General Assembly
Official Records
Fifty-fourth Session
Supplement No. 1 (A/54/1)

Chapter V

The international legal order and human rights

Introduction

256. As the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, Peace Conferences held at The Hague in 1899 and 1907 sought to humanize our world and to introduce rules to mitigate human suffering during armed conflict. The quest for the peaceful settlement of disputes had as its raison d'être the reduction of human suffering wrought by war. The efforts of the League of Nations and the United Nations to codify and progressively develop international law have seen their greatest vindication in the twentieth century in the international legal regime for the protection of human rights.

257. Today, declarations, conventions, treaties, bodies of principles and codes of conduct cover almost every conceivable aspect of the relationship between the individual and the State. Legal instruments exist to protect the rights of the child, to protect the rights of women to equality of treatment, to spell out the duties of Governments in respect of the observance of civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights, to proscribe racial discrimination, to prevent torture, to protect minorities and to promote and protect cultural diversity. We enter the new millennium with an international code of human rights that is one of the great accomplishments of the twentieth century.

258. Alas, human rights are flouted wantonly across the globe. Genocide, mass killings, arbitrary and summary executions, torture, disappearances, enslavement, discrimination, widespread debilitating poverty and the persecution of minorities still have to be stamped out. Institutions and mechanisms have been established at the United Nations to eradicate these blights on our civilization. They include the working groups and special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights, the institutions and mechanisms established to promote the realization of economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

259. When we face egregious violations of human rights, documenting and exposing them has been, and will remain, of the utmost importance. In the future, it is our hope that the International Criminal Court, building on the examples set by the International Tribunals already established, will not only bring criminal despots and tyrants to justice but also act as a deterrent against gross violations of human rights everywhere.

260. The agreement reached to establish the International Criminal Court is a watershed in the history of international cooperation for the promotion of human welfare and for the universal realization of human rights. Developments in this area are of such great potential import for the international legal order that they warrant detailed attention.