The Promise and Limitations of

International human rights doctrine and international law have increasingly come to recognize that the international community has an interest in and responsibility to uphold fundamental human rights. This recognition means that states have come under increasing scrutiny for the way in which they treat their own citizens. Although some scholars continue to maintain that universal human rights do not challenge national sovereignty or state control (for example, see Krasner 2001), the immunity that state officials enjoyed from external interference in their domestic affairs has eroded quite significantly over the past fifteen years. As Andrea Bianchi notes, “while state sovereignty remains one of the pillars on which the system hinges, its actual content has undergone a gradual process of erosion. Matters which once indisputably belonged to the domestic jurisdiction of states, such as the way a state treats persons under its jurisdiction, nowadays may be the object of international scrutiny ” (Bianchi 1999: 117). While realists dismiss such scrutiny as meaningless and ineffectual, they fail to recognize that casting a spotlight on violations of internationally recognized human rights is the first step in holding violators accountable for their actions. Although it ultimately remains the responsibility of national governments to make respect for human rights effective, the international human rights community wields significant power in its ability to “nam