How is state sovereignty an obstacle to human rights?

State sovereignty may be an obstacle to human rights when such rights are enacted at a supra-national level and implementation or defense of these rights requires sovereign states to enforce them. This creates a principal agent problem, where the interests of the state and the supra-national agency (e.g.) the United Nations) diverge, and the state disregards the agency because it profits off that choice. However, state sovereignty may support human rights when human rights are enacted and enforced by the state itself (which occurs frequently in advanced, Western democracies).