6 Key excerpts on "Human Rights Law"

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  Armed Conflict and Human Rights Law

  Protecting Civilians and International Humanitarian Law

  • Daniel Ivo Odon(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  19

  Summing up, the law of human rights is deeply rooted in moral philosophy. Even after the Second World War, modern international law of human rights has been indissolubly linked with moral concerns.20 All conflicts addressed by human rights are also moral conflicts, and through the development of the modern international community, which accounts for plural subjects and sources of law dynamism, human dignity has served as a guide for human rights conflict resolutions appeasement. Both old and new human rights frameworks have had the same overall aim to construct a world that is more peaceful and humane, which would lead to the vanishing of war and all forms of human cruelty and barbarism.21

  The rise of human rights morality

  As stated in Article 1 of UDHR, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Since the birth of human rights in the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 (where the correlated statement was “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”), the words equality in dignity and rights have been added. This subtle change encompasses a substantial reform of what we conceive as human rights and, most of all, who we perceive as human beings.

  A context of value is merged with human rights comprehension – considered human values acquired through the history of mankind – to comprise the juridical inventory of humanity . 22 Although the process of modernization might seem to bring a decline or erosion of values, in fact it has proven the opposite. Too many atrocities and cruelty were perpetrated during the building process of human rights. In general, human rights transgressions are diminishing, while human dignity is being emphatically advocated, which might be due to several reasons.23 However, one of the most important is that the notion of human dignity embraced by human rights encompasses human values related to religious and cultural traditions. These values are associated with a general duty to help people who are suffering, independent of who or where they are. Thinking around human dignity therefore emphasizes (i) the sacredness of human life, (ii) an ethos of love and (iii) universal respect.24

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  Ethics for International Business

  Decision-Making in a Global Political Economy

  • John Kline(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Often formulated in universal language, most documents actually applied these rights only to defined groups of citizens. Therefore, the practical application of rights principles depended on a government’s slowly evolving definition of citizenship while the political focus of rights claims depended on a nation state’s jurisdiction. Although some international agreements articulated human rights ideas, the concept’s application was essentially confined to domestic polities until after World War II. 1 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, stands as the most broadly accepted international statement of normative values that constitute a “common standard of achievement for all people and all nations.” 2 Nearly two decades later, the UN General Assembly attempted to give these principles more precise legal formulation, approving two separate covenants in 1966 that addressed civil and political rights in one document and economic, social and cultural rights in another document. By 1976, enough countries had ratified the covenants to bring them into force, but only countries ratifying the agreements were bound by their provisions and enforcement depended on a weak UN Human Rights Commission whose mandate covered only the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 3 These UN actions nevertheless set the parameters for contemporary debate over using human rights principles to evaluate actions and guide the conduct of international actors, including business enterprises, in a global political economy. Without an appeal to some overriding normative principles, such as human rights, governance of corporate behavior would be reliant on the legal standards set by sovereign national political authorities. However, the Declaration provides a higher (and potentially conflicting) “standard of achievement” that can be used to evaluate and guide corporate actions

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  Principles of International Politics

  • Bruce Bueno de Mesquita(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • CQ Press

    (Publisher)

  9 Human Rights, International Law, and Norms Skulls are lined up at a memorial site in rural Rwanda. OVERVIEW International treaties carry the force of law whereas many international organizations do not. Human rights constitutes one of the most important arenas in which treaties are used to try to improve people’s quality of life. Whether international law and treaties in particular succeed in advancing human rights is hotly debated. The bulk of the systematic evidence is not encouraging. Treaty design and ratification are strategic, endogenous processes so much of what we observe about compliance and ratification reflects selection effects over governmental preferences and expectations. Arguments for equal status for civil liberties, political rights, economic rights, and social rights provide cover for dictators who do not wish to jeopardize their hold on power by granting civil liberties and political rights to their citizens. Poverty is not inherently an impediment to human rights. Human rights, however, help alleviate poverty. Improving quality of life for the world’s poor probably requires giving greater priority to civil liberties and political rights and lower priority to economic rights. W e have now learned some depressing news about international organizations and saw a bit of hope to improve cooperative policy outcomes by the end of chapter 8. Chapters 7 and 8 emphasized how weak the connection is between what signatories promise to do and what they actually do. Many of the international organizations and international agreements we met have norms of conduct to back them up. Others, like the United Nations or the World Trade Organization (WTO), each of which includes a judicial branch, are said to be supported by the force of law

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  Understanding Public Law

  • Hilaire Barnett(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Routledge-Cavendish

    (Publisher)

  The idea that individuals have rights that no government can violate has a long history, and is a key element in most written constitutions. In the United Kingdom, with its uncodified Constitution, the traditional approach to human rights has been rather different. Here, individuals are free to do whatever they please, provided that they do not contravene the law. Freedoms and rights exist but may be limited by what Parliament may enact. For example, in order to understand the scope (and limits) of the right to freedom of speech it is necessary to know that defamation (making wrongful and damaging falsehoods about another person) is actionable; that expression which threatens a breach of the peace or speech, which stirs up racial hatred, is a criminal offence. The ‘right’ is what remains once all the restrictions are considered.

