The forty-eight documents specifically selected for this volume from the many international treaties in existence share a number of common features. They are multilateral international treaties open to universal adoption. They are primarily intended to safeguard certain human interests - basic human rights, humanitarian needs in armed conflicts, and the human environment - rather than to regulate the relations between subjects of international law, usually nation states. The concept of human protection is the unifying theme of the material presented.

The treaties reproduced here in their entirely clearly demonstrate that the nation state is no longer universally perceived as an absolute end in itself, and that the power of international law not only to govern relations among states, but to affect their internal affairs, is increasing. An indication of the growing interdependence among national states and the enhanced significance of international law in areas previously the sole domain of national states, these treaties exemplify in content, though not in theory, the evolution of inter-state law into international public law. Public opinion in individual countries as well as international world opinion have embraced the issues addressed in these treaties as major challenges of our time, especially when the treaties are seen as strongly binding, globally-valid guarantees of moral values, violation of which is no longer acceptable.

This timely volume offers working material from three important domains of international law that are of growing interest to the public and of increasing significance to the individual. The international conventions presented here comprise a valuable resource for lawyers and diplomats, administrators, employees of international organizations, journalists, historians, political scientists, teachers and students, and for anyone concerned with an understanding of a world that has grown in complexity and that is viewed more and more as a single entity.