There is obviously a wide gap between the promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the real world of human-rights violations. In so far as we sympathize with the victims, we may criticize the UN and its member governments for failing to keep their promises. ( ① ) However, we cannot understand the gap between human-rights ideals and the real world of human-rights violations by sympathy or by legal analysis. ( ② ) Rather, it requires investigation by the various social sciences of the causes of social conflict and political oppression, and of the interaction between national and international politics. ( ③ ) The UN introduced the concept of human rights into international law and politics. ( ④ ) It is a leading feature of the human-rights field that the governments of the world proclaim human rights but have a highly variable record of implementing them. ( ⑤ ) We must understand why this is so.

* oppression: 억압