This text explains, without legal jargon, exactly what the rules of international human rights are and what they should be, how they have developed, and in what courts and tribunals they may be asserted and vindicated. There is a discussion of the development of human rights as philosophy, then as law. A series of chapters deal with particular late-1990s issues, also explaining the procedures for asserting the rules in different courts and tribunals. A concluding chapter makes proposals for the future, suggesting a shift from diplomacy to institutions which can recognize and enforce human rights rules. The book includes an analysis of the war crimes trials at the Hague, the first occasion since Nuremburg on which the international community has attempted to punish violators of human rights.