Negotiating Human Rights

Abstract

Human rights instruments articulate a relationship between justice and peace. The UN Charter itself opens with the objective of avoiding war and immediately references the concept of human rights. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights makes a ‘just peace’ thesis more explicit. It claims that ‘it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have resources, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law’.1 More recently, the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention notes that ‘the upheavals of European history have shown that the protection of national minorities is essential to stability, democratic security and peace in this continent’.2 While a connection between human rights and peace may seem obvious and is acknowledged in human rights instruments, the attempt to base negotiated settlements to conflicts within a normative understanding of human rights law has often been seen as problematic and controversial.