I had looked forward to reading the book as it looked like a comprehensive coverage of NGO activity in the area of human rights and the UN. While giving substantive coverage on the committees and bodies of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Korey omitted any mention of the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, or the work of the NGOs in this very important area. The inclusion of this subject would have given the book a more balanced and scholarly appeal.

In this book, William Korey deftly describes how NGO's, the Non-Governmental Organizations officially accredited to the United Nations, have had a powerful influence in sensitizing mankind's conscience to the frequent violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted by the UN fifty years ago. It was the NGO's which laid the groundwork for the destruction of the Soviet Empire, as well as the Apartheid system in South Africa, and established the principle of accountability for crimes against humanity. In this book, William Korey has demonstrated that is the NGO's which have placed human rights at the the heart of humankinds current and future agenda.