Chapter 1 • International Human Rights Law and the Role of the Legal Professions: A General Introduction v v v v “international conventions”; “international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law”; “general principles of law recognized by” the community of nations;9 “judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists ... as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law”. Without seeking to be exhaustive, the next section will set forth the essential characteristics of the main sources of international human rights law. However, it should be noted at the outset that in international human rights law, judicial decisions, and also quasi-judicial decisions and general comments adopted by monitoring organs, take on special relevance in understanding the extent of the legal obligations of States. Human rights must be effectively protected by domestic legal systems. Judges, prosecutors and lawyers have a crucial role to fulfil in ensuring that human rights are effectively protected at the domestic level. The principal sources of international law are international conventions, international customary law, and general principles of law. 2.4.1 International treaties In the human rights field, the most important tool for judges, prosecutors and lawyers to consult, apart from existing domestic law, is no doubt the treaty obligations incumbent on the State within whose jurisdiction they are working. A “treaty” is generally a legally binding, written agreement concluded between States,10 but can also be an agreement between, for instance, the United Nations and a State for specific purposes. Treaties may go by different names, such as convention, covenant, protocol, or pact, but the legal effects thereof are the same. At the international level, a State establishes its consent to be bound by a treaty principally through ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession;11 only exceptionally is the consent to be bound expressed by signature.12 However, the function of signature of a treaty is often that of authenticating the text, and it creates an obligation on the State concerned “to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose” of the treaty, at least until the moment it has “made its intention clear not to become a party” thereto.13 Once a treaty has entered into force and is binding upon the States parties, these must perform the treaty obligations “in good faith” (pacta sunt servanda).14 This implies, inter alia, that a State cannot avoid responsibility under international law by invoking the provisions of its internal laws to justify its failure to perform its international legal obligations. Moreover, in international human rights law, State 9 Article 38(1)(c) archaically refers to “civilized nations”. 10 Article 2(1)(a) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. 11 Ibid., article 2(1)(b). 12 Ibid., article 12. 13 Ibid., article 18(a). 14 Ibid., article 26. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 7