19 two Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties (of 1969 and 1986) contain an assertion of the principle of universal respect for, and observance of, human rights 70. The treaty-making power is no longer an exclusive prerogative of States, as it used to be in the past; the 1986 [second] Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties came to address the treaty-making of international organizations, some of which devoted to causes of direct interest to human beings and humankind as a whole. 66. The interpretation of treaties has been considerably enriched by the methodology pursued by international supervisory organs of human rights treaties. Such interpretation has adjusted itself to the specificity of human rights treaties 71. It has, moreover, favoured a harmonization of the standards of implementation of the protected rights in the domestic legal order of the States Parties to those treaties 72. The two international human rights Tribunals (the European and Inter-American Courts) have been engaged in a converging jurisprudential construction in respect of reservations to treaties to the effect of avoiding to deprive human rights treaties of their effet utile, thus preserving the mechanisms of protection of the human person established by them. III. International Rule of Law: Non-Appearance and the Duty of Compliance. 67. Until the Inter-American Court's Judgments of 01.09.2001 dismissing Trinidad and Tobago's preliminary objections in the Hilaire, Constantine et allii, and Benjamin et allii cases (cf. supra), the respondent State appeared before the Court, having participated in the contentious proceedings and presented its arguments before the Court. In the Hilaire case, in particular, it appeared before the Court in the public hearing of 10 August 2000, wherein it submitted its views in an orderly and procedurally constructive way. After being notified of the Court's adverse decision, Trinidad and Tobago no longer appeared before the Court, neither in the proceedings on the merits in the aforementioned cases (joined), nor in the proceedings of the subsequent and present Caesar case. 68. Despite its non-appearance 73, Trinidad and Tobago remains bound by the Court's Judgments in all these cases: though rendered after its denunciation of the American Convention, they pertain to acts taken by the State before the denunciation, in accordance with the terms of Article 78 of the American Convention. Together with and Human Rights", in Toward World Order and Human Dignity - Essays in Honor of M.S. McDougal (eds. W.M. Reisman and B.H. Weston), N.Y./London, Free Press, 1976, p. 265. 70 . Sixth preambular paragraph in fine, texts reproduced respectively in: U.N., United Nations Conference on the Law of Treaties - Official Records, Documents of the Conference (Vienna, 1968-1969), vol. III, N.Y., U.N., 1971, p. 289; and in: U.N., United Nations Conference on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations - Official Records, Documents of the Conference (Vienna, 1986), vol. II, N.Y., U.N., 1995, p. 95. 71 . R. Bernhardt, "Thoughts on the Interpretation of Human Rights Treaties", in Protecting Human Rights: The European Dimension -Studies in Honour of G.J. Wiarda (eds. F. Matscher and H. Petzold), Köln, C. Heymanns, 1988, pp. 66-67 and 70-71. And cf. Erik Suy, "Droit des traités et droits de l'homme", (eds. R. Bernhardt et alii), Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1983, pp. 935-947; E. Schwelb, "The Law of Treaties and Human Rights", op. cit. supra n. (69), pp. 262-283; G.E. do Nascimento e Silva, Conferência de Viena... , op. cit. supra n. (66), pp. 80-81; E. de la Guardia and M. Delpech, El Derecho de los Tratados y la Convención de Viena, Buenos Aires, La Ley, 1970, pp. 458 and 454; F. Capotorti, "Il Diritto dei Trattati Secondo la Convenzione di Vienna", in Convenzione di Vienna sul Diritto dei Trattati, Padova, Cedam, 1984, p. 61. 72 . F. Matscher, "Methods of Interpretation of the Convention", in The European System for the Protection of Human Rights (eds. R.St.J. MacDonald, F. Matscher and H. Petzold), Dordrecht, Nijhoff, 1993, pp. 66 and 73. 73 . For a general study of non-appearance, cf. J.B. Elkind, Non-Appearance before the International Court of Justice..., op. cit. infra n. (80), pp. 1-206; H.W.A. Thirlway, Non-Appearance before the International Court of Justice, Cambridge, University Press, 1985, pp. 1-184.