......................................................... 351
Vienna: the well-spring of a new hope........................................................ 354
15 A Sombre Supplement 367–384
What then is the therapeutic ministration?................................................ 378
Asian human rights: some efforts 380
