In his Human Rights article, Richard Falk perceives the concept of human rights as a cornerstone for the international community. However, recently the concept has acquired the regional flavor becoming split into Islamic, European or American. The situation with the protection of the universal rights considerably worsened after 9/11 mishap. The world changed and so the real mechanisms of the human rights protection. The author reflects on the recipes for maintaining human dignity and objects the conventional belief that all persons aspire to the same human rights.

While since 1948, the UN Declaration of Human Rights has been acknowledged on a worldwide scale, the declaration grounds on a rather general framework assuming limitless interpretations. The conceptual erosion is generated by a popular misconception that human rights are solely Western invention. Many non-Westerners hold that the Declaration fails to adequately balance the promoted human rights with Asian and Islamic Values. Consequently, we are now facing the situation of rivaling regional identities for the human rights with all possible regional distinctions. The author argues that such diversity will complicate the objective measurements of the human rights protection and substantially eliminate the principle of universality.

In Measuring Human Rights: Principle, Practice, and Policy article, Todd Landman emphasizes the vitality of measuring human rights and the enhancement of the measurement approaches. While the author provides feasible measurements of civil and political rights, he argues that human rights are the subject to any measurement in empirical terms and as a result of government policy.

According to the author, the measurement approaches are based on legal documents, events-based evidence, survey-based data, and aggregate criteria. The core strategic advantage for the objective human rights measurement will, therefore, consist in dissemination of and accessibility to legal instruments for the human rights protection.