THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN DISINTEGRATING STATES: A NEW CHALLENGE

Under the existing "state-centric" international legal order there is an implicit assumption that a local regime can act to protect human rights, but where this is not the case the negation of state authority can result in the negation of human rights. Thus the disintegration of a state or of state authority presents a special challenge to a legal order which has recognized that human rights violations raise issues of international law, but has not developed effective international mechanisms to implement these rights. This Essay considers how the recent practice of states and of international organizations indicates that political, diplomatic, and even military forms of intervention have come to be seen as necessary and legal means for the protection of human rights in disintegrating states. It argues that the conceptual challenge which is presented by these events provides an impetus for changes not only in specific doctrines applicable to the disintegration of states, but also for more general changes in the state-centric nature of the international legal order itself.