17 for non-compliance with humanitarian conventional obligations, is corroborated in unequivocal terms by the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which, in providing for the conditions in which a breach of treaty may bring about its termination or suspension of its operation, excepts expressly and specifically the "provisions relating to the protection of the human person contained in treaties of a humanitarian character" (Article 60(5)). 58. The provision of Article 60(5) of the two Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties (1969 and 1986), acknowledging the special nature of "treaties of a humanitarian character" and setting forth one of the juridical consequences ensuing therefrom, constitutes a safeguard clause in defence of the human person. In this sense I saw it fit to point out, in a study on the matter published 14 years ago, that "the law of treaties itself of our days, as confirmed by Article 60(5) of the Vienna Convention [on the Law of Treaties], discards the precept of reciprocity in the implementation of the treaties of international protection of human rights and of International Humanitarian Law, by virtue precisely of the humanitarian character of those instruments. Piercing the veil in a domain of international law such as the one concerning treaties - so strongly infiltrated by the voluntarism of States, the aforementioned provision of Article 60(5) of the Vienna Convention de Viena constitutes a clause of safeguard in defence of the human being" 65. 59. In the account of one of the participants in the 1968-1969 Vienna Conference from which the first Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) resulted, the provision at issue resulted from a Swiss amendment, promptly supported by several Delegations, to the effect that the grounds for termination or suspension of operation of treaties should not apply to treaties of a humanitarian character, embodying provisions of protection of the human person 66. Article 60(5) was maintained in the second Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1986). Another participant in the Vienna Conference of 1968-1969 pondered that there are certain obligations - of protection of the human person - endowed with an "absolute character", which cannot be allowed to reduce, as "l'idée d'une régression définitive de la conscience humaine est difficile à accepter. En revanche il serait souhaitable que la pratique internationale se moralise dans tous les domaines et acquière ainsi, par la reconnaissance des États, un niveau croissant de valeur: il pourrait et il devrait y avoir normalement de nouvelles règles progressives. Sans qu'il soit nécessaire d'insister sur ce point, les racines profondes d'une telle conception rejoignent la tradition du droit naturel, rajeunie de nos jours par la conception du droit naturel à contenu progressif. En ce sens aussi, on pourrait soutenir que les règles impératives ont dépassé le stade coutumier pour atteindre un niveau plus stable qui est celui des principes généraux du droit international public" 67. 60. Thus, the contemporary law of treaties itself, as attested by Article 60(5) of the 1969 and the 1986 Vienna Conventions, overcoming the precept of reciprocity in the implementation of treaties of a humanitarian character, reckons that the obligations 65 . A.A. Cançado Trindade, A Proteção Internacional dos Direitos Humanos - Fundamentos Jurídicos e Instrumentos Básicos, São Paulo/Brazil, Ed. Saraiva, 1991, pp. 11-12. 66 . G.E. do Nascimento e Silva, Conferência de Viena sobre o Direito dos Tratados, Rio de Janeiro, MRE/Imprensa Nacional, 1971, p. 81. 67 . P. Reuter, Introduction au droit des traités, 2nd. ed., Paris, PUF, 1985, p. 120.