The Role of Human Rights in Good Governance

Two revolutions in our time i.e. the end of the Cold War and the communication revolution in the 1990s were among the major factors that undermined the principles of states’ sovereignty and non-intervention in the affairs of independent states which were the raison d’être of modern states in the previous centuries. These revolutions have opened the internal affairs of states to the outside world and transmitted the voices of different groups to outside. As a result, the universal attention to human rights issues have increased and states have become more susceptible to and responsible for observing those rights. Increased universal awareness about human rights issues has contributed to change of paradigm of the states’ main function from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ in which the responsibility of the government extended to include the responsibilities of the business community and the civil society. ‘Good governance’ is more idealistic form of governance that administers public affairs and resources with utmost transparency and attention to different dimensions of human rights, as civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.