Neier, Aryeh

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Human Rights BriefVolume 11 | Issue 3 Article 12004The Development of International Human Rights:Progress and ConsolidationAryeh NeierFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/hrbriefPart of the Human Rights Law CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington College of Law Journals & Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ AmericanUniversity Washington College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Human Rights Brief by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@ American University Washington College of Law. For more information, please contact fbrown@wcl.american.edu.Recommended CitationNeier, Aryeh. "The Development of International Human Rights: Progress and Consolidation." Human Rights Brief 11, no. 3 (2004):1-2.1THE CONTEMPORARY HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT—inwhich citizens in all parts of the world have joined togeth-er in organized efforts to protest against abuses, aid vic-tims, and shame and punish perpetrators—emergedroughly three decades ago. There were older efforts, going back to theanti-slavery movement in the early part of the nineteenth century inBritain and, subsequently, in the United States. Yet it was not until the1970s that a global movement emerged that sought to implement andgive meaning to the commitments made by governments in the after-math of World War II in adopting the United Nations Charter, theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, and the GenocideConvention. This essay provides a brief overview of the three decadesin which the human rights movement has been a factor in internation-al affairs.At the outset, the movement devoted itself principally to cam-paigns on behalf of individual victims of politically motivated abusessuch as torture, arbitrary imprisonment, disappearances, and extrajudi-cial executions; and to efforts to develop methods to document suchpractices. These were ways of promoting human rights that were par-ticularly associated with Amnesty International, which was establishedin 1961 and which achieved a heightened capacity to make its voiceheard on behalf of the victims of human rights abuses when it wasawarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. In the late 1970s and the early1980s, a number of additional international groups, some organizedalong professional lines and a great many groups organized on a nation-al basis, joined in such efforts. Some of these groups went beyondAmnesty International by documenting the ways in which the majorpowers, such as the United States and the Soviet Union, played a partin abuses committed by client states. A consequence was to makehuman rights a factor in Cold War struggles, which played a part in themomentous events that culminated in the collapse of communism.The second decade of the human rights movement was character-ized by a number of important innovations. The most important ofthese was the extension of human rights reporting to situations ofarmed conflict, where the number of victims was far larger than inother circumstances and the abuses they suffered were especially severe.Such efforts were pioneered in the early 1980s by Americas Watch, oneof the regional Watch committees subsequently renamed HumanRights Watch, which led the way in monitoring the practices of armedcombatants in accordance with the requirements of internationalhumanitarian law. At first, other leading human rights groups resistedreliance on international humanitarian law, which was developed sepa-rately from the United Nations. Yet by the beginning of the 1990s, thatdebate had largely ended, and documenting war-related abuses andmeasuring them against the requirements of international humanitari-an law became a central focus of efforts to promote human rights.A related innovation was the application of human rights report-ing to abuses committed by groups fighting governments. Humanrights law is based on a series of agreements that limit government prac-tices, whereas international humanitarian law applies with equal forceto all sides in an armed conflict. Hence it was natural for non-govern-mental groups that had made the one shift also to make the other. Two other innovations of the movement’s second decade werethe development of scientific methods of conducting research onhuman rights abuses, most notably through forensic exhumations ofthe remains of victims, and the focus on mechanisms for holding theperpetrators of gross human rights abuses accountable for their crimes.Accountability first became an issue with the transition from militarydictatorship to democratic government in Argentina in December1983. Argentina led the way in establishing a “truth commission” thatbecame the model for efforts to establish such bodies in many otherThe Development of International Human Rights: Progress and Consolidationby  Ar yeh NeierThe Human Rights Brief is a publication of the Center for Human Rights andHumanitarian Law in conjunction with the Washington College of Law atAmerican University. No portion of this publication may be reprinted withoutthe express written permission of the Human Rights Brief. All correspondence,reprinting and subscription requests and articles submitted for publication maybe sent to: The Human Rights Brief, Center for Human Rights andHumanitarian Law, Washington College of Law, American University, 4801Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016. Telephone: 202-274-4027.email: hrbrief@wcl.american.edu. Web site: www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief.Fax: 202-274-4028. The views expressed in this publication are those of thewriters and are not necessarily those of the editors, the Center, or AmericanUniversity. Copyright Human Rights Brief, 2004. ISSN 1533-6808. An equal opportunity, affirmative action university.Co-Editors-in-ChiefDavid Baluarte Jamal JafariSenior Articles