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Flinterman, Cees --- "Human rights law status report" [2010] ELECD 329; in Grosheide, Willem (ed), "Intellectual Property and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Intellectual Property and Human Rights

Editor(s): Grosheide, Willem

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848444478

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Human rights law status report

Author(s): Flinterman, Cees

Number of pages: 10

Extract:

2. Human rights law status report
Cees Flinterman*

1. INTRODUCTION
The theme of this chapter is human rights in a divided world. For a long period
in the history of international law and international relations human rights
were seen as falling almost exclusively within the scope of the sovereign
powers of each and every state; the consequence thereof was that states did not
have the right to intervene in situations of gross violations of human rights in
other states: the principle of non-intervention. How much the world has
changed! Over the past 60 years a new strong branch of international law has
developed focusing on the protection and promotion of human rights. This is
reflected inter alia in a mushrooming of academic human rights centers, in
specific masters' programmes in the field of human rights and maybe most
importantly, in a huge number of national and international human rights non-
governmental organizations (NGOs).
In this chapter I will focus on the process of universalisation of human
rights in which the United Nations (UN) has played a preponderant role. I will
then discuss the important issue of the indivisibility of all human rights. The
next issue will be a survey of the establishment of a wide variety of monitor-
ing mechanisms aimed at holding states accountable both at international and
regional level. The final issue discussed is the growing relevance of human
rights in the programs and policies of the UN itself and of various specialized
agencies and other UN ...