binding treaties and covenants promoting rights through edUcatio 1 enhancing rights through advisory services in the field for those whn expanding activities to break the former culture of impunity TOgetheo

raillions of people gain their independence and aSSlsted unknown nUm_ by preventing abuses securing freedom from torture or prison acquir_ monitoring bodies and humanitarian aid and obtaining national and legal protections for their rights In addition they inspired national Conshylonal intergovernmental organizations and states to use the observance f human rights by others as a criterion for their policies In almost every endeavors reference was made to the Universal Declaration of Human tomary international law and the power of its vision to change the ed its impact led the British Broadcasting Corporation news to describe Declaration as nothing short of our centurys greatest achievementIy these many actions however impressive most certainly did not complete

I The remarkable successes most certainly did not eliminate all gaps ry and practice abolish all abuses eradicate all resistance or solve all r this reason when ten million signatures were submitted to SecretaryshyAnnan from Ghana on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Unishyation of Human Rights they acknowledged honestly that the struggle ue 137

pter 9 Continuing Evolution

I have walked that long road to freedom But I have discovered that after climbshying a great hill one only finds that there are many more hills to climb I have taken a moment here to rest to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me to look back at the distance I have come But I can only rest for a moment for with freedom comes responsibilities and I dare not linger for my long walk is not yet ended

-Nelson Mandela of South Africa

fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights like all annivershyprovided a special opportunity for reflection Many used the occasion to reflect

the extraordinary achievements that had been gained a number of which they never expected to see in their lifetime Others chose to focus not on the accomshy

but rather on the number and the magnitude of those problems not yet and thus saw little or nothing to celebrate The most thoughtful and penetratshy

observers however attempted to see both the successes in the light of centuries of experience and the abuses in the light of the tasks ahead They realized that

for human rights is-as it always has been-one that continues requiring vision and perseverance in the face of persistent resistance new variants of old

ftIblems ever-changing conditions mistakes and unanticipated opportunities

nal Criminal Law and Challenges to Sovereignty

of the most significant of these developments leading toward the future has been growing determination to hold some of the worst abusers of human rights individshy

responsible for their crimes Recently created international criminal law jurisshyand procedure emerging from human rights treaties increasingly have served

to past and present dictators that the world is no longer willing to let them opershycompletely within a culture of impunity The arrest of Augusto Pinochet marked

threshold in this development Although released from Britain due to his _ medical condition once he returned to Chile in 2000 he was stripped of

immunity from prosecution placed under house arrest and formally charged in own homeland for crimes of kidnapping torture and murder committed by his

Caravan of Death against political opponents This prompted President Wade of Senegal to announce that he was prepared to turn over former Chadian Ie Hissene Habn widely known as Mricas Pinochet for trial to answer crirn~der charges of his responsibility for some forty thousand executions and the tOrture of llaJ haps as many as two hundred thousand people during his eight-year rule 2 These per cases 10 turn encouraged others In 2002 SIerra Leone requested that the United Natio bull help it institute a new departure in international jurisprudence by creating a speci

ns

court with both national and international judges to prosecute those who conduct at serious human rights abuses during that countrys brutal civil war During the sa year a human rights tribunal in Indonesia sentenced senior military commander L

t Col Soejarwo to five years of imprisonment for atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999 when the former province voted for independence

The two international criminal tribunals created by the United Nations have pushed even further to bring the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice The Interna_ tional Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after its pathbreaking conviction of former Prime MinisterJean Kambanda for the crime of genocide went on to tackle additional cases involving senior military commanders government officials prominent bUsishynessmen journalists and other influential leaders In the process it created a unique and sophisticated witness protection program for Mrica forged a substantial body of case law and continues to contribute significantly to the development of international criminallaw3 In 1999 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia sentenced Goran Jelisic a Bosnian Serb who tortured and executed Muslims and Croats at the notorious Luka prison camp to forty years of imprisonment The next year the court convicted Croatian General Tihomir Blaskic of crimes against humanmiddot ity and sentenced him to forty-five years of imprisonment and then began to hear cases specificaly dealing with mass rape and systematic sexual violence enabling women vicshytims to finally testify publicly about their chambers of horrors Then in a dramatic develshyopment in 2001 Serbia extradited its former head of state and commander-in-chief Siobodan Milosevic to the tribunal under charges of grave breaches of the Geneva conshyventions violations of the laws and customs of war and most seriously genocide and crimes against humanity Overwhelming documentary evidence and eyewitness accounts painfuly and emotionaly delivered during the trial of a defiant Milosevic have preshysented evidence of horrific abuses of expulsions forced labor mutilations rape torshyture and executions in the name of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia Croatia and Kosovo including the massacre of an estimated seven thousand Muslim men and boys at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica4 For this reason the chief prosecutor referred to the savshyagery calculated cruelty and unspeakable suffering Milosevic inflicted on others observing that his policies were not local affairs but ones that affected the world

