Human Rights - the Property of the Nation State or a Concern for the International Community? A Study of the Soviet Positions Concerning UN Protection of Civil and Political Rights since 1975

Bergesen, H. O. Human Rights - the Property of the Nation State or a Concern for the International Community? A Study of the Soviet Positions Concerning UN Protection of Civil and Political Rights since 1975. Cooperation and Conflict, XIV, 1979, 239-254. The paper analyzes Soviet policy - in general and in concrete cases - as regards the role of UN bodies in the protection of civil and political human rights. The empirical analysis shows that the main Soviet concern is to hinder any development in the direction of independent UN investigations into violations of human rights in specific countries and subsequent UN action to restore respect for those rights. However, the USSR is not opposed to UN bodies expressing their opinion about the human rights situation in specific countries, since resolutions do not unleash an unpredictable machinery of impartial fact-finding. The USSR clearly considers civil and political rights a state property. International organizations, like UN bodies, do not even have the right to inquire into a state's dealings with this property.