This week saw the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although immense progress has been made in those 60 years toward the aim of universal respect for fundamental rights, it is often asserted that major setbacks have occurred in the area of civil liberties over the last eight years or so. While these setbacks are often down to state action, or perhaps due to lack thereof, it may be called into question whether the international bodies set up to secure the respect for human rights have done enough themselves. Maybe it was such concerns that led Ban…