These crimes touch everyone of us wherever we live because they offend against our deepest principle of human rights and human dignity The law is not a mere theory or an abstract COOshy

cept It is a living instrument that must protect our values and regulate civilized society and fr that we must be able to enforce the law when it is broken This tribunal and this trial in partiCshyular gives the most powerful demonstration that no one is above the law or beyond the reach of international justice 5

applied to others as well as seen with the 2003 sentencing of Biljana

Bosnias former Iron Lady president to eleven years in prison for her crimes

humanitycontinued growth and intensity of this conviction for the need of universal jurisshyto deter future perpetrators can be seen in the number of ratifications of the

Statute of the International Criminal Court Even some of the most optimistic believed it would take decades for a sufficient number of states to ratify the

It took less than four years In fact the treaty entered into force in April 2002 the creation of a permanent mechanism to try those individuals responsible

most serious breaches of international humanitarian and human rights lawshycrimes genocide and crimes against humanity-if and when national authorities

Of will not prosecute A leading spokesperson for Human Rights Watch this achievement as a major historical development that set the stage for

JIlOst important human rights institution that has been created in fifty years 6 others are likely to become state parties in the future as well But the struggle wil

IIPUllue for any institution is only as strong as its constituent parts and not all have to participate In sharp contrast to this widespread support some countries

China and Iraq have not even signed the treaty let alone ratified Of particular the United States which actively worked to create the criminal tribushy

for others in Yugoslavia and Rwanda remains in adamant opposition for fear of its own sovereignty and the possibility of having its leaders or military

subjected to international jurisdiction One senator expressed the hope the International Criminal Court shares the same fate as the League of Nations olapses without US support for this court truly I believe is the monster and

the monster that we need to slay7 In May 2002 the United States took the unpreceshyand deliberately provocative action of actualy unsigning itself from the treaty

bluntly We do not intend to ratify it and therefore we are no longer

in any way to its purpose and objectives That claims of national sovereignty and domestic jurisdiction should be used to re-

the contemporary evolution of international human rights of course is hardly Indeed as we have seen they have been used time and time again to oppose any

~rnational norms that would place limits on the behavior of national leaders Yet as also have seen chalenges to both the arguments and the practices of sovereignty

been mounted over the course of generations What has become increasingly

rD narent and different from the past however is the growing magnitude scope speed intensity of such chalenges Some of these are conceptual in nature State sovershy

it most basic sense is being redefined observes Secretary-General Kofi

States are now widely understood to be instruments at the service of their people and not vice ~rsa At the same time individual sovereignty-by which I mean the fundamental freedom of each individual enshrined in the Charter of the UN and subsequent international treaties-has lIeen enhanced by a renewed and spreading consciousness of individual rights When we read the Charter today we are more than ever conscious that its aim is to protect individual human

9 beings not to protect those who abuse them

Although both the claims and the practices of national sovereignty remain strong still other challenges come from the force of technological and economic globalization that often completely bypasses traditional national borders from non-state actors pia ing major roles in world affairs and from humanitarian intervention Y

With the ever-growing value placed upon human rights for example members of the international community have been less and less willing to allow themselves to remain impotent bystanders turning their backs on victims who suffer in their midst and letting gross and systematic violations of human rights continue unchecked Man viewed their earlier failure to intervene in Rwanda while eight hundred thOusand people died in genocide or in Srebrenica with the massacre of thousands who had sought shelter in a so-called safe area as disastrous mistakes of inaction Conseshyquently they increasingly have refused to be swayed by traditional claims of national sovereignty by taking action designed to alleviate human rights abuses This explains the Security Councils new activism in linking particularly egregious cases of human rights violations with threats ~o international peace and security under Chapter VII of

the Charter and engaging in enforcement action The result has been various forms of humanitarian intervention armed troops such as the International Force for East Timor during 1999 peacekeeping forces with human rights missions such as in those in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and economic and milishytary sanctions such as those against the regimes of Saddam Hussein in Iraq the milishytary dictatorship in Burma or the Taliban in Afghanistan among others It helps to explain in part NATOs use of military force against the regime of Milosevic when in the name of ethnic cleansing Serbian forces displaced raped and killed thousands in Kosovo Such action as expressed by Vaclav Havel was taken out of respect for a law that ranks higher than the law that protects the sovereignty of states and one that places human rights above the rights of the Statel0 Said one victim in grateful response Intervention was the only hope for USl1

But these very factors that help to challenge national sovereignty and thereby often enhance international human rights sometimes cause new problems that jeoshypardize those very rights themselves For better or for worse national governments remain the major source of rights protection and collapsed or failed states in anarchy and incapable of governing at all simply cannot and do not protect human rights It thus may be necessary in the future to learn how to help build nations strong enough to protect the rights of their own citizens Moreover military interventions and sancshytions even the recently conceived smart sanctions against very specific targets art blunt instruments not easily controlled that can result in unintended consequences and harm the very people they are designed to help In addition each time they are even suggested they confront the interests of the five permanent and veto-wielding powers on the Security Council and again raise the contest inherent within the United Nations Charter itself the revolutionary affirmation of the principle of international human rights of Article 1 or the traditional reaffirmation of the principle of non-interference into the domestic affairs of member states ofArticle 2 Great controversies surround the questions of when how and under whose authority should interventions be undershytaken and these are like ly to continue As British Prime Minister Tony Blair observed

pressing foreign policy problem we face is to identify the circumstances in which we get actively involved in other peoples conflicts Non-interference has long been considshy

an important principle of international order And it is not one we would want to jettison readily But the principle of non-interference must be qualified in important respects of genocide can never be a purely internal affair12

precisely this in mind for the future the International Commission on Intervenshyand State Sovereignty recently issued its report tellingly entitled The Responsibility

