Current Challenges of International and European Human Rights Law: Introductory Remarks

The protection of human rights is one of the most important issues in the modern world and their development is a challenge for all legal systems. Human rights protection is an established fact in international law. This is both an expression of the expectations of the states that have created this system and an instrument designed to see the solutions contained therein incorporated into national legal systems. Human rights are of particular interest on the Old Continent. They have been developed both within the regional system of the Council of Europe and, as 'fundamental rights', within the European Union. Human rights are one of those areas where both legally binding instruments and 'soft law' acts are adopted. These acts of 'soft law' do not formally create legal obligations but they nevertheless affect their addressees, including states, by virtue of the respect given to the entities that adopt them. There are also examples of 'soft law' acts having institutional setting and significance with the creation of bodies to monitor their implementation. This paper contains introductory remarks in relation to current issues in the field of international and European human rights law that are presented in this Special Issue of the International Community Law Review (ICLR).