Enforcement of Human Rights: Effectiveness of International Legislation

Abstract

The juxtaposition of legal sovereignty against international duty (in the form of fostering greater respect for human rights across the globe) became one of the founding attributes of the post World War II political regime. Several human rights legislations were coined, deliberated upon, and ratified. However, the fact that ratification alone has not led to better human rights regime is something that many would not deny. In fact, this entire concept of drafting soft law principles has been cynically questioned by critics, citing the lack of a proper enforcement mechanism and real legitimacy as reasons for its failure. Moreover, several empirical studies have been evidence of the fact that respect for human rights is more intrinsically connected with ancillary principles such as a democratic regime, the strength of participation of civil society, the conflict status of a country and several others, and not treaty ratification alone. It is this claim that the researcher has analyzed in the course of this paper