Protect calling on the broader community of states to rise to the occasion when it IYcomes necessary to actually provide protection against the most egregious violashy

of human rights What is at stake here is not making the world safe for big or trampling over the sovereign rights of small ones it argues but delivershy

practical protection for ordinary people at risk of their lives because their states

unwilling or unable to protect them1 3

Globalization Non-State Actors and Terrorism

promises and the perils of challenges to national sovereignty are seen in other as well The surging process of economic globalization in its effort to create a

world-wide system of trade and finance for example creates a vast network of relashyand interests that often render nation-states and national divisions less The successes of returns on investment lower consumer prices a free marshy

economy supported by the World Trade Organization employment improved livshystandards and certain development projects sponsored by the World Bank or the

UJnternational Monetary Fund are enjoyed by many-but not all Countless others expeshydisplacement unemployment poverty debt exploitation marginalization the

ofland ownership disruption offamily and community life diminished and damage to the environment Sometimes the process seems to encourage

development of democratic institutions and civil society that respect rights and times to bolster authoritarian regimes that offer promises of domestic stability

FftrunroPrl by external investors 14 For this reason a recent issue of the Human Devewpment concludes that in the struggle that lies ahead bold new approaches are needed

achieve universal realization of human rights in the 21st century-adapted to the and realities of the era of globalization to its new global actors and to

new global rules 15

In this regard the emergence of a growing number of non-state actors in internashypolitics that confront traditional claims and practices of national sovereignty

presents a new frontier of both opportunities and challenges for human rights transnational corporations without the burdens or the limitations of governing __r~~ with enormous power and growing influence in the contemporary world Inshy

some possess revenue that far exceeds the national economies of most states and leaders have a much greater impact on both individuals and world events than heads of governments For this reason they suddenly have entered the mainshy

of attention and debate about the promotion and protection of international

Caravan of Death against political opponents This prompted President Wade of Senegal to announce that he was prepared to turn over former Chadian Ie Hissene Habn widely known as Mricas Pinochet for trial to answer crirn~der charges of his responsibility for some forty thousand executions and the tOrture of llaJ haps as many as two hundred thousand people during his eight-year rule 2 These per cases 10 turn encouraged others In 2002 SIerra Leone requested that the United Natio bull help it institute a new departure in international jurisprudence by creating a speci

ns

court with both national and international judges to prosecute those who conduct at serious human rights abuses during that countrys brutal civil war During the sa year a human rights tribunal in Indonesia sentenced senior military commander L

t Col Soejarwo to five years of imprisonment for atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999 when the former province voted for independence

The two international criminal tribunals created by the United Nations have pushed even further to bring the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice The Interna_ tional Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after its pathbreaking conviction of former Prime MinisterJean Kambanda for the crime of genocide went on to tackle additional cases involving senior military commanders government officials prominent bUsishynessmen journalists and other influential leaders In the process it created a unique and sophisticated witness protection program for Mrica forged a substantial body of case law and continues to contribute significantly to the development of international criminallaw3 In 1999 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia sentenced Goran Jelisic a Bosnian Serb who tortured and executed Muslims and Croats at the notorious Luka prison camp to forty years of imprisonment The next year the court convicted Croatian General Tihomir Blaskic of crimes against humanmiddot ity and sentenced him to forty-five years of imprisonment and then began to hear cases specificaly dealing with mass rape and systematic sexual violence enabling women vicshytims to finally testify publicly about their chambers of horrors Then in a dramatic develshyopment in 2001 Serbia extradited its former head of state and commander-in-chief Siobodan Milosevic to the tribunal under charges of grave breaches of the Geneva conshyventions violations of the laws and customs of war and most seriously genocide and crimes against humanity Overwhelming documentary evidence and eyewitness accounts painfuly and emotionaly delivered during the trial of a defiant Milosevic have preshysented evidence of horrific abuses of expulsions forced labor mutilations rape torshyture and executions in the name of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia Croatia and Kosovo including the massacre of an estimated seven thousand Muslim men and boys at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica4 For this reason the chief prosecutor referred to the savshyagery calculated cruelty and unspeakable suffering Milosevic inflicted on others observing that his policies were not local affairs but ones that affected the world

These crimes touch everyone of us wherever we live because they offend against our deepest principle of human rights and human dignity The law is not a mere theory or an abstract COOshy

cept It is a living instrument that must protect our values and regulate civilized society and fr that we must be able to enforce the law when it is broken This tribunal and this trial in partiCshyular gives the most powerful demonstration that no one is above the law or beyond the reach of international justice 5

applied to others as well as seen with the 2003 sentencing of Biljana

Bosnias former Iron Lady president to eleven years in prison for her crimes

humanitycontinued growth and intensity of this conviction for the need of universal jurisshyto deter future perpetrators can be seen in the number of ratifications of the

