"International concern with human rights is a phenomenon of comparatively recent
origin. Although it is possible to point out to a number of treaties of international
agreements affecting humanitarian issue before World War II, it is only with the
entry into force of the United Nations Charter in 1945, that it is possible to speak
of the advent of systematic human rights protection and promotion within the international
system. None the less, it is clear that the international protection of human
rights, has its antecedents in domestic efforts to secure legal and political protection
for individuals, as well as groups, against the arbitrary excesses of state power."(...