The Hon Justice M D Kirby AC CMG *
It is fifty years since the United Nations was established. The Charter reflected three important but competing themes - the rights of sovereign states; individual human rights and the rights of peoples to self-determination. The past fifty years have seen the working out of these ideas.
From the viewpoint of his work as Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Human Rights in Cambodia, Justice Kirby will talk of the international machinery which has been established by the United Nations to defend fundamental human rights and to bring those who breach human rights before the world community for judgment. The instruments include the UN Human Rights Committee, the Commission on Human Rights, the system of Special Rapporteurs and Special Representatives and the recently established International Penal Tribunal. Although imperfect, this system has some notable successes. It has had an impact on Australia.
The rights of peoples is a major potential source of conflict in the years to come. There is a lack of institutional machinery to give effect to the people's right to self-determination, e.g. in the case of the peoples of Tibet, East Timor, the Kurds, Chechnya etc. The provision of institutions is necessary. But will the sovereign states, who have the last say in the United Nations, permit it?
