ABSTRACT

Throughout the 1990s, in the framework of the democratic states, a robust expansion of rights was witnessed on the global scale, giving rise to considerable optimism. Legal protection of rights was manifested in special courts or tribunals, as exemplified by, on the one hand. The international tribunals set up for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, or the coming into force of the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court and, on the other. Mark Platts's offers a definition of "human rights" that seeks to reconcile the "southern" and "northern" positions. In the legal sphere, and in relation with the debate on abortion and euthanasia, Jorge Carpizo proposed a distinction, which has proved felicitous as a means for dealing with limit cases: "legal rights" are one thing; "legal interests protected by law" are another.