Statute of the International Criminal Court Even some of the most optimistic believed it would take decades for a sufficient number of states to ratify the

It took less than four years In fact the treaty entered into force in April 2002 the creation of a permanent mechanism to try those individuals responsible

most serious breaches of international humanitarian and human rights lawshycrimes genocide and crimes against humanity-if and when national authorities

Of will not prosecute A leading spokesperson for Human Rights Watch this achievement as a major historical development that set the stage for

JIlOst important human rights institution that has been created in fifty years 6 others are likely to become state parties in the future as well But the struggle wil

IIPUllue for any institution is only as strong as its constituent parts and not all have to participate In sharp contrast to this widespread support some countries

China and Iraq have not even signed the treaty let alone ratified Of particular the United States which actively worked to create the criminal tribushy

for others in Yugoslavia and Rwanda remains in adamant opposition for fear of its own sovereignty and the possibility of having its leaders or military

subjected to international jurisdiction One senator expressed the hope the International Criminal Court shares the same fate as the League of Nations olapses without US support for this court truly I believe is the monster and

the monster that we need to slay7 In May 2002 the United States took the unpreceshyand deliberately provocative action of actualy unsigning itself from the treaty

bluntly We do not intend to ratify it and therefore we are no longer

in any way to its purpose and objectives That claims of national sovereignty and domestic jurisdiction should be used to re-

the contemporary evolution of international human rights of course is hardly Indeed as we have seen they have been used time and time again to oppose any

~rnational norms that would place limits on the behavior of national leaders Yet as also have seen chalenges to both the arguments and the practices of sovereignty

been mounted over the course of generations What has become increasingly

rD narent and different from the past however is the growing magnitude scope speed intensity of such chalenges Some of these are conceptual in nature State sovershy

it most basic sense is being redefined observes Secretary-General Kofi

States are now widely understood to be instruments at the service of their people and not vice ~rsa At the same time individual sovereignty-by which I mean the fundamental freedom of each individual enshrined in the Charter of the UN and subsequent international treaties-has lIeen enhanced by a renewed and spreading consciousness of individual rights When we read the Charter today we are more than ever conscious that its aim is to protect individual human

9 beings not to protect those who abuse them

Although both the claims and the practices of national sovereignty remain strong still other challenges come from the force of technological and economic globalization that often completely bypasses traditional national borders from non-state actors pia ing major roles in world affairs and from humanitarian intervention Y

With the ever-growing value placed upon human rights for example members of the international community have been less and less willing to allow themselves to remain impotent bystanders turning their backs on victims who suffer in their midst and letting gross and systematic violations of human rights continue unchecked Man viewed their earlier failure to intervene in Rwanda while eight hundred thOusand people died in genocide or in Srebrenica with the massacre of thousands who had sought shelter in a so-called safe area as disastrous mistakes of inaction Conseshyquently they increasingly have refused to be swayed by traditional claims of national sovereignty by taking action designed to alleviate human rights abuses This explains the Security Councils new activism in linking particularly egregious cases of human rights violations with threats ~o international peace and security under Chapter VII of

the Charter and engaging in enforcement action The result has been various forms of humanitarian intervention armed troops such as the International Force for East Timor during 1999 peacekeeping forces with human rights missions such as in those in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and economic and milishytary sanctions such as those against the regimes of Saddam Hussein in Iraq the milishytary dictatorship in Burma or the Taliban in Afghanistan among others It helps to explain in part NATOs use of military force against the regime of Milosevic when in the name of ethnic cleansing Serbian forces displaced raped and killed thousands in Kosovo Such action as expressed by Vaclav Havel was taken out of respect for a law that ranks higher than the law that protects the sovereignty of states and one that places human rights above the rights of the Statel0 Said one victim in grateful response Intervention was the only hope for USl1

But these very factors that help to challenge national sovereignty and thereby often enhance international human rights sometimes cause new problems that jeoshypardize those very rights themselves For better or for worse national governments remain the major source of rights protection and collapsed or failed states in anarchy and incapable of governing at all simply cannot and do not protect human rights It thus may be necessary in the future to learn how to help build nations strong enough to protect the rights of their own citizens Moreover military interventions and sancshytions even the recently conceived smart sanctions against very specific targets art blunt instruments not easily controlled that can result in unintended consequences and harm the very people they are designed to help In addition each time they are even suggested they confront the interests of the five permanent and veto-wielding powers on the Security Council and again raise the contest inherent within the United Nations Charter itself the revolutionary affirmation of the principle of international human rights of Article 1 or the traditional reaffirmation of the principle of non-interference into the domestic affairs of member states ofArticle 2 Great controversies surround the questions of when how and under whose authority should interventions be undershytaken and these are like ly to continue As British Prime Minister Tony Blair observed

pressing foreign policy problem we face is to identify the circumstances in which we get actively involved in other peoples conflicts Non-interference has long been considshy

an important principle of international order And it is not one we would want to jettison readily But the principle of non-interference must be qualified in important respects of genocide can never be a purely internal affair12

precisely this in mind for the future the International Commission on Intervenshyand State Sovereignty recently issued its report tellingly entitled The Responsibility

