ABSTRACT
Arguably, the issue of human rights is fundamentally a twentieth century phenomenon. Indeed, the intellectual discourse on this issue and reaction to it increased after WWII. Before 1945, the primacy of the sovereign nation-state in world politics led to the confinement of the debate on human rights issues to domestic politics. In this respect, the concepts of independence and sovereignty made it difficult for other nations to interfere in what was presumed to be the domestic and internal affairs of a sovereign nation-state. In fact, Chapter 1, Article 2, paragraph 7 of the Charter of the United Nations states: “Nothing contained in the present charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter” (Charter of the United Nations). Little wonder, then, that the international community has had a problem with tackling human rights problems globally.