  This conventional approach must now be seen in light of both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998, which makes the majority of Convention rights enforceable in the domestic courts. Before looking at these in detail, a brief overview of the history of rights is required.

  The origins of rights

  In Western societies Christian natural law has historically been highly influential. Natural law thought pre-dates Christianity and may be traced to the ancient Greek philosophers. Natural law theory in essence claims that there is a higher source of authority than the government. That higher source is – for Christian natural law theorists – God. For secular theorists, the higher source of authority is man’s rationality, which enables humans to understand what is morally required for the law of the State to be valid and to require the obedience of its citizens. In either case – religious or secular – natural law sets moral standards with which the law must comply. Failure to comply with this essential morality would make the law of the State invalid. Furthermore, according to some theorists, if the law of the State (the positive law) fails to match up to moral standards, citizens are not obliged to follow that law. An immoral law is no law and creates no obligation of obedience. This, in turn, leads to questions about the obligation to obey law and the ‘right’ to be civilly disobedient in order to raise awareness about a morally repugnant law.1

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  Prisoners' Rights

  Principles and Practice

  • Susan Easton(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Willan

    (Publisher)

  3 The increasing importance of international Human Rights Law and standards

  Introduction

  International Human Rights Law and standards have become increasingly important within the European context as prison regimes are subjected to more intense scrutiny by the courts. These international law obligations impose duties on states to provide a humane regime. So prison authorities have to justify their policies and procedures against these human rights standards. These human rights instruments include the United Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the findings of the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the European Prison Rules (EPR). Prisoners’ rights are also international in a broader sense as the reputation of a state on the international stage will be judged in part by its treatment of prisoners and when foreign prisoners are detained, the attention of the international community will be focused more closely on prison standards. Within international Human Rights Law and particularly European Convention jurisprudence, we find a strong foundation for prisoners’ rights, although some of these rights may be qualified. However, the prohibition against torture in international Human Rights Law allows for no exceptions or derogations and is a general binding principle, jus cogens , which applies to states irrespective of whether they have ratified a particular treaty.

  The development of these international standards on detention is a dynamic ongoing process and has contributed to the improved standards of detention within prison and pre-trial at the police station. As more states have joined the Council of Europe, their prison regimes have been brought under the scrutiny of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the European Court of Human Rights. However, the impact of international Human Rights Law may vary according to local and national traditions, the financial resources of states and the national and local awareness of human rights issues. But while some of the human rights treaties have been incorporated into domestic law, not all their provisions are binding on states parties and there may be problems of implementation and enforcement of formal rights. The use of torture by states around the world is widespread as documented by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, despite formal acceptance by those states of the prohibition on torture and the status of the prohibition. As well as the practice of torture, there is also considerable variation worldwide in prison conditions. Some states have very harsh conditions and do not comply with the most basic minimum standards, some states formally accept rights but do not implement them, through lack of political will, insufficient resources or the appropriate organizational infrastructure. There is also the problem that if visits are conducted periodically and at selected institutions, these correctional facilities may be ‘upgraded’ for the purpose of the visit, but these conditions may not be representative of the state’s penal regime.

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  Healthcare Law: Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998

  • Austen Garwood-Gowers, John Tingle, Tom Lewis(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge-Cavendish

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 2THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998 AND THE COMMON LAW, A HEALTHCARE LAW PERSPECTIVE

  John Hodgson

  COMMON LAW RULES AND THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION

  When the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was drafted in 1949–50, the focus was on human rights writ large. It was part of the general post-war settlement, and was initially conceived as a regional version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.1 It was not until a late stage in the travaux préparatoires that a draft tabled by the UK delegation actually produced an enforcement mechanism.2 Even so the Preamble clearly indicates the relationship with the Universal Declaration:

  The governments signatory hereto, being members of the Council of Europe Considering the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948; Considering that this Declaration aims at securing the universal and effective recognition and observance of the Rights therein declared;

  Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is the achievement of greater unity between its members and that one of the methods by which that aim is to be pursued is the maintenance and further realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms;

  Reaffirming their profound belief in those fundamental freedoms which are the foundation of justice and peace in the world and are best maintained on the one hand by an effective political democracy and on the other by a common understanding and observance of the human rights upon which they depend;

  Being resolved, as the governments of European countries which are likeminded and have a common heritage of political traditions, ideals, freedom and the rule of law, to take the first steps for the collective enforcement of certain of the rights stated in the Universal Declaration.

  While there is a specific guarantee of ‘due process’ in Art 5 (relating to the deprivation of liberty) and Art 6 (relating to trial), it is clear that these were specifically aimed at preventing a repetition of the arbitrary arrests of the GeStapo and other Nazi bodies and the mockery of legality in Freisler’s Volksgericht, with obvious reference to similar abuses in the remaining dictatorships of the left and right in Europe at the time.

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