Abstract. The adoption of a large number of international documents regulating civil, political, social, economic, and cultural human rights has led to the emergence of development of human rights law as a separate branch of international law. Human rights issues have also increasingly attracted the attention of researchers working in the fields of sociology, conflict management, world politics and international relations. While recognizing that human rights protection plays a key role in the democratic governance, both Russian and foreign experts point at a high degree of politicization of human rights agenda, especially when it comes to criticizing violations of human rights in countries other than liberal democracies. In recent decades, protection of human rights has also been increasingly associated with humanitarian intervention and violation of sovereignty. Human rights agenda remains a point of divergence for national governments, some of which are trying to advance and impose their own standards on other nations.