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This seminar focuses on the role of international law in the promotion and protection of human and people's rights the world over, a world that was once referred to as "our global neighborhood" by the Commission on Global Governance. It grapples with the concepts, histories and policies that are relevant to the international legal protection of human and peoples' rights and seeks to locate, engage, and understand the underlying economic, socio-cultural and political forces that shaped, and continue to shape, both international human rights law and the world in which it operates. It reflects on the following questions: We live in a world that is at once deeply multicultural and patently unequal, a world that is divided inter alia by race, gender, culture, and class—given these particularities, can the "international" accommodate the "local”?; Why is the "international" an important element in the protection of human and peoples' rights?; and How (and to what extent) is "law" relevant to the international protection of human rights—why do we not just resort to politics. Literature including African, Asian, Islamic, European, and Inter-American perspectives will be examined, as will global and regional-level international normative texts, processes, and institutions that have been established to advance the cause of the international protection of human and peoples' rights. We will attempt to understand the nature of their design, their functions, and their effectiveness. Our focus will be on the various global texts, norms, and institutions that exist, as well as on the African, European, and Inter-American Systems for the protection of human and peoples' rights. Lessons for both international human rights theory and practice that are decipherable from our examination of the literature and seminar discussions will be analyzed with a focus on the practice of international human rights activism by states, groups, and individuals.