Week 7

Economic, Social, Cultural Rights

Idea that Human Rights should be guaranteed without suspension or conditions

- General comment 3: take immediate concrete actions towards progressive realization of the
Covenants.

- start by creating institutions, passing laws

- make the claims actionable

- An obligation to move rapidly ( are they really?)

- Minimum core rights: general comment 3
- economic, social, and cultural rights there are steps that nations have to take to minimum
requirements ( ex. primary resources)

- The Doha Obligation: exception to the WTO patent licensing of drugs would have made it
inaccessible to LDCs can be produced by the LDCs or produced by companies who do not
pay for the patent
how can we measure these rights?

- The agony complaint ( Kiobel )

Duty of Rights

Respect: negative obligation, do not harm/interfere

Protect: state responsibility vis a vis third parties; regulation and enforcement of law
Ensure/Fulfill: positive obligation to realize right
Duty to Promote: educate, improve infrastructure

Rubenstein

- more that the committee can do, NGOs have more on grounds resources and could be more
enforcing of these rights

- he believes that Roths idea that rights are expensive is wrong

Roth

- In issues of distributive justice there is never going to be an elimination of economic

inequality, it shoudl be an issue of the general public??? Matters of the state.

- Focus on political and civil rights are universal and thats what the HR should focus on
Chop Fine report

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- rich piece of Nigeria that spends its resources in wasteful projects and corruption
- primary school underfunded, while university overfunded ( giving more to the elite and less to
the poor ) cannot be considered trade offs for rights

- benchmark: as the economy grows does the economy gap get smaller?
- obligations to respect, prtect, promote fulfill
- in the ISC rights there is a necessity to have political and civil rights
- how do you know that they have been violated?what a minimum core should be.Cant
arbitrarily not allow certain socio-econ-political people a right to certain rights
- are economic, social, political rights extraterritorial? do countries have a right to violate
this rights and have effects in other countries

- what is the obligation of the LDCs: progressive or immediate realization

States of Emergency

- often undeclared based on the ICCP

- still, the human rights committee will look at the scope, and duritation of the violation.
- A derogation of a right: a temporary limitation to the right ( although they often can)
- a limitation: necessary for the protection of a legitimate interest and proportionate to protect
-

state interest and should be forever

sboth should be proportionate, it is not a blank check for the state
Ex. in france currently: arbitrary detention, blocking sites
they tend to be democracies that practice rule of law and these actions are only temporary
an armed conflict is the quintessential example of when the situation in which states call for a
state of emergency

Laws of War

- the roots of Humanitarian law ( also known as the laws of war and has shifted to the
protection of civilians) lie in unity and international cooperation

- Human rights law is an obligation of the state to whoever is on the states territory and only
upon virtue of the persons humanity

- jus ad bellum- theories of just war

- jus in bellum- law during war
Human Rights in Armed Conflict

- lex specialis- a specific law would ovveride general law

- in an armed conflict, the humanitarian law ( hr in war) supersedes Human rights law

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- immediate change to humanitarian law

- both laws apply at the same time, and if there is conflict they will find ways to solve them
( interpret as complementary) prevailing view of the relationship.