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creation of great numbers of human rights treaties to the proliferation of effective
human rights courts and other control mechanisms.
5
The phenomenon of human rights permeating international law includes both
Human-Rightism,
6
as the process of influencing the international law directly
through the explicit inclusion of human rights norms into international agreements
or indirectly through becoming a common “feature” of modern international law-
making and application, and Humanisation,
7
in the sense of a continuing shift of
international law’s focus from the state to the individual.
8
Theodor Meron,
in his
book
The Humanization of International Law,
provides a comprehensive overview in
this respect.
9
He argues that the “
humanization of public international law under the
impact of human rights has shifted its focus above all from State-centered to individual-
centered
.”
10
Human rights, as part of the developments and trends just mentioned, also
gained a specific position in international law. The notion “specific position”
shall not necessarily be understood here as attributing to human rights law a
special, distinctive nature in the sense of a
self-contained regime,
11
to which rules
and principles of general international law are (partially or fully) not applicable.
12
It shall rather point out the specific character of effect which human rights has had
5
For a reflection on the limits of legalism in the context of human rights, see WOODIWISS, Anthony.
The law cannot be enough: Human rights and the limits of legalism. In MECKLED-GARCÍA, Saladin,
CALI, Basąk (eds.).
The legalization of human rights: multidisciplinary perspectives on human rights and
human rights law
. New York: Routledge, 2006, pp. 32-48.
6
PRONTO, Arnold N. ‘Human-Rightism’ and the Development of General International Law.
Leiden
Journal of International Law
. 2007, vol. 20, no. 04, p. 754. But see
Pellet
, who views „human-rightism“
rather critically, arguing against the idea of human rights being something special and autonomous
(PELLET, Allain. Human Rightism and International law.
Italian Yearbook of International Law
. 2000,
vol. 10, pp. 3-16).
7
For challenges of this process see a brief analysis of
Benedek
: BENEDEK, Wolfgang. Challenges
of a humanization of international relations by international law. In
Challenges of Contemporary
International Law and International Relations: Liber Amicorum In Honour of Ernest Petrič
. Nova Gorica:
The European Faculty of Law, 2011, pp. 8-93.
8
LARSEN, Kjetil Mujezinović.
The human rights treaty obligations of peacekeepers
. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2012, pp. 58-59.
9
MERON, Theodor.
The humanization of international law
.
Supra
note 4.
10
MERON, Theodor.
The humanization of international law
.
Supra
note 4, Introduction.
11
In the international community there is no consensus on what „self-contained regime“ in international
law means. Hence it is even more doubtful whether human rights (can) constitute such a regime. On
self-contained regimes
cf.
SIMMA, Bruno, PULKOWSKI, Dirk. Of Planets and the Universe: Self-
contained Regimes in International Law.
European Journal of International Law
, Vol 17 no. 3, 2006,
pp. 483-529.
12
This approach was also unanimously refused by the ILA Committee on International Human
Rights Law and Practice, which was given the task of preparing a report on the relationship between
general international law and international human rights law. The Committee decided to follow
the “reconciliation” approach, i.e. trying to reconcile these two branches of law with each other. See
KAMMINGA, Menno T., SCHEININ, Martin.
The impact of human rights law on general international
law. Supra
note 4, pp. 1-2.