International Human Rights Law Enforcement: THE INCONGRUOUS VOICES THAT PREVAIL

Book excerpt: It is to everyone’s benefit for us to have a world of peace and for that reason we must individually seek to identify and confront whatever threatens the prospects of our continuous existence in peace, irrespective of how far it might be from us at the time. The rights enshrined in treaties as individual human rights in various covenants of the United Nations such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, (1966) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR, (1966) are meant to protect and secure people within the territories and governments of the States parties that rectified those covenants with the United Nations. Most people today might have forgotten that just about 400 years ago, the European nations fought a thirty years’ religious war (1618 – 1648) that ended with the treaty of Westphalia. Consequently, what is now manifesting as acts of gross human rights violations, and crimes against humanity perpetrated by States that are democratic governments as well as States that are operating religious nationalism, with a menace to the peace and security of the international committee, is watched with passive interest by those who are yet to be affected. Whether it is the United States leading NATO to invade and destroy Libya and render its citizens victims of gross human rights violations, or Russia invading Ukraine in a war of intentional act of aggression and human rights violations, or the Taliban in Afghanistan stripping off the women and girls of Afghanistan of their human rights, the threat to the International Community should be a matter of concern for all. The United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, have a responsibility to devise a means of attending to these threats under the provisions of its Charter.