Interesting article. I knew a bit about the split between the covenants of civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights, but for example I didn't know the right to self-determination was introduced thanks to the Soviet Union.
A funny thing about the article is that it is not especially favourable to the Soviet Union--it reproduces the usual uncritical clichés--but even that makes liberals really annoyed.
There's a very good report to the UN Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in the Palestinian occupied territories, numbered as A/HRC/55/73, which has a very good section on human shields.