Human rights run the risk of becoming victims of their own success. Well-meaning attempts to expand their meaning and scope often distort their purpose and feed into the views of critics who assert that human rights are Western or neocolonial. The only meaningful definition of human rights is found in international human rights law, which gains its legitimacy from the fact that the vast majority of countries in the world have freely and formally accepted wide-ranging legal obligations to protect rights. While states vary greatly in the seriousness with which they attempt to fulfill these obligations, they are nonetheless bound by legal norms that are distinct from political statements by diplomats, civil society, academics, experts, and others. A proper understanding of the potential and the limits of law will ensure that human rights remain relevant in the 21st century.