International human rights obligations within the states system

JULIO MONTERO

Barcelona

Congreso; International Conference on Global Constitutionalism; 2017

Universidad Pompeu Fabra

This essay proposes an original account of the content of international human rights obligations according to which human rights postulate a minimal condition for the legitimacy of the states system. This condition requires that no risks for the satisfaction of human rights are created by coercive institutions or that reasonable measures for mitigating them are undertaken. It also argues that the states system involves two concrete human rights risks: the risk that people become unable to enlist external help to resist abuse by their governments and the risk of being confined to live within states that violate human rights either through abuse or insufficient resources to deliver on human rights. As a result, the states system is morally acceptable only if it contains adequate provisions for averting these risks, which grounds two corresponding international human rights obligations: an obligation not to contribute to the perpetration of human rights violations by states and an obligation to make sure that no state is deprived of the resources required by outside agents or by the existence of international property regulations. Furthermore, because fulfillment of these obligations is a necessary condition for the legitimacy of the present international order, it takes priority over the promotion of any national interests.