So-called obligations erga omnes, owed to the international community as a whole, including all States, now form part of positive international law. These obligations protect some of the most basic values of present-day international relations. Examples include the obligations not to commit genocide or torture, to uphold the most basic human rights, to respect the self-determination of peoples, and so on. However, there is little agreement as to what these obligations imply, how they have come about, and how to identify them. In the literature, at least, there is widespread agreement that obligations erga omnes are different in essence and in nature from obligations owed by one State to another State, so-called obligations inter partes. In turn, this —alleged— radical conceptual break severs obligations erga omnes from a wealth of norms that exist in present-day, general international law, but whose origins lie farther back in time. This thesis attempts to reconcile obligations erga omnes with obligations arising in classic, general international law. It explores what it means to be owed an obligation and how it came to pass that most obligations were owed inter partes. The particular way in which sovereignty came to be conceived and the furtherance of sovereignty, at the expense of other values, forms the pattern that gave rise to obligations inter partes. But even at that time, exceptions to this pattern existed which brought about obligations analogous to those owed erga omnes today. Relevant state practice will be analysed. If obligations erga omnes could have been created in classic international law, it is unjustified to maintain that obligations erga omnes represent so radical a break with the past. Obligations erga omnes are aggregates of bilateral, primary obligations. From this perspective, it is possible to identify these obligations, their consequences, and to discern their origins.

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Étant sans doute l'un des phénomènes qui a le plus marqué le droit international depuis 1945, l'internationalisation des droits de l'homme a laissé des traces qui sont perceptibles dans l'ordre juridique international, notamment dans le droit de la responsabilité internationale. La présente étude se propose de mettre en exergue l'influence exercée par les droits de l'homme ainsi que les valeurs qu'ils incarnent sur le droit de la responsabilité internationale. Cette influence s'est traduite par une objectivisation de la responsabilité internationale avec l'élimination du dommage comme élément constitutif de ce mécanisme. En outre, les droits de l'homme ont contribué à préparer le terrain à l'émergence, l'affermissement et l'enrichissement progressif du concept d'obligations erga omnes, facteur favorisant une approche multilatérale de la responsabilité internationale. L'influence des droits de l'homme sur le droit de la responsabilité internationale est surtout manifeste à travers la possibilité désormais reconnue aux individus victimes d'avoir directement accès aux juridictions internationales pour faire valoir leurs droits. Toutes ces évolutions, qui révèlent la place grandissante accordée à l'individu sur la scène internationale et la volonté de faire de la protection des droits de l'homme un sujet de préoccupation de la Communauté internationale, font de la responsabilité pour violation des droits de l'homme une institution spécifique. / Being probably one of the phenomena that has most marked international law since 1945, the internationalization of human rights has left marks that are noticeable in the international legal order, particularly in the international responsibility law. The present study aims to highlight the influence of human rights and the values they incarnate in the law of international responsibility. This influence has resulted in an objectification of international responsibility with the elimination of the damage as an element of that mechanism. In addition, human rights have contributed to prepare the ground for the emergence, consolidation and the gradual enrichment of the concept of erga omnes, factor favoring a multilateral approach to international responsibility. The influence of human rights on the law of international responsibility is mainly manifested through the ability now recognized to individual victims to have direct access to international courts to assert their rights. All these developments, which reveal the increasing importance given to the individual on the international scene and the desire to make the protection of human rights a concern for the international community, make the responsibility for violation of human rights a specific institution.