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In the brutal armed conflicts which take place even in the 21st century, without a basic observance of the rules of war, serious violations of the basic human rights are almost always present. Some of the recent armed conflicts have been so cruel that they have violated everything that has been adopted so far as standards of human behavior in war conditions. In most contemporary armed conflicts, civilians are often deliberately targeted through the use of illegal means and methods of warfare. Almost all contemporary armed conflicts cause serious violations of children's rights, forced displacement, damage to civilian infrastructure, sexual assaults, even using the humanitarian aid as a weapon of war. On many occasions, violations constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against international law. Unfortunately, the international community sometimes only witnesses these developments without significant results in their prevention. Human rights violations are often accompanied by impunity for the perpetrators, which in some ways undermines the basic idea of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. For these reasons, one of the conclusions in this paper is that the United Nations as a global international organization is most called upon to act effectively to prevent such crimes, as well as to locate responsibility if war crimes have taken place. Hence, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on impermissible violation of international standards established with the International Human Rights Law and the International Humanitarian Law. The paper provides an overview of the treatment of basic human rights in contemporary armed conflicts, with a special focus on conflicts that have taken place in the past two decades and those that are currently ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of the different ways transnational corporations (TNCs) are held responsible for their violations of human rights standards has its own, long history. All the academic and legal efforts to date that have sought to clarify the proper grounds for effective remedies for wrongs that have been committed, have however failed to overcome the substantive obstacles and objections. Against such a complicated background the Authors present some reflections regarding the question of whether there is any possibility to take a step forward. Bearing in mind the powerful position of the TNCs, the Authors try to argue that – to some extent – mechanisms connected to State obligations in the field of human rights could be effective, if properly used, in relation to this type of corporate entity. Moreover, the absence of legally binding international rules (i.e. hard law) in the field under discussion is undoubtedly a missing factor for success. The article concludes that as long as the obligations and responsibilities of TNCs are not covered by legally binding and effectively enforced international rules, it will be impossible to cut this "Gordian knot". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In totalitarian countries, everything is subordinated to a certain ideology and dictator or party. The powers of the state are unified. Crime is part of the system. Violations of human rights occur daily. Strong political police forces are present. An effective method of repression are politically motivated trials (or show trials); their purpose is to eliminate actual and alleged enemies and to intimidate people. The trials are only seemingly being carried out in accordance with legal norms. In reality, their course and outcome are dictated either by the dictator or the party. During the Second World War, the Kočevje trial took place. It served as an example for all post-war show trials in Slovenia. It was not carried out in accordance with legal norms: in the investigation and the actual trial, human rights were violated, only witnesses and evidence that incriminated the accused were considered, the indictment was issued too late which prevented the accused from preparing their defence, the defending counsels faced a conflict of interests, the judges were lay judges. Additionally, the court in Kočevje had no legal basis since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia still existed at the time.

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The split into the predominantly Muslim Northern Sudan, and Southern Sudan with a Christian and animist majority, had been emerging in the course of many centuries. Without any doubt, one is bound to mention the natural and geographical boundaries, the ethnical diversity of the regions, the influence exercised during the centuries by the Egyptians, Arabs and later on by the British. According to the opinions of some experts on the subject, there can be two distinct matters that have contributed to the split of the North and the South. These were education and religion. Apart from education, also the issue of religion was dividing the Sudan. After the declaration of independence on January 1, 1954 all the Christian private schools in the South were closed down. There remained only state schools with Arabic as the language of instruction and with the upbringing model based on the Koran teaching. Having obtained political independence, the fears of the British administration and Christian missionaries became a reality: Islam was made the state religion. The only way to attain an occupational and social status was to convert to Islam. Frequently, this took place according to the rule of an already accomplished fact or by pressure. In the context of Sudan, one of the biggest country in Africa, with its population of over 37 million, made up of 70 per cent Muslim believers , 14 per cent of Christians, and 12 per cent of animists, it is of great importance for the perception of fundamentalism to be familiar with the history of this country.

The violations of Human Rights remain spread in all over the world until now. There are violations of Human Rights in all the countries in this universe. It is not possible to find a country, which free from this violation. It is very terrible, such as the professional killing and systematic murder. It will cause to grow the culture of dead. This culture does not respect on the human life. The professional killing and systematic murder are real social fact, which are not distinct and justly resolved. This criminal actions will grow more terrible, if the official organs of the government provoke and take apart in this matter, do not want to obstacle and stop them, although they are capable to do it. The culture of Human Rights can be built, if the culture of life has been respected, the people, especially the organ of the government takes care and respect to Human Rights and promote them as well as possible. So the human life will grows to the directions of the welfare for the people and more civilized. If the people develop the culture of Human Rights, the human civilizations will grow for respect them. We have task to develop the culture of Human Rights.

Transitional justice encompasses three large areas of interest: Human rights law, law and comparative political science. Transitional justice analyses and identifies successful legal frameworks for dealing with past regime atrocities, also it deals with measures for dealing with the past for the purpose of establishing justice and with measures for promoting societal restoration and establishment a state of peace. In general, transitional justice measures are being implemented by newly formed democratic states for the purpose of redressing past state atrocities and facilitate a state necessary for developing a modern country which will, in its core, have a respect for human rights. In this article I have presented elementary elements of which transitional justice is made, historical development of transitional justice and her relation to the classical conception of Justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an article published in the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights ('Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia: When Ethnic Identity is a Political Stigma', 15(1) (2008) 49–79), Kjetil Tronvoll from Oslo University argued that in federal Ethiopia, the violations of human rights are in some ways ethnically motivated. Tronvoll's arguments are based on the concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Ethiopia. The objective of my Reply is to show that both CERD and Tronvoll have made unsubstantiated generalisations in trying to gauge any violation of human rights in Ethiopia as an ethnically-motivated occurrence. With this purpose in view, the current article briefly discusses the constitutional legal framework of the Ethiopian federal system, and critically examines the positions of CERD and Dr. Tronvoll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]