Human rights vs. national security

With the exception of non-derogable human rights (international conventions class the right to life, the right to be free from slavery, the right to be free from torture and the right to be free from retroactive application of penal laws as non-derogable[84]), the UN recognises that human rights can be limited or even pushed aside during times of national emergency - although

“ the emergency must be actual, affect the whole population and the threat must be to the very existence of the nation. The declaration of emergency must also be a last resort and a temporary measure ”
—United Nations. The Resource[84]


Rights that cannot be derogated for reasons of national security in any circumstances are known as peremptory norms or jus cogens. Such United Nations Charter obligations are binding on all states and cannot be modified by treaty.

Examples of national security being used to justify human rights violations include the Japanese American internment during World War II,[85] Stalin's Great Purge,[86] and the actual and alleged modern-day abuses of terror suspects rights by some western countries, often in the name of the War on Terror