Protect calling on the broader community of states to rise to the occasion when it IYcomes necessary to actually provide protection against the most egregious violashy

of human rights What is at stake here is not making the world safe for big or trampling over the sovereign rights of small ones it argues but delivershy

practical protection for ordinary people at risk of their lives because their states

unwilling or unable to protect them1 3

Globalization Non-State Actors and Terrorism

promises and the perils of challenges to national sovereignty are seen in other as well The surging process of economic globalization in its effort to create a

world-wide system of trade and finance for example creates a vast network of relashyand interests that often render nation-states and national divisions less The successes of returns on investment lower consumer prices a free marshy

economy supported by the World Trade Organization employment improved livshystandards and certain development projects sponsored by the World Bank or the

UJnternational Monetary Fund are enjoyed by many-but not all Countless others expeshydisplacement unemployment poverty debt exploitation marginalization the

ofland ownership disruption offamily and community life diminished and damage to the environment Sometimes the process seems to encourage

development of democratic institutions and civil society that respect rights and times to bolster authoritarian regimes that offer promises of domestic stability

FftrunroPrl by external investors 14 For this reason a recent issue of the Human Devewpment concludes that in the struggle that lies ahead bold new approaches are needed

achieve universal realization of human rights in the 21st century-adapted to the and realities of the era of globalization to its new global actors and to

new global rules 15

In this regard the emergence of a growing number of non-state actors in internashypolitics that confront traditional claims and practices of national sovereignty

presents a new frontier of both opportunities and challenges for human rights transnational corporations without the burdens or the limitations of governing __r~~ with enormous power and growing influence in the contemporary world Inshy

some possess revenue that far exceeds the national economies of most states and leaders have a much greater impact on both individuals and world events than heads of governments For this reason they suddenly have entered the mainshy

of attention and debate about the promotion and protection of international

Although both the claims and the practices of national sovereignty remain strong still other challenges come from the force of technological and economic globalization that often completely bypasses traditional national borders from non-state actors pia ing major roles in world affairs and from humanitarian intervention Y

With the ever-growing value placed upon human rights for example members of the international community have been less and less willing to allow themselves to remain impotent bystanders turning their backs on victims who suffer in their midst and letting gross and systematic violations of human rights continue unchecked Man viewed their earlier failure to intervene in Rwanda while eight hundred thOusand people died in genocide or in Srebrenica with the massacre of thousands who had sought shelter in a so-called safe area as disastrous mistakes of inaction Conseshyquently they increasingly have refused to be swayed by traditional claims of national sovereignty by taking action designed to alleviate human rights abuses This explains the Security Councils new activism in linking particularly egregious cases of human rights violations with threats ~o international peace and security under Chapter VII of

the Charter and engaging in enforcement action The result has been various forms of humanitarian intervention armed troops such as the International Force for East Timor during 1999 peacekeeping forces with human rights missions such as in those in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and economic and milishytary sanctions such as those against the regimes of Saddam Hussein in Iraq the milishytary dictatorship in Burma or the Taliban in Afghanistan among others It helps to explain in part NATOs use of military force against the regime of Milosevic when in the name of ethnic cleansing Serbian forces displaced raped and killed thousands in Kosovo Such action as expressed by Vaclav Havel was taken out of respect for a law that ranks higher than the law that protects the sovereignty of states and one that places human rights above the rights of the Statel0 Said one victim in grateful response Intervention was the only hope for USl1

But these very factors that help to challenge national sovereignty and thereby often enhance international human rights sometimes cause new problems that jeoshypardize those very rights themselves For better or for worse national governments remain the major source of rights protection and collapsed or failed states in anarchy and incapable of governing at all simply cannot and do not protect human rights It thus may be necessary in the future to learn how to help build nations strong enough to protect the rights of their own citizens Moreover military interventions and sancshytions even the recently conceived smart sanctions against very specific targets art blunt instruments not easily controlled that can result in unintended consequences and harm the very people they are designed to help In addition each time they are even suggested they confront the interests of the five permanent and veto-wielding powers on the Security Council and again raise the contest inherent within the United Nations Charter itself the revolutionary affirmation of the principle of international human rights of Article 1 or the traditional reaffirmation of the principle of non-interference into the domestic affairs of member states ofArticle 2 Great controversies surround the questions of when how and under whose authority should interventions be undershytaken and these are like ly to continue As British Prime Minister Tony Blair observed

pressing foreign policy problem we face is to identify the circumstances in which we get actively involved in other peoples conflicts Non-interference has long been considshy

an important principle of international order And it is not one we would want to jettison readily But the principle of non-interference must be qualified in important respects of genocide can never be a purely internal affair12

precisely this in mind for the future the International Commission on Intervenshyand State Sovereignty recently issued its report tellingly entitled The Responsibility

Protect calling on the broader community of states to rise to the occasion when it IYcomes necessary to actually provide protection against the most egregious violashy

of human rights What is at stake here is not making the world safe for big or trampling over the sovereign rights of small ones it argues but delivershy

practical protection for ordinary people at risk of their lives because their states

unwilling or unable to protect them1 3

Globalization Non-State Actors and Terrorism

promises and the perils of challenges to national sovereignty are seen in other as well The surging process of economic globalization in its effort to create a

world-wide system of trade and finance for example creates a vast network of relashyand interests that often render nation-states and national divisions less The successes of returns on investment lower consumer prices a free marshy

economy supported by the World Trade Organization employment improved livshystandards and certain development projects sponsored by the World Bank or the

