Contemporary Issues

Abstract

During the last fifty years, many human rights standards have been developed (see Chapter 1). Human rights have in fact become one of the main issues in today’s international affairs. Respect for the well-being of citizens is not only the subject of attention by scholars; it is also linked to the day-to-day political debate. For years, the Cold War structured the human rights debate. With the end of the Cold War, the human rights debate obtained a new structure. New players put new items on the agenda. Third World countries asked attention for their views with regard to the universality of human rights and cultural diversity. They asked attention for the rights of groups, so-called collective rights, a notion that has been presented next to an alleged overemphasis in the west on individual rights. In addition, they emphasized the importance of economic, social and cultural rights. Today, these rights are increasingly — at least outside the United States — presented as equal to the classic civil and political rights. As a consequence of regime changes that took place in the last decennium of the twentieth century, in Eastern Europe as also in South Africa and Latin America, the question was brought up as to what should happen to persons guilty of gross human rights violations under a previous regime.