Introduction

Abstract

International action to protect what we today call “human rights” has occurred through the centuries. Agitation to suppress the slave trade, for example, dates back to the seventeenth century—though it was not until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that treaties were adopted to suppress the traffic and ultimately to abolish slavery itself. During the same period conventions on the law of war were adopted and laid down rules on such matters as the treatment of prisoners of war and civilian populations. Peace treaties concluded at the close of World War I as well as various provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations had implications for the treatment of minorities. Immediately after World War I the International Labor Organization was created: and it has devoted itself to reducing hours of work, ensuring health and safety standards, promoting collective bargaining, and other programs for workers.