Editorial
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419301100401 |
| Published date | 01 December 1993 |
| Date | 01 December 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
If
one draws up a balance
of
the human rights situation at the end
of
this year, the positive
developments in South Africa and Israel, give reason for some measure
of
optimism. In
these countries, parties which were hostile to each other for decades, have at
last
started
negotiations to build a
more
stable society. This optimism may easily be overshadowed
by the gross violations
of
human rights in other parts
of
the world. Recently, abloody
military coup
d'etat
took
place in Burundi, while the situation in Somalia does
not
provide
prospects apeaceful solution. In the former Yugoslavia no end is no sight
of
the gross and
systematic violations
of
human
rights. The situation
of
the Kurdish people in
Turkey
has
been
worsened, since the Turkish Government intensified its offensive against the PKK.
After the collapse
of
the communistic regimes in Eastern Europe the hope for a more
comprehensive
and
stable society seems to be destroyed by territorial ambitions
of
the newly
established states
and
the resurgence
of
aggressive nationalism.
The
contributions to this
issue
of
NQHR
pay attention to the new challenges to the international community concerning
human rights questions.
David P.
Forsyte
highlights the dual impact which the end
of
the Cold
War
has had
on international
human
rights. On the one hand, the end
of
the Cold
War
contributed to
violations
of
rights, while on the other, there are renewed efforts to ameliorate those
violations. He discusses the complexity of the subject by introducing three paradoxes. The
first is that human
right
is
now
widely accepted as a legitimate issue-area
of
international
debate and action. This does not imply, however, that international action is effective in
countering the violation(s). Secondly, the international community continues to confer
legitimacy on public authorities through bilateral and multilateral political acceptance. He
emphasises that there
are
now
at least two sources
of
international legitimacy,political and
moral, while it is
not
clear which source of legitimacy is consistently
more
important. The
third paradox is that state jurisdiction and authority are being challenged in the name of
international concern for universal human rights. Penetration
of
states and restrictions on
their actualized sovereignty are accompanied by the reality
of
state independence.
The
effectiveness
of
international concern for human rights varies with states and
issues. In his article
Root
Causesand International Law: RefugeeFlowsin the 1990' s, Geoff
Gilbert calls for a change
of
approach with regard to dealing with the refugee flows seen
in
1980's
and
1990's.
Three
major causes
of
refugee flows: gross human rights violations,
wars and natural disasters are examined by the author in order to create measures to prevent
new flows from arising. Some
of
these involve enforcement
of
pertinent laws,
but
may
require non-legal action, such as trade penalties for violating states and reduction
in
the
arms trade. Furthermore, other steps include greater use of intervention and early warning
mechanisms and imposing responsibility on the source state for causing the flow.
This issue further contains acontribution by Herman
von
Hebel
on the decision
of
the United Nations Security Council to establish an ad hoc tribunal
for
the prosecution of
persons responsible for violations of humanitarian norms in the former Yugoslavia. He
puts this decision in a historic perspective and deals with several legalissues involved. The
author finally presents some preliminary observations on the prospects
of
this Tribunal.
The
Appendix contains the Statute
of
the International Tribunal. Ineke Boerefijn and Koen
Davidseexamine whether the World Conference on HumanRights offered new perspectives
for the currently existing supervisory mechanism. They further present anumber
of
conclusions about the impact
of
the Conference on these mechanisms.
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