Human rights are an important and popular subject. Since 1948 the international human rights movement has become a major force, and has produced important changes in international law. But apart from individual human rights, claims have long been made to collective rights, for example, minority rights, the rights of peoples under colonial rule and aboriginal rights.
More recently claims have been made to a number of ""rights of peoples"", including rights of an economic kind - the right to development, for example, or to permanent sovereignty over natural resources. Some claims are even more ambitious - for example, the right to peace, or to a healthy environment.;It has been argued that these peoples' rights form a ""third generation"" of human rights. This development is recognized in the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights of 1981.
The essays in this volume discuss, from a variety of perspectives, the claims made for a generation of peoples' rights. The volume also includes a documentary appendix with details of relevant texts.