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Comment on this article   The relationship between globalization and human rights is problematic. Under globalization human rights may “have become part of the discourse in all societies, speaking to both the elites and the oppressed, to institutions and to communities” ( McCorquodale and Fairbrother 1999 :740), but at the same time substantial questions concerning the impact of global transformations on the implementation, enforcement, and understanding of human rights have emerged, both in terms of the formal regime and of human rights as a concept. This essay examines literature concerning the variety of perceived impacts of globalization on human rights, laying out as far as possible the major contemporary intellectual and social dimensions of this relationship. Three responses to the economic, political, and social transformations of globalization within the human rights literature are outlined. First, globalization is considered by some as complementary to the progressive realization of universal human rights on a global scale. The evidence put forward for this position is the extension and deepening of the formal human rights regime through international institutions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the emergence of new private, corporate forms of authority. Second, others perceive of globalization as creating substantial challenges for the realization of ... log in or subscribe to read full text