Read more
In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council created the mandate of the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order. This book, based on the reports by Dr. Alfred de Zayas, the first mandate-holder (2012-2018), offers a brilliant and comprehensive critique of the UN system, addressing the changes that must be made in order to further the emergence of a democratic and equitable international order. De Zayas proposes concrete reforms of the UN system, notably the Security Council. He advocates recognition of peace as a human right, slashing military budgets, and establishing the right of self-determination as a conflict-prevention measure. As it concerns the global economy, he calls for reversing the adverse impacts of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies, rendering free-trade agreements compatible with human rights, abolishing tax havens and ISDS, alleviating the foreign debt crisis, and criminalizing war-profiteers and pandemic vultures. He denounces unilateral coercive measures, economic sanctions and financial blockades, because they demonstrably have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
About the author
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is a former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order (2012-18), former senior lawyer with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee and Chief of the Petitions Department (registrar). Zayas grew up in Chicago, holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D., modern history from University of Gottingen, Fulbright Graduate Fellow in Germany. Retired member of the New York and Florida Bar, author of 9 books and more than 200 scholarly articles. He lives in Geneva.
