State & Human Rights
Paper Synopsis
Robert Badinter
Senator, French Senate; former President of the French Constitutional Court; Professor Emeritus, Université de París; and Global Law Faculty, New York University School of Law

Traditionally, the role of democratic States is seen as the protection of human and citizens rights, notably through judicial review. In France, since the Revolution, this role has been played by Parliament. The rise of constitutionalism only led to the introduction of a unique but imperfect form of judicial review in 1958.

Since the Second World War, democratic States have developed the international protection of human rights through multilateral conventions and control mechanisms to prevent their violation by States. The future of protection of human rights against the worst and most massive violations is the creation of an international criminal court.