UJnternational Monetary Fund are enjoyed by many-but not all Countless others expeshydisplacement unemployment poverty debt exploitation marginalization the

ofland ownership disruption offamily and community life diminished and damage to the environment Sometimes the process seems to encourage

development of democratic institutions and civil society that respect rights and times to bolster authoritarian regimes that offer promises of domestic stability

FftrunroPrl by external investors 14 For this reason a recent issue of the Human Devewpment concludes that in the struggle that lies ahead bold new approaches are needed

achieve universal realization of human rights in the 21st century-adapted to the and realities of the era of globalization to its new global actors and to

new global rules 15

In this regard the emergence of a growing number of non-state actors in internashypolitics that confront traditional claims and practices of national sovereignty

presents a new frontier of both opportunities and challenges for human rights transnational corporations without the burdens or the limitations of governing __r~~ with enormous power and growing influence in the contemporary world Inshy

some possess revenue that far exceeds the national economies of most states and leaders have a much greater impact on both individuals and world events than heads of governments For this reason they suddenly have entered the mainshy

of attention and debate about the promotion and protection of international

human rights as evident most recently in the discussion within the United Nations the proposed Human Rights Principles and Responsibilities for Transnational rations and Other Business Enterprises 16 Their enormous power if used solei profit or market considerations and without the slightest consideration for h y ror rights for example can seriously harm children and women in forced labor the human

e~~ of those affected by sweatshop conditions and environmental destruction the ri h d I g ts ar In Igenous peop es when their resources are extracted by outsiders or the pol

Hlcaland clVll fights of those abused by brutal but economICally cooperative regimes noted by the widespread negative publicity surrounding such companies as R ill Dutch Shell Nike Reebok and Starbucks Coffee On the other hand their p oyal

OWer can be used to enhance rights as these same companies eventually discovered wh

enunder the pressure of consumer boycotts they subsequently attached conditions to investment instituted codes of business practices and allowed monitors to view their operations in developing countries In 2002 it was economic pressure combined with diplomacy that forced the regime in Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest As one major transnational corporation executive announced when withdraw_ ing investment It is not possible to do business [in Burma] without directly supportshying the military government and its pervasive violations of human rights 17

If any illusions about the capacity of non-state actors to challenge national Sovershyeignty and influence contemporary global affairs still remained after all these develshyopments they should have been irrevocably shattered by the premeditated terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 Within less than two shocking hours three thousand people were deliberately killed in New York City Washington DC and rural Pennshysylvania revealing the power of terrorist organizations or cells to destroy human lives and wreak havoc Terrorism had been a security problem for years but never before had a single episode captured so much global attention or made the world so aware of its collective vulnerability Although the main target was the United States eighty difshyferent countries lost citizens in the attack on the World Trade Center and the intershynational community reacted with outrage All of us said Kofi Annan feel deep shock and revulsion at the cold-blooded viciousness of this attack All of us condemn it and those who planned it-whoever they may be-in the strongest possible terms A terrorist attack on one country is an attack on humanity as a whole All nations of

1Mthe world must work together to identify the perpetrators and bring them to Justice

This terrorist attack and its aftermath-like other assaults and suicide bombings before and since-continued to raise extremely troubling questions about human rights In the first instance it simply stl-ained the mind and the soul to imagine how any person or group would believe that such an act deliberately designed to extinguish the most basic of all human rights namely the right to life especially among innocent civilshyians could possibly be justified For this reason both the General Assembly and the Security Council condemned the attack in the strongest possible terms reaffirmed their earlier conclusions that terrorism presented one of the most dangerous threats to human rights in the world created the Counter-Terrorism Committee and set about to develop specific immediate and far-reaching measures to combat international terrorist acts 19 In addition it revealed the potential dangers of subsequent abuses

rights against others in the heated passion for revenge and the war against against Osama bin Laden the al-Qaida network the Taliban Iraq and any

suspected of offering support to terrorists as indicated by the harm inflicted civilians in military attacks the demonization of political opponents and certain

groupS suddenly labeled as terrorists and in the risks to civil rights by wideshypowers assumed by governments as revealed by the USA PATRIOT Act20

the horrors of 11 September once again raised the issue of the relationship human rights and peace justice and security and posed the difficult question

ijdIether long-standing violations of human rights in other locations had fueled ~ces and prompted individuals to reach a point where they believed that they

nothing to lose and therefore should engage in terrorism in the first place Serious widespread human rights abuses anywhere are danger signals warning of future

just over the horizon

striking contrast many non-state actors in the world today exist exclusively to pro- human rights Never before in history have the number of NGOs actively work-

in this area been so great Indeed their growth has been phenomenal especially in IJyeloping countries and it is estimated that there may be as many as twenty-six thoushy

human rights NGOs operating in the world today21 They range geographically those advocates with an international reach like Amnesty International Human Watch and International Commission ofjurists to those focused on regional

