Subjects of International Law

States have traditionally been recognized as the sole subjects of international law, but this position has been changed. And now international organizations and individuals are also subjects having limited capacity (when their legal rights are specified by treaty).

Human rights

Most of the law in the world is made by individual governments for their own people. But human rights transcend political divisions. They are basic minimum standards of freedom and security for all

• the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;

• the right to liberty and security of person and freedom of association with others;

• the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression;

• the right to vote;

• the right to sue in court and have a fair trial, etc.

These basic moral standards should not depend on where a person lives.

International Agreements on Human Rights

Most countries of the world have signed international agreements on human rights. The most comprehensive of such agreements is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

It was proclaimed “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and nations”. The UDHR states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and that the rights do not depend on race, color, sex, language, religion or any other difference among people.

The two International Covenants – one on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the other on Political Rights, were adopted in 1966 and made the provisions of the Universal Declaration legally binding.

The Universal Declaration, together with the two International Covenants form the International Bill of Rights.

Violations of Human Rights

One of the forms of human rights violations is torture – deliberate and systematic infliction of physical and mental suffering.

A very large area of human rights violations is concerned with refugees.

Another hotly debated issue of human rights violations is capital punishment which deprives human beings of the most inherent right – the right to life. Several international organizations have made the abolition of the death penalty a requirement of membership (e.g. European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe). As a result, Europe is a continent free of the death penalty in practice, with the sole exception of Belarus, which is not a member of the Council of Europe.

International Organizations

When the laws of the country violate human rights, groups like Amnesty International protest the government on moral and legal grounds.

Another organization active in protection of human rights is the United Nations.

Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

One of the fundamental principles of the UN is respect for human rights at all times and in all places. To prevent armed conflict and to preserve humanity in time of war are the purposes of international humanitarian law. The aims of the international humanitarian law are:

- to protect persons who are not engaged in military actions – the wounded, prisoners of war and civilians;

- to limit the effects of violence in fighting.

There are today clear limits to the types of action that will be tolerated in armed conflict. However, treaties and conventions cannot save lives, or protect the property of innocent people unless the will exists to apply these agreements in all conditions, unless everyone realizes that the basic issue is - respecting human rights.

But despite the development of legally binding national and international conventions and organizations protecting human rights, millions of people in the world still do not enjoy human rights.