Human Rights (2)

UN structure and monitoring bodies

Review:

Treaties that cover human rights create duties and responsibilities for a government to protect, promote and fulfill the human rights of its people.

The United Nations (UN), a multilateral decision-making organization comprised of 191 member nations, is the key international body responsible for safeguarding human rights worldwide.

There are six major human rights treaties negotiated by the UN member states that expand upon rights first guaranteed in the landmark 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Since 1948 …the human rights treaty system encompasses the following treaties the International Convention on the Elimination of

all forms of Racial Discrimination(in force 4 January 1969)

the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR)(in force 23 March 1976)

the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(in force 23 March 1976)

the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women(in force 3 September 1981)

the Convention Against Torture(in force 26 June 1987)

the Convention on the Rights of the Child(in force 2 September 1990).

UN Human Rights Commission – (this replaced by Human Rights Council)

Functions:

•Setting human rights standards( did it implement them?)•Holding an annual public debate on human rights violation( who sat on the Commission – how often did they meet)•Appointing special rapporteurs, special representatives, experts and workinggroups to study themes or country situations. Today 16 countriesand more than20 thematic procedures are in place

Criticism: Some of the world's most abusive regimes ….won seats on the Human Rights Commission and used them to insulate themselves from criticism."

Human Rights Council

T he Commission's members were pre-selected behind closed doors and then "elected" by acclamation. By contrast, the new members of the Council had to compete for seats, and successful candidates needed to win the support of a majority of all member states, in a secret ballot.

importance of ending double-standards, a problem which plagued the past Commission

Human Rights Council

A new universal periodic review mechanism will offer the Council - and the world - the opportunity to examine the records of all 191 member states of the United Nations. This is a dramatic development with the potential to improve human rights throughout the world.

the Council will meet throughout the year -three times for a total of 10 weeks Council seats have been allocated on a regional basis as follows:

Latin America 8; Western Europe 7; Eastern Europe 6; Africa 13; Asia 13.

all of these changes will amount to very little unless the members of the new Council are prepared to look beyond their immediate political interests and embrace the cause of human rights victims worldwide. That will require principled leadership from every one of them.

Membership of the Human Rights Council by regional groups

 

AFRICAN STATES LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN STATES

Algeria 2007CameroonDjibouti 2009Gabon 2008 Ghana 2008 Mali 2008Mauritius 2009 Morocco 2007 Nigeria 2009 Senegal 2009 South Africa 2007Tunisia 2007 Zambia 2008

Argentina 2007 Brazil 2008 Cuba 2009Ecuador 2007 Guatemala 2008Mexico 2009Peru 2008Uruguay 2009

ASIAN STATES WESTERN EUROPE & OTHER STATES

Bahrain 2007 Bangladesh 2009 China 2009 India 2007 Indonesia 2007 Japan 2008 Jordan 2009 Malaysia 2009 Pakistan 2008Philippines 2007 Republic of Korea 2008Saudi 2009 Arabia Sri Lanka 2008

Canada 2009 Finland 2007 France 2008 Germany 2009 Netherlands 2007 Switzerland 2009 United Kingdom 2008

EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES  

Azerbaijan 2009 Czech Republic 2007Poland 2007 Romania 2008 Russian Federation 2009 Ukraine 2008

 

International Court of Justice (1946)

Functions:

•To settle in accordance with international law the legal disputes submitted to it by states

•To give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by internationalagencies

Tripartite Mechanism for ILO Convention for Protection of Worker’s Rights

•Governments, employers and trade unions

International Criminal Court (agreement to set it up 1998)

Proposed Functions:

•Bring cases against individuals for war crimes, genocide and crimes againsthumanity

•Increasing state responsibility for infringement of human rights

•Contributing to an international order that demands respect for human rights

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (1993)High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello (2002 – 2003. died

tragically in Iraq, 19 August 2003 as Special Representative of the Secretary General)

Functions:

•Providing states with advisory service and technical assistance on request

•Enhancing international cooperation in human rights

•Engaging in dialogues with governments aimed at securing respect for all humanrights

•Promoting effective implementation of human rights standards

60th Session of the Commission on Human Rights: 6 week session opened 20 Jan, 15 March – 23 April 2004, Geneva

Acting High Commissioner, Bertrand Ramcharan,

http://www.unhchr.ch/pdf/Issue%20Nr%201+.pdf

The High Commissioner

Ms. Louise Arbour was appointed High Commissioner in July 2004; Ms. Kyung-wha Kang joined the Office as its Deputy High Commissioner in January 2007.

heads the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The post of High Commissioner was established in December 1993 by a

General Assembly resolution, in accordance with a recommendation contained in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.

The resolution specifies that the High Commissioner is the principal United Nations official responsible for United Nations human rights activities, and that the High Commissioner performs his/her duties under the direction and authority of the Secretary-General. The resolution gives the High Commissioner the broad mandate to promote and protect all human rights: civil, political, economic, social and cultural.

                                              

Mary Robinson, UNHCHR 1997 - 2002

José Ayala-LassoUnited Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights (5 April 1994 - 15 March

1997)

http://www.crlp.org/pub_art_tmb_3.html

International Convention on Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination(1969)International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR)( 1976)International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights( 1976) Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women(1981)

Convention Against Torture( 1987)

Convention on the Rights of the Child

(1990).

Treaty Monitoring Bodies:

CERD (est 1969)

CCPR/HRC (1976)

CESCR (est 1985)

CEDAW (est. 1982)28th Session 13-31 Jan, 03.

CAT (est1987)

CRC (1991)

The treaty bodies are composed of members who are elected by the states parties to each treaty (or through the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in the case of CESCR). In principle, treaty members are elected as experts who are to perform their functions in an independent capacity.

