Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2010
At the heart of human rights work is the attempt to protect individuals from the abuse of power or neglect on the part of their own governments. At the international level, this translates into State responsibility for the way in which the government treats its own people, supplementing the older international law regarding the treatment of aliens and the law of war which also (originally) addressed only the treatment of non-nationals.
1 See the judgment of the Inter-American Human Rights Court in Velasquez-Rodriguez v. Honduras.
2 For an example of such convergence, see the “Guiding Principles on internal displacement”, prepared under the auspices of the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, see infra p. 545, and “Compilation and analysis of legal standards”, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/52/Add.2.
3 Israel/Lebanon, Unlawful killings during operation “Grapes of Wrath”, Amnesty International, London, July 1996 Google Scholar (AI Index MDE 15/42/96).
4 Proxy targets: Civilians in the war in Burundi, Human Rights Watch, New York, 1998.Google Scholar
5 Report of the Working group on a draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in armed conflicts on its fourth session, Annex II, Chairman's Perception, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/102.