“Fifty Years of Success” could be the headline for the celebration of the anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966. Human rights have been the most dominant driver of change in the post-Second World War period and particularly since the end of the cold war in 1989. In this article, Morten Kjaerum outlines the impact the Covenants have had on the pursuit of human rights worldwide and the path forward at a time when the human rights regime is being challenged.
