1 Introduction

The protection of human rights is generally recognized to be a fundamental aim of modern international law. In recent decades, almost every international organization, regional and global, has adopted human rights norms and responded to human rights violations by opening avenues of redress for individuals whose rights have been violated without remedy in domestic law. Consideration of human rights issues has reached into all organs and bodies of the United Nations, including the Security Council, which has identified serious human rights violations as threats to...