The Effects of Human Rights on the System of ‎International Responsibility of States

After the Second World War, human rights greatly affected the international law. Among the structural changes resulting from the emergence of human rights was the major change in the system of international responsibility of states. Traces of these changes can be found in the decisions of international courts and the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts adopted in 2001. By examining these sources, three categories of changes in the system of international responsibility can be discerned: first is change in the elements of international wrongful act; the second is change in the relationship between offending and aggrieved states; and third is countermeasure by non-aggrieved states. In the first case, the mere breach of an international obligation was sufficient to establish an “internationally wrongful act” and on this basis “material damage” was removed as a constituent element of a wrongful act. In the second case, the mutual relationship between the offending and aggrieved states, in some instances, gave way to the relationship between the offending state and the international community as a whole. In the third case, following the disappearance of the first two, the right to “countermeasure by a non-aggrieved” emerged