Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Brief Introduction
Stephen P. Marks
Harvard University
I: Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1
II. Human rights in ethics, law and social activism ........................................................................ 1
A. Human rights as ethical concerns........................................................................................... 2
B. Human rights as legal rights (positive law tradition) ............................................................. 3
C. Human rights as social claims ................................................................................................ 4
III: Historical milestones................................................................................................................. 5
IV: Tensions and controversies about human rights today ............................................................. 7
A. Why do sovereign states accept human rights obligations? ................................................... 7
B. How do we know which rights are recognized as human rights? .......................................... 8
Table 1: List of human rights .............................................................................................. 9
C. Are human rights the same for everyone? ............................................................................ 11
D. How are human rights put into practice? ............................................................................. 13
1. The norm-creating process ............................................................................................... 13
Table 2: Norm-creating process ........................................................................................ 13
2. The norm-enforcing process ............................................................................................. 14
3. Continuing and new challenges to human rights realization ........................................... 16
Table 3: Means and methods of human rights implementation ........................................ 17
V: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 18
Selected bibliography.................................................................................................................... 18
Selected websites .......................................................................................................................... 19
Universal Declaration of Human Rights ....................................................................................... 21
science, moral philosophy, and can draw on concepts such as natural law,
jurisprudence. Roughly speaking, invoking social contract, justice as fairness,
the term “human rights” (which is often consequentialism and other theories of
referred to as “human rights discourse” or justice. In all these philosophical traditions,
“human rights talk”) is based on moral a right is conceived as an entitlement of
reasoning (ethical discourse), socially individuals, either by virtue of being human
sanctioned norms (legal/political discourse) or because they are members of a political
or social mobilization (advocacy discourse). community (citizens). In law, however, a
These three types of discourse are by no right is any legally protected interest,
means alternative or sequential but are all whatever the social consequence of the
used in different contexts, depending on enforcement of the right on the wellbeing of
who is invoking human rights discourse, to persons other than the right-holder (e.g., the
whom they are addressing their claims, and property right of a landlord to evict a tenant,
what they expect to gain by doing so. The the right of a business to earn profits). To
three types of discourse are inter-related in avoid confusion, it is helpful to use the term
the sense that public reasoning based on “human right” or its equivalent
ethical arguments and social mobilization (“fundamental right,” “basic freedom,”
based on advocacy agendas influence legal “constitutional right”) to refer to a higher-
norms, processes and institutions and thus order right, authoritatively defined and
all three modes of discourse contribute to carrying the expectation that it has a
human rights becoming part of social reality. peremptory character and thus prevails over
other (ordinary) rights and reflects the
A. Human rights as ethical concerns essential values of the society adopting it.
Human rights have in common an Ethical and religious precepts determine
ethical concern for just treatment, built on what one is willing to accept as properly a
empathy or altruism in human behavior and human right. Such precepts are typically
concepts of justice in philosophy. The invoked in the debates over current issues
philosopher and economist, Amartya Sen, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, the
considers that “Human rights can be seen as death penalty, migration, much as they were
primarily ethical demands… Like other around slavery and inequality based on
ethical claims that demand acceptance, there class, gender or ethnicity in the past.
is an implicit presumption in making Enlightenment philosophers derived the
pronouncements on human rights that the centrality of the individual from their
underlying ethical claims will survive open theories of the state of nature. Social
and informed scrutiny.”1 In moral contractarians, especially Jean-Jacques
reasoning, the expression “human rights” is Rousseau, predicated the authority of the
often not distinguished from the more state on its capacity to achieve the optimum
general concept of “rights,” although in law enjoyment of natural rights, that is, of rights
a “right” refers to any entitlement protected inherent in each individual irrespective of
by law, the moral validity or legitimacy of birth or status. He wrote in Essay on the
which may be separate from its legal status Origin on Inequality Among Men that “it is
as an entitlement. The moral basis of a right plainly contrary to the law of nature…that
the privileged few should gorge themselves
1
Amartya Sen, “Elements of a Theory of Human with superfluities, while the starving
Rights,” Philosophy & Public Affairs, vol. 32, No. 4 multitude are in want of the bare necessities
(2004), p. 320.
