The world of 2008 is a vastly different place to that of 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was first adopted. Sixty years on, political ideologies have come and gone. The 58 members of the UN are now 192. And the revolution in travel and communications technologies means that people worldwide are more aware of not only their rights, but also the freedoms that others enjoy.

We still face huge challenges in upholding the UDHR, as 2008 showed. The year was punctuated by human rights related crises. In Zimbabwe, the spring elections saw a peak in the regime's campaign of systematic and targeted violence. The war in Georgia in August was a painful reminder of the threat that conflict still poses to human rights in Europe. Then the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November killed over 170 people, and the crisis in Gaza at the end of the year brought yet more human suffering.