ABSTRACT

After 1980 the resurgent Western bloc brought greater political balance not only to the Commission's enforcement agenda, but also to its important standard-setting and promotional programs. International legislators must show far greater deference to minority interests, because they cannot impose new human rights standards on sovereign nations without their consent. Treaties and conventions under international law bind only states parties who have ratified their terms. The Commission invariably asks the Secretariat to solicit government comments on draft standards before approving the final text. In 1980 Costa Rica introduced a draft optional protocol of implementation measures recommended by the International Commission of Jurists and the Swiss Committee Against Torture. In addition to its campaign against torture, Amnesty International has firmly opposed all capital punishment. Since such punishment is widely accepted and increasingly used in the 1980s, few governments would accept prohibition in a new convention.