ABSTRACT
Peace and human rights can be studied axiologically, to attempt to determine whether one or both are values, or sets of values, and which one, the one covered by the term ‘human rights’ or the one denoted as ‘peace’, is higher, that is, more desirable. The only significant enrichment of the traditional catalogue of human rights came in the form of the right of peoples to self-determination, which was transformed from a legitimate value to a collective right, placed at the beginning of both covenants. The proposition that certain accepted values shall be expressed in terms of individual rights, necessary for the attainment or protection of the relevant good, is at the origin of human rights thinking, especially in legal theory. Elementary peace was internationally recognized as a universal value earlier than human rights. The statement that human rights are a prerequisite of peace can have a weaker or a stronger form.
