I. REPARATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW International law traditionally addressed States as its major subjects. For example, it dealt with wrongful acts and ensuing reparations as a matter of inter-State responsibility.9 The leading opinion in this regard is set out in the often cited judgment of the Permanent Court of International Justice in the Chorzow Factory case: “It is a principle of international law that the breach of an engagement involves an obligation to make a reparation in an adequate form.”10 Before the proclamation of internationally protected human rights, the prevailing view in international law was that wrongs committed by a State against its own nationals were essentially a domestic matter and that wrongs committed by a State against nationals of another State could give rise to claims only by that other State as asserting its own rights. Since the Second World War, with the establishment of the United Nations and the acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations as the principal instrument of international law, the international legal framework has gradually been transformed from a law of coexistence to one of cooperation. The internationalization of human rights was part of this process. With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Human Rights, it was recognized that human rights were no longer a matter of exclusively domestic jurisdiction and that consistent patterns of gross violations of human rights warranted international involvement. Furthermore, international human rights law progressively recognized the right of victims of human rights violations to pursue their claims for redress and reparation before national justice mechanisms and, if need be, before international forums. As a result of the international normative process, the legal basis for a right to a remedy and reparation became firmly enshrined in the elaborate corpus of international human rights instruments, now widely accepted by States. Among these instruments are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 8), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 2), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (art. 6), the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 9 10 See “Study concerning the right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation for victims of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Final report submitted by Mr. Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur” (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/8). 1927, P.C.I.J. (Ser. A) No. 9 at p. 21. 5