BBC World Service
Tuesday, 4 April, 2000, 11:30 GMT 12:30 UK
The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has said that violations of human rights are no longer considered an internal matter.
Addressing the UN Human Rights Conference in Geneva, he said international human rights law is emphatic that when there are violations the international community has a duty to come to the aid of the victims.
He said that increasingly governments were ensuring that their national laws complied with international standards.
But he said there was still too great a gap between the signing of pledges and the implementation of their provisions.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service