Sovereignty – security – human rights

In classical way of thinking sovereignty is defined as a legal independence from any external factors and the competence, which allows to regulate of all relations within the state. However, such way of understanding of sovereignty, in recent years, is a subject of reinterpretation. One of the important determi-nants of this process was the development of ideas and international legal protection of human rights. The article, besides the introduction and recapitulation, consists of three main parts. In the first part, author showed the development of the international regime of human rights and norms protecting sovereignty, which took place after World War II. The second part of the article concerns the relationship between the principle of state sovereignty and human rights, considered in the context of humanitarian intervention. The last part describes the establishment and functioning of the International Criminal Court, perceived as an important factor, which affect the way of thinking about sovereignty