To lead, not follow: shaping the future of human rights

Ten years on from the tragedy and horror of 9/11, the world has witnessed some retreat from the values and principles that many had thought were firmly established. The universal prohibition of torture was one such principle, but it has been seriously breached in the ‘war on terror’ that has dominated geopolitics in the last decade. It has brought renewed disputes between those cast as defenders of terror and those who defend the world from those that would destroy civilisation as we have come to know it. This recent polarisation of the world has re-formed some old battles, both political and developmental, and has not spared the Commonwealth.