ABSTRACT
The two disciplines, human rights and international criminal law, are obviously associated in many ways besides their common ancestry, something which was certainly more than a mere coincidence. A simplistic attempt at distinguishing them might focus on the fact that international human rights law is addressed to the obligations of a state towards those subject to its jurisdiction whereas international criminal law targets individual perpetrators. Several international treaties might be described as belonging both to human rights and international criminal law. In recent years, international human rights law has taken the view that there is indeed a duty upon states to see that all serious crimes against the person are investigated and prosecuted. Many crimes fall within the ambit of international criminal law. Not all of them bear an obvious relation to the protection and promotion of human rights.