EditorsMelissa Alcantara Joon-Beom ChuManaging EditorSarah HymowitzPublication Editor Claire Trickler-McNultyArticles EditorsKelly Barrett Kelli CorriganSwati Parikh Roger PhillipsSheku Sheikholeslami Ryan WolfStaff WritersKatie Atkinson Emily CreightonKristin Edison Sara IbrahimTejal Jesrani Joshua KruskolSunita Patel Abby RichardsonLilah Rosenblum Patricia StableMeghan Stewart Nicole TrudeauFounders BoardVanessa Allen, Gillian Brady, Michelle Donme, Gabriel Eckstein, FernandoGonzález Martín, Claudia Martín, Mair McCafferty, Rochus Pronk, AyeshaQayyum, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Brian Tittemore, and Shashikala WarrierAlumni BoardAnebi Adoga, Anne Briggs, Fernando González-Martín, Jennifer M. Hertz,Richard H. Kamm, Sarah Paoletti, Alejandro Ponce-Villacís, Amy Stern,Jaime Underwood, and Kristi SeveranceAryeh Neier is President of the Open Society Institute. He is the former ExecutiveDirector of Human Rights Watch and the former Executive Director of the AmericanCivil Liberties Union. His latest book is a memoir entitled Taking Liberties: FourDecades in the Struggle for Human Rights.                              1Neier: The Development of International Human Rights: Progress and ConsoPublished by Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law, 20042countries, principally in Latin America and Africa. In addition,Argentina ordered the prosecution of military officials responsible fordisappearances, the crimes that were the hallmark of the dictatorshipin that country. In subsequent years, debates took place in manycountries over which approach to take in dealing with crimes of thepast, and these debates gave rise to a new intellectual discipline,known as transitional justice. A further innovation of the human rights movement’s seconddecade was the gradual extension of the work of both national andinternational groups to combat abuses not directly connected to polit-ical repression. Such matters as police practices in dealing with thoseaccused of ordinary crimes, abuses in detention, and women’s rightsbecame part of the agenda of human rights groups. In some quarters,there was strenuous resistance to this broadened agenda; but by themid-1990s, it was largely accepted.Probably the most important innovation of the past decade hasbeen the establishment of a number of international tribunals to holdaccountable those responsible for the gravest abuses: war crimes com-mitted on a large scale, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Thoughthe proceedings of these tribunals often appear agonizingly slow, it isastonishing how much has been accomplished in such a brief period.The first such body in contemporary times, the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, was created by theUntied Nations in 1993. Subsequently, a similar body was created forRwanda and variations were established for Sierra Leone, East Timorand, still in the process of organization, Cambodia. Also, a treaty fora permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) was agreed upon inRome in July 1998. By April 2002, much more rapidly than anyonehad expected, the treaty secured the requisite number of ratificationsto bring the ICC into existence. At the time of this writing, the Officeof the Prosecutor for the ICC is actively examining a number of cases,and prosecutions are expected to commence later this year.Among the consequences of the establishment of these tribunalshas been the rapid development of international law applicable to grossabuses of human rights. This has taken place in the statutes establish-ing these tribunals and in their growing body of case law. Also, withseveral scores of defendants in custody because they are on trial, await-ing trial, or serving sentences, and with a number of others who arefugitives from justice, the activities of these tribunals are reaching apoint where high governmental officials have to take seriously the pos-sibility that they will eventually be held accountable for human rightsabuses they commit.Another development in the past decade was the adoption andratification of the Convention to Ban Landmines. This was a directconsequence of efforts by the human rights movement. Several groupslaunched an International Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1992 inresponse to their own experiences in dealing with conflicts where land-mines had been used promiscuously and had caused many deaths andsevere injuries among noncombatants. Amazingly, by 1996, just fouryears after the establishment of the campaign, its efforts paid off withthe adoption of the convention.Throughout the past three decades, the human rights move-ment has been engaged in efforts to upgrade the quality of its work.Today, the documentation of human rights abuses is far more rigor-ous than it was in the 1970s and the 1980s. The growing profes-sionalization of the human rights movement is also evident in itsincreasing sophistication in dealing with legal issues. Academic pro-grams in human rights, internships, and a variety of training pro-grams play an essential part in ensuring that the movement is bothcredible and effective.A lot has happened in a short period. Probably the most encour-aging development of all is that it has become evident that the inter-national human rights movement has great staying power, that itsimportance is recognized worldwide, that its influence is still grow-ing, and that it is likely to become an ever more significant force inworld affairs. HRBThe League of Nations at its opening session in Geneva on November 15, 1920. UN/DPI Photo     2Human Rights Brief, Vol. 11, Iss. 3 [2004], Art. 1http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/vol11/iss3/1

The Development of International Human Rights: Progress and Consolidation

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The Development of International Human Rights: Progress and Consolidation

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