International Protection of Human Rights

IT WOULD be possible for me to make a dissertation on the attempts that have been made throughout history to provide international protection for human rights and to show how these attempts have culminated in the machinery now provided by the United Nations Charter. Such a dissertation would outline mankind's quest for a higher law, for some criteria higher than the law of the state. Philosophers and jurists throughout the ages have attempted to define a law of nature which, it is said, is both anterior and superior to the positive law of the state. Churchmen have defined the laws of God, and others have traced precepts of moral law. Finally, jurists and statesmen have developed a jus gentium, or international law. All of these, by whatever name they be called, have this one thing in common: they posit the existence and development of a law higher than the law of particular states. It is by some such higher law that the nations will eventually set up international protection of human rights. But such a dissertation, however interesting and however tempting, would be impersonal. It is something that could be done by scores of jurists more competent than I am. I will therefore choose to give you a more or less factual account of the measures that are being taken by the United Nations toward the international protection of human rights. I must remind you, however, that I am speaking as an international official and that I am not, therefore, a completely free agent. Indeed, I think it is true that international servants are in a more delicate position than are national civil servants. I am a servant not of one but of fifty-five governments, and it happens that my particular responsibilities are in a field which is full of potential political controversies. Therefore, whatever my personal views may be, as the Director of the Division of Human Rights, I must maintain a position of strict objectivity. It will be admitted, I think, that the success of the United Nations depends partly on the role of its Secretariat; and the effectiven ss of the Secretariat depends not only on its efficiency and competence but even more on its discretion and ability to retain the confidence of all Member Governments by a policy and practice of strict objectivity

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