The Development of universal Human Rights Law: Latin American collaboration as key determinants to the international historical legal process

Abstract

The most wel l-known historical perspective regarding the preparation of the universal system of human rights established after the Second World War by the United Nations only focuses on the work by European lawyers and disregards the important contribution of Latin America. The purpose of this work is to identify the interaction and contribution made by the American Continent regarding the current universal system of human rights. One of the triggering factors was the independence of America, which inf luenced the regional development of doctrines and principles of the international law. A second stage is the spreading of the international Latin American Law which began with The Hague Peace Conference, which, for the f irst time, allowed the participation of publicists from non- European countries to participate in the creation of binding rules of international law. Finally, we mention the work by the American Institute of International Law, co-founded by Chilean Alejandro Álvarez, whose publications directly influenced the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, which in turn was used as a source for the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.