Treaty monitoring bodies

Each committee employs two primary methods to ensure that states observe their human rights treaty obligations. Issue General Comments or Recommendations Review State Protection of Human Rights

Some of the committees have an additional mandate pursuant to the relevant treaty to utilize the following two methods to hold governments accountable to human rights violations. Examine Individual Complaints Investigate Mass Violations

Distr.

GENERAL CCPR/C/SR.1846 19 July 2000 Summary record of the 1846th meeting : Ireland. 19/07/2000. CCPR/C/SR.1846. (Summary Record)Convention Abbreviation: CCPR HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE Sixty-ninth session SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 1846th MEETING Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva,on Thursday, 13 July 2000, at 3 p.m. CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 40 OF THE COVENANT (continued) Second periodic report of Ireland

The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 40 OF THE COVENANT (agenda item 4) (continued) Second periodic report of Ireland (CCPR/C/IRL/98/2; CCPR/C/69/L/IRL) 1. At the invitation of the Chairperson, Mr. McDowell, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Flahive, Mr. Ingoldsby, Mr. Rowan, Ms. McSweeney, Mr. Hanrahan and Mr. MacAodha (Ireland) took places at the Committee table.

HRC : Ireland, some examples In 1993, before the paramilitary cease-fires, the UN Human Rights Committee

said there was no justification for the continued use of the non-jury Special Criminal Court and criticised emergency legislation here.

Mary Robinson: Recent report of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights gave no grounds for complacency in Ireland. It found that the relevant UN Covenant had not been fully incorporated in domestic legislation, and was rarely, if ever. invoked before the courts. (May 1999)

State may be forced into limiting defamation awards (july 2000) Ireland may be forced by the European Court of Human Rights to limit excessive

defamation awards, the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, admitted to the UN Human Rights Committee

The Government will send an interim report on the Offences Against the State Act to the UN Human Rights Committee later this week (July 2001) The Government is forwarding the report in response to a finding of the UN Human

Rights Committee that one aspect of the Act, where the DPP can refer a case to the Special Criminal Court on the basis of a certificate, violated the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

CRC

UN committee recommends ombudsman for children (Jan 1998) An ombudsman for children and a national child-care

authority for Ireland have been recommended by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Its report is highly critical of Ireland's record on child care. In a report issued yesterday, following its hearings on the situation in the Republic, the committee also called for a ban on slapping children

Result:The Ombudsman for Children Act, which sets out the role and powers of this Office, was agreed by the Dail and the Seanad in 2002 In November 2003 the job for Ombudsman for Children was advertised; Emily Logan became Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children in March 2004.

CRC: China

The report alleges that thousands of children are being allowed to die every year from medical neglect and starvation in China's state run orphanages, with the tacit approval of senior political leaders," the statement went on.

UNICEF quoted its executive director, Ms Carol Bellamy, saying that such actions would clearly contravene the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which China has ratified.

First Generation Rights

These encompass political and civil rights Early statements on ‘human rights’ focused

on rights like freedom of speech and assembly and the rights to

take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives

Second Generation rights

These relate to economic, social and cultural rights and featured in the Declaration (Art. 22)

Some argue, these are not rights, they are merely unenforceable individual or group entitlements they are not justiciable They are aspirational, abstract; they cannot be the subject of either

affirmative state obligation or of immediate realization and enforcement ‘for a human being to be considered whole, they must be able to enjoy

both civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights… human rights … become the bedrock of a wholesome and integrated approach to sustainable human development’

1993 Vienna Declaration: explicitly reaffirms the indivisibility, inerdependence and interrelatedness of the two categories of human rights

(http://hdr.undp.org/docs/publications/background_papers/Oloka-Onyango2000.html)

Third Generation Rights

These build on the collective dimension and concern the rights of ‘peoples’

Banjul Charter ( 1981) entered into force1986 Peoples have the right to ‘freely dispose of their wealth and

natural resources’ ( art. 21(1)); the individual has a duty ‘to serve his natural community by placing his physical and intellectual abilities at its service’ and ‘to preserve and strengthen positive African cultural values inhis relations with other members of the society…’ (Art 29 (2) & (7) )

This instrument lays the foundation for a human rights system in Africa, relying on African documents and traditions rather than UN declarations and covenants

Banjul Charter - what makes it different it is different from the European and Inter-

American human rights systems in several respects: the Charter recognizes duties as well as rights; it codifies peoples’ as well as individual rights; and protects economic, social, and cultural rights

in addition to civil and political rights.[79

Banjul Charter: some criticism “claw-back” clauses

permit the routine breach of Charter obligations for reasons of public utility or national security and confine many of the Charter’s protections to rights as they are defined and limited by domestic legislation.

lack of effective enforcement mechanisms; weak institutional structure

…it has not functioned in practice to guarantee or protect their rights…

‘The Banjul Charter’

Human rights are guaranteed in the political constitutions of almost all independent African States; several aspects of he Charter provide evidence of a general acceptance of the normative standards enshrined in the international instruments 9non-discrimination, equality of all persons, fundamental

freedoms and liberties) Banjul Charter: ‘a paper tiger’ violence and human rights abuse has exploded in the African

continent in the 1990s Political persecution of critics, political opponents, journalists,

and human rights activists is also a flagrant practice in many African states

Endemic state corruption also leads to systematic abuse of social, economic, cultural, and environmental rights of large majorities

The African Court of Human Rights 8 June 1998, members of the OAU meeting

in Burkina Faso voted to initiate the process for the creation of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

the protocol for the proposed court requires the ratification of fifteen OAU member States

Cultural Relativism

This is the argument about the extent to which ostensibly universal standards of human rights should be tempered by the local cultural situation that prevails in the distinct regions of the world

This tension is apparent in the text of the African Charter

‘Universalists’ versus ‘relativists