~uullal or very local and grassroots problems like the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity bnization Asian Coalition of Human Rights Organizations Arab Organization for

Rights Regional Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia Nacional de Derechos Humanos in Peru Independent Human Rights

~Illzauon of Uzbekistan Inter-African Network for Human Rights Civil Liberties of Nigeria Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Association Africaine

Defense des Droits de IHomme and the Womens Caucus for Gender justice Some rights NGOs are secular in orientation while others are based upon religiOUS

like the Bahai International Community Commission of the Churches on IntershyAffairs of the World Council of Churches Friends (Quakers) World Commitshy

for Consultation International World Conference on Religion and Peace Rabbis Human Rights World Fellowship of Buddhists World jewish Congress and World

Congress Some of devote themselves to broad issues like racial discrimination ~Iopment indigenous peoples environmental protection and refugees while othshy

focus upon very specific matters such as child soldiers child labor the sexual n of children violence against women in the form of rape or female genital

-ClUll torture prisoners of conscience the International Criminal Court forced migrants the epidemic of HIV AIDS sexual orientation disabilities the death

and political asylum among many many others Collectively these dedicated and persistent women and men in these thousands

human rights NGOs work to draw attention to abuses monitor compliance with

international norms and seek to hold governments accountable to their serve as visionaries and moral spurs mobilize public opinion advocate for standard setting offer various forms of humanitarian relief and legal assistanc tims and their families and apply pressure for developing further action agend

e to

volunteer to gather information and conduct independent reports of their 0 a sor training and educational programs file human rights complaints ann

d middot h d prnoteaty b0 les Wlt ocumentation and evaluation of whether national laws and tIces actually meet existing obligations or not often submitting hard-hitting m P normally not included in official state reports One authority assesses this im elbll concluding Without the information provided by NGOs effective oversight P

b ~l

and regional human rights treaty bodies would sink into terminal torpor22 In )~di tion these NGOs offer support and praise to those governments and transnation I porations who contribute to the evolution of international human rights and hcor and highly public condemnation of those who do not in what is sometimes called mobilization of shame before the eyes of the world Z3 The trend toward this wide ran of activities capacity to nelork with others and the determination with which th~ are pursued is unmistakable and despite whatever problems of rapid growth and foc~ in the midst of changing circumstances might arise is highly likely to continue ill the future 24

Those who labor in this struggle for human rights of course will quickly discover the lesson long since learned by their historical predecessors they will be resisted The vision boldly proclaimed that the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should apply to all clearly threatens those who benefi t from abuses of power or claims of special privilege wherever they might be For this reason they quickly lash out in opposition When Human Rights in China applied for consultative status as an NGO at the United Nations the Chinese delegation blocked its way describing the organishyzation as a threat composed of criminals and splittists interested in only in politshyical motivations and aiming at overthrowing the Chinese government 25 When Mary Robinson in her capacity as High Commissioner for Human Rights courageously gaC

outspoken voice to those without voices by in her words standing up to the bulliesmiddot who abused their own people those governments sensitive to criticism exerted pre5shysure for her to resign 26 Her successor Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil is likely to mett the same fate if he speaks out too forcefully When United Nations envoy Telje R~shyLarsen recently condemned the Israeli military attack on the refugee camp ofJenUl as morally repugnant and horrific beyond belief the government of Israellashcd out against him refused to allow aid workers or an international inspection tealJl

to assist victims and again denounced any who in the name of human rights would interfere with their national sovereignty27 But not all of those who campaign in the struggle for human rights today are verbally criticized or forced from office Some faCe

even more determined resistance and are harassed threatened detained punishe~~ persecuted in an effort to silence their criticism of abuses Others are tortured or kill by extrajudicial executions28 It is for this reason that members of the United Na~~n5 recently have sought to provide a certain level of protection by formally recogn~ZU1J the role of non-state actors in this area adopting the Declaration on Human Rights

and then appointing Hina Jilani an attorney who herself had been imprisshythreatened with death for defending the rights of women in Pakistan to

safety as Special Representative on the Situation of Human Rights Deshyshe quickly acknowledges Striving for effective means of protecting human

~eflders is recompense owed to them by the international community29 challenges for the future lie in more than just direct and easily identifiable As human rights have increasingly become such a fundamental and integral ofcontemporary international poli tics and globalization they have created

and political complexities more subtle and nuanced dilemmas moral

and difficult questions for principle and policy as well What exactly does for example to have a responsibility to protect against egregious human rights If time energy and resources are limited which cases of human rights abuses

precedence over others and what are the reasonable prospects for success

whose authority should action be taken What happens to human rights if the pursuit of immediate criminal justice and punishment undermines the longshy~tive of reconciliation and stability in Chile El Salvador or Cambodia What

for the right of self-determination for the Kurds or the Chechens comes at of peace and considerable loss of human life Are economic sanctions the

to deal with human rights abuses in China or will engagement through libershytrade eventually provide a better context for reform How can states seriously

to combat terrorism across borders without at the same time dealing with those rights violations that may have spawned violence in the first place If consisshy

in human rights protection is not always possible is more damage done to claims norms by selectively taking some action as compared to doing nothing at

