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Studies on international human rights had amorphous beginnings before 1945, which gradually evolved into an intricate but "untrodden area of systematic research." This is largely attributed to the adoption of the United Nations Charter which sets forth the international protection of human rights as a basic purpose. The proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in December 10, 1948, provided the impetus for the development of new rules of international law defining in specific terms, individual rights and freedoms. The result is not only a substantial and rapidly developing body of law, both substantive and procedural, that has called for a systematic scholarly analysis but a bibliographic output on the subject which has reached alarming proportions to what is now being referred to as "the human rights documentation explosion."

Relationships between human rights & development issues have not often been considered. Any successful integration of these issues must find a common denominator between them; recognition as essential rights of liberty & democracy on the one hand, & basic economic needs on the other, offers one, & development oriented toward fulfillment of minimum needs is an appropriate strategy for relating human rights to development. Basic rights for all societies include the right to take part in elections, the right to employment, & the right to movement & assembly; these rights can be mutually supportive. Western systems of political pluralism do not offer a valid way for Third World nations to meet economic goals; & many Western nations are themselves now in the midst of economic & political crises that may well lead to corporatism. Marxism, on the other hand, does not provide basic political rights. Thus, neither viewpoint offers a valid approach to human rights for leaders of the Third World. The only model that meets all the needs of Third World societies is that proposed by Mohandas Gandhi, based on the leadership of a moral elite in the creation of a decentralized democracy. W. H. Stoddard.

On 15 June this year an international conference opened in Belgrade with the aim of reviewing the progress made since September 1975 by the 35 signatories of the Helsinki Declaration on Détente and Cooperation in Europe, an important part of which is the so-called Basket Three dealing with human and civil rights. The Yugoslav authorities, who are playing hosts to the conference, continue to deny accusations of human rights infringements, such as the treatment - and indeed the very existence - of political prisoners in their country. Evidence of these infringements in Yugoslavia is provided in the three articles that follow. The first is an 'Open Letter' sent to the Yugoslav authorities before the Belgrade conference by Akim Djilas, a younger brother of the best-known Yugoslav dissident, Milovan Djilas. The section also includes an account of political trials and persecution in Slovenia, and finally some excerpts from a book by the Croatian poet Mirko Vidovic who spent five years in Yugoslav prisons before being released thanks to diplomatic representations by the French government. In his book, The Hidden Face of the Moon, Vidovic describes his treatment at the hands of the Yugoslav secret police and gives an interesting account of the hunger strike organised by himself and Mihailo Mihajlov.

HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS CONSIDERED "LIBERAL" CONDEMN ETHIOPIAN MILITARY LEADERS ON MORAL AND LEGAL GROUNDS YET EXCLUDE POLITICAL REALITIES. THE MORAL AND LEGAL ARGUMENTS ARE SPECIOUS SINCE THESE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS REMAINED SILENT IN THE PAST, AND REST THEIR LEGAL ARGUMENTS ON CHARTERS WHICH ARE STILL OPEN TO POLITICAL INTERPRETATION.