National Security and Human Rights in International Law

Abstract

The post war-on-terror era has witnessed several developments in international law, including the nature and function of national security. This article establishes a link between national security and human rights by looking at some practical implications from a State policy perspective and theoretical views. Any discussion on the two distinct areas of ‘national security’ and ‘human rights’ are, of course, not equal. However, the discussions in this article relate to how international law interacts with national security over human rights given that national security relates to a State’s domestic affairs but with implications for the international legal system. Thus, through theory and practice, this article demonstrates that national security and human rights are unstable. This article addresses the question of whether national security and human rights obligations are in conflict or whether international law has been over-responsive or under-responsive to either human rights or national security concerns.

Keywords

• human rights
• national security
• conflict
• statist logic