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| Extradite: the act of delivering a fugitive to the authorities of another country pursuant to a preexisting agreement between the countries. |
| Jurisdictional: restricted to the geographic area controlled or otherwise under the authority of a state. |
| International Criminal Court: a permanent international court created by treaty, with 104 states party to the treaty. The treaty came into force in July, 2002. The Court has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide involving countries that are party to the treaty and in instances when those countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute an instance of one of those crimes occurring on its territory. |
A variety of agencies in both the public sector and civil society have sprung up over the last sixty years to ensure that the human rights protected by international agreements are properly implemented and enforced. These range from the various arms of the United Nations (see “UN Architecture”) to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Bureau Human Rights and Bureau of Labor to large transnational NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (see “The Rise of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Global Civil Society”).
In general, it is assumed that states will (a) either prosecute offenders who commit human rights violations within their territory extradite suspects to the state that has primary jurisdiction over the case for prosecution. Even within the international human rights regime, deference is still given to states out of respect for their sovereignty.1
International authorities, such as the United Nations or the recently created International Criminal Court (ICC) (see “The International Criminal Court”), generally intervene only in cases in which the state with jurisdiction cannot or refuses to prosecute.2 As a principle, “Coercive international enforcement is extraordinarily contentious and without much legal precedent.”3
For more on enforcement of international law and the importance of state sovereignty, see “How Is International Law Enforced?” and “The Issue of Sovereignty”.
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