This thesis is an examination of the lack of effective global human rights observation in spite of the exalted status of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights as a universal standard of achievement. In actual state practice, global human rights implementation remains weak, to say the least. It is my aim, on the one hand, to pro~de an explanation of the continued lack ofhuman rights implementation and, on the other hand, to assess the nature and limitations ofthe nOIlI1ative dimension ofhuman rights. Human rights, as asserted by the U.N. Declaration, representliberal and secular standards which are arguably parochial and thus open to the challenge that they areneither representative of, nor compatible with, non-Western ?ultural values. FurtheIlI1ore, the human .rights articulated by the Universal Declaration give rise to a partisan mandat~ which is difficult to reconcile with the in4erently pluralist :J;Unction of a predominantly positive, voluntarist and horizontal international legal system grounded in Westphalian sovereignty. Yet, a structurally revised set offundamental human rights can nevertheless be coherently • defended to constitute a standard ofciviliZation in international law, a peremptoryjus. cogens. The pursuit of an international law representative ofhuman progress must acknowledge that the agency of every individual is a factor worthy ofinternational legal protection in the interest ofthe international community as a whole. Fundamental human rights nOIlI1S transcend the entrenched sanctity ofsovereignty and large scale violations of fundamental human rights must accordingly be remedied by virtue of humanitarian intervention.