who work on behalf of human rights will have to seriously wrestle lith these

fInology and Political Will

area of practicality perhaps nothing has done more recently to assist those who in the struggle for human rights than modern technology Technological

have created dangerous weapons of mass destruction and the capacity to serishyinvade privacy but they also have broken the cast in which the egregious violashy

human rights thrived on darkness on distance on ignorance and superstition and on their capacity to hide and deny information Mobile phones fax intelligence-gathering satellites laptop computers scanners hand-held video

cameras along with many other devices all possess the capabilities to

and transmit words sounds and or images to expose human rights abuses the world They can override government media control transcend geoshy

barriers break down ignorance and disbelief turn silence into debate plea and give victims a means to tell of their plight News from the most

locations and circumstances can sometimes be transmitted and downloaded seconds to international organizations governments NGOs CNN and other

IWaStinl networks of technological globalization the Internet Web sites or personal

e-mail accounts This enables the timely monitoring collection disseminatio promotion of information and ideas about human rights as never before in n Indeed in this area the contrast with the historical past and the present could

Th f 1 nOtmore d ramatJc e uture Wl I be even more so as we contmue to know more

fl~grant abuse~ become more visible Tod~y radar-imaging satellites are able t mme the locatIOn of mass graves that proVide eVidence for the criminal prosec m~

Milosevlc and dlgnal photographs and Videotapes offer striking visual ima b d 1human ngh

0 les The mternatlOna community is able to ges forts treaty-momtonng tain a 24-hour Human Rights Hot Line for those at the grassroots level needi~aJJl establish urgent potentially life-saving contact with the Special Procedures Branc~ to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 3o The Internet makes it possible flor human rights ac~ivists to create global networks or coalitions relatively inexpenSiV~ out of scattered mdJVlduals and NGOs by exchangmg mformation developing COIllshy

mon strategies and mobilizing support in applying pressure for internationally COOr_

dinated campaignsY Similarly the Web sites of Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Human Rights Internet and Derechos Human Rights among many others are able to contain vast databases of information and analysis on international treaties and tribunals regional developments topical issues very specific reports on every Country and government and breaking news around the world 32 It is for this reason that the world can know almost immediately when an eighteen-year-old girl in Pakistan is pun ished by gang rape when a woman in Nigeria is sentenced to be stoned to death whlll an innocent Israeli boy on his way to school is killed on a bus by a terrorist suicide bombing when a father disappears at the hands of Colombian security forces when a prisoner of conscience is tortured in Iraq when race or membership in an indigenous tribe leads to persecution or a university student is arrested and imprisoned in China for speaking out on behalf of human rights

What is actually done with all this information once obtained of course is always a matter of will The problem is not lack of early warning observes Pierre Sane of Senegal but lack of early action 33 When confronted with these recent and tragiC viigtshylations of human rights are people willing to do anything about them At times it is evident that such will is seriously lacking The price of realizing visions of rights may appear too high and too threatening to special privileges vested interests the exercise of power profits or national sovereignty Or the conflicts between human rights aI~d security may seem too complicated too fraught with risk too laden with contradiCshytions too morally ambiguous or too philosophically complex in a pluralistic world to

reach any practical or timely decision about action There are other times however dawhen people do reveal a strong and determined will to act These are the ones to

on the front line who are willing to dodge bullets speak out against brutality and tyranny search for the disappeared write letters on behalf of the imprisoned and tofshy

tured defend the exploited and repressed seek to stop carnage and genocide off~r eyewimess accounts at criminal trials protect the weak or impoverished and work ill

common ways to bring human rights to life They are the ones willing to participat~ in a vast new field of action in which ordinary but dedicated people either as indishyviduals or as members of NGOs are constructing human rights projects organizing

training sessions in local communities and sharing their knowledge with othshyeducation34 They are the CEOs and boards of transnational corporations

withdraw business from countries that systematically abuse their people or to of human rights conduct for their global operations They are the leaders

IM1lm willing to ratify human rights treaties bind themselves to obligations ents

to international scrutiny apprehend war criminals and actively support the human rights goals of the UN Millennium Agenda They also are the memshy

regional intergovernmental bodies like the European Union with its new FunshyRights Charter3 or international organizations like the United Nations

trying to make human rights a vital component of their collective policies

so much global attention now should be given to human rights is itself a testimony

profound and hard-won evolution that has and continues to occur In fact even ly callous Economist devoted a recent issue to the intensified interest in intershy

human rights and the widespread consciousness about the inherent dignity person under the suggestive title The World Is Watching It is Victims are

seen as someone elses business reported the journal concluding that such ~lopment marked a genuine turning point in world affairs36 As a result of powerful forces and individuals that we have explored in each chapter of this book

no longer turns its collective face away from seeing human rights abuses as throughout most of history But the evolution is not over for many hills remain climbed and challenges lie ahead When faced with this fact one recent report

world community needs to return to the audacious vision of those who dreamed of the or Man and of the Citizen and drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights A new

lInium is just the occasion to reaffirm such a vision-and to renew the practical commit-

to make it happen3

in this endeavor may well depend on how well we understand what conclushycan be reached about the past and what lessons can be learned for the future

visions and the evolution of international human rights