Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1993

In view of the massive human rights violations in modern Europe & the apparent failure of the international machinery to combat & prevent abuses, even in situations of grave breaches of human rights & humanitarian law, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) decided to convene a working group of international experts. The project on international mechanisms for the monitoring & protection of human rights & the prevention of human rights violations in Europe was carried out by the IHF in collaboration with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) & the Institute for Human Rights in Finland. The working group of experts met twice in early 1993 to prepare thorough analyses of a number of the established human rights mechanisms under the UN, the CSCE, the Council of Europe & the EC. It generally agreed that the available machinery for the protection of human rights & the prevention of their abuses should be considered in a complementary rather than a competitive fashion. The working group, however, also found that better coordination & cooperation of activities, as well as sharing of information between the international & regional machinery is crucial. In this context, agreement was reached on a set of general recommendations, which are included in this volume. The book does not offer a complete overview of all the available mechanisms which impact human rights in Europe. The contributions, however, provide a broad picture of the complexity of this machinery. They do not attempt to present a coherent programme for these complex issues, but rather to stimulate discussion & to suggest some further steps which could be taken.Dinstein, Yoram is the author of 'Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1993' with ISBN 9780792325819 and ISBN 0792325818.