Washington - This year marked the start of a "new era" for human rights after the international community deployed troops to stop atrocities, arrested a former dictator accused of past abuses and indicted a sitting head of state on ethnic cleansing charges, Human Rights Watch said yesterday on the eve of International Human Rights Day.
"These trends mark the beginning of a new era for the human rights movement," the group said in its annual World Report. "Today, tyrants are increasingly likely to be indicted." The report cites the cases against Gen Augusto Pinochet of Chile and President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia as "significant progress" towards an international system of justice.