The paradox of the universality of human rights and reginal interests: The Bosnia Herzegovina crisis

Developments in human rights have begun to gain momentum in the 20th century. In particular, Violations happened in the World War II led the states to make legal arrangements in this respect. The universal character of human rights is particularly emphasized in international texts prepared under the leadership of European states. Although the concept of universality has always been emphasized in international conventions, it has not been applied to include everybody in practice. This has been assessed at various points on the cases of Gaza, Somalia and Rwanda in the context of the study. No effective initiatives have been taken by powerful states to prevent events that have happened in places that do not coincide with their interests. Nonetheless, their intervention without delay to places where economic and political interests are threatened, has made their sincerity about universalism of human rights debatable. Towards the end of the 20th century, Bosnian Muslims have suffered genocide because of their ethnic identities. The Serbians have been disturbed because of the establishment of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Republic in 1991 and recognition of the state in a short time. The Serbs, who did not want to see a state where the Muslim population was very intense, attacked Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) have been undecided about the intervention to genocide. Case studies have made it necessary to examine whether the real goals of developed states in their interventions are to protect human rights. As a result of the Dayton Treaty, the conflicts have come to an end, but the question of whether the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina is fairly solved has long been debated. The new order created in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been examined and the degree of independence of the state has been interpreted. As a result, the narrowing of the area of human rights protection for the sake of regional interests has been tried to be demonstrated through the Bosnian Crisis. As a research method, literature review and archive review of national and international newspapers have been used. In this context, the level of consistency of universal discourse was evaluated by examining legal texts and concrete examples. In today's world, the universal human rights phenomenon continues to be defeated by the interests of the states. The fact that human rights are not implemented to include everybody deepens violations. The universal quality should be seen as the aim to be reached rather than being used as an intervention means to realize interests. Keywords: Human Rights, Universality, International Conventions, United Nations, Regional Interests, Bosnia Herzegovina, Dayton Treaty.