ABSTRACT
The Charter of the United Nations presents a radical departure from previous approaches to the international protection of human rights. For some 3,000 years the concern of the international community was restricted to the treatment of foreigners, and various procedures were devised for dealing with claims of a citizen of one country against another country for wrongs suffered in the territory of the second country, or due to violations of international law by its officials, citizens or inhabitants.1 Only a hundred years ago, the international community expressed its interest in the fate of minorities in limited areas of Europe, and in the fate of people inhabiting certain parts of Africa.2
