We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
The problem
The introduction of the 1999 Annual Report on Human Rights of the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID), which is largely devoted to Kosovo, states:
Within three months of [the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights] this Government sent its armed forces into conflict to defend those same rights … Together we stood up for the rights of the people of Kosovo and for the freedoms enshrined in the Declaration. NATO was united in its resolve to defend those rights and the international community was overwhelmingly supportive of our actions … This was not a conflict we wanted. But there could not have been a more vivid way of demonstrating our commitment to human rights as enshrined in the Declaration. (FCO and DFID, 1999: 10–11)
Several commentators in Western societies saw their governments' readiness to use military force to defend human rights, together with other events such as the agreement to establish an international criminal court and the arrest of General Pinochet in London, as marking the dawn of a new era for human rights. For others, however, using force in the name of human rights represented a dramatic step backwards in the efforts that had been made since the Second World War to build a just and humane world order based on respect for human rights and the dignity and worth of each person.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
