ABSTRACT
Strangely enough, the unprecedented international expansion of human rights today can have the effect of obscuring the primary requirement to guarantee their protection at the national level, which is the specific responsibility of each state. What seems to be an international code of human rights has been drawn up, and a network of bodies has gradually been installed in both worldwide and regional organizations. This spread of international norms and procedures1 encourages public opinion and the media, for example, to consider that it is the international community and the bodies it has set up which are mainly and directly responsible for implementing and enforcing human rights throughout the world. One even frequently hears such questions as 'But what is the United Nations doing to guarantee human rights in such and such a country?', as if this worldwide organization were directly responsible for human rights and for their protection in the event of a violation within the frontiers of a given state.