2 3
D.G.H. Cole translation, p. 117. Sen, supra, note 1, p. 319
and discrimination based on race or sex. in 1988) were among the more effective non-
governmental organizations (NGOs). Latin
The “International Bill of Human America, Africa and Asia saw the creation of
Rights” (consisting of the Universal an extraordinary array of human rights groups
Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] of in the 1980s and 1990s, which have
1948, and two legally-binding treaties proliferated after the end of the Cold War.
opened for signature in 1966, namely, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political These NGOs emerged as social
Rights and the International Covenant on movements catalyzed by outrage at the
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), mistreatment of prisoners, the exploitation of
along with the other human rights treaties of workers, the exclusion of women, children,
the United Nations (UN) and of regional persons with disabilities, or as part of
organizations, constitute the primary sources struggles against slavery, the caste system,
and reference points for what properly colonialism, apartheid, or predatory
belongs in the category of human rights. globalization. Such movements for social
These legally recognized human rights are change often invoke human rights as the basis
discussed below in Part IV.B. of their advocacy. If the prevailing theories of
moral philosophy or the extant codes of
C. Human rights as social claims human rights do not address their concerns,
their action is directed at changing the theory
Before they are written into legal texts, and the legal formulations. NGOs not only
human rights often emerge from claims of contributed to the drafting of the UDHR but
people suffering injustice and thus are based also in bringing down Apartheid,4
on moral sentiment, culturally determined transforming the political and legal
by contextualized moral and religious belief configuration of East-Central Europe5 and
systems. Revolt against tyranny is an ancient restoring democracy in Latin America.6 New
tradition. A modern precursor of social norms emerged as a result of such social
mobilization for human rights at the national mobilization during the second half of the
level was the response to the unjust twentieth century regarding self-
condemnation of Captain Dreyfus in 1894 as determination of peoples, prevention and
a spy for the Germans, which led Emile Zola punishment of torture, protection of
to proclaim in his famous “J’Accuse…!”, an vulnerable groups and, more recently, equal
impassioned call to action that led to the treatment of sexual minorities and protection
creation of the Ligue française des droits de of migrants.
l’homme in 1897, and numerous similar
leagues, which became federated in 1922 into The appeal to human rights in this
the International Federation of Leagues for advocacy discourse is no less legitimate than
the Rights of Man (now the International the legal and philosophical modes of
Federation for Human Rights), which discourse and is often the inspiration for the
spawned its counterpart in the US in 1942, the latter. Quoting Sen again, “The invoking of
International League for the Rights of Man,
now functioning in New York as the 4
International League for Human Rights. William Korey, NGOs and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights: A Curious Grapevine,
Amnesty International (founded in 1961), the pp. 7-8.
Moscow Human Rights Committee (founded 5
in 1970), and Helsinki Watch (founded in Id., pp. 95-116.
6
1978 and expanded into Human Rights Watch Id., pp. 229-247.
human rights tends to come mostly from origins to ancient religious and
those who are concerned with changing the philosophical concepts of compassion,
world rather than interpreting it… The charity, justice, individual worth, and
colossal appeal of the idea of human rights respect for all life found in Hinduism,
[has provided comfort to those suffering] Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism,
intense oppression or great misery, without Christianity and Islam. Precursors of human
having to wait for the theoretical air to rights declarations are found in the ancient
clear.”7 codes of Hammurabi in Babylon (about
1772 BCE), the Charter of Cyrus the Great
Former British diplomat and law in Persia (about 535 BCE), edicts of Ashoka
professor Philip Allott expressed the in India (about 250 BCE), and rules and
transformative potential of human rights traditions of pre-colonial Africa and pre-
when he found that there was, “room for Columbian America.10
optimism on two grounds. (1) The idea of
human rights having been thought, it cannot Others trace modern human rights to the
be unthought. It will not be replaced, unless emergence of natural law theories in Ancient
by some idea which contains and surpasses Greece and Rome and Christian theology of
it. (2) There are tenacious individuals and the Middle Ages, culminating in the
non-statal societies whose activity on behalf rebellions in the 17th and 18th century
of the idea of human rights is not part of Europe, the philosophers of the
international relations but is part of a new Enlightenment and the Declarations that
process of international reality-forming.”8 launched the French and American
He adds, “The idea of human rights should revolutions, combined with the 19th century
intimidate governments or it is worth abolitionist, workers’ rights and women’s
nothing. If the idea of human rights suffrage movements.11
reassures governments, it is worse than
nothing.”9 In sum, the force of social A third trend is to trace human rights to
movements drawing inspiration from human their enthronement in the United Nations
rights not only enriches the concept of Charter of 1945, in reaction to the Holocaust
human rights but also contributes to altering and drawing on President Roosevelt’s Four
international society. Freedoms and the impact of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 on
III: Historical milestones subsequent national constitutions and
foreign policy and international treaties and
The historical context of human rights
can be seen from a wide range of 10
Micheline Ishay, The History of Human Rights:
perspectives. At the risk of From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era, With a
oversimplification, I will mention four New Preface, New York: Norton and Co., 2008. See
approaches to the history of human rights. also Micheline Ishay (ed.), The Human Rights
Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches, and
The first approach traces the deeper Documents from Ancient Times to the Present,
Second Edition, New York: Routledge, 2007.
Another interesting compilation may be found in
7
Sen, supra, note 1, p. 317. Jeanne Hersch (ed.), Birthright of Man, UNESCO,
8 1969. The French edition was published in 1968. A
Philip Allott, Eunomia: New Order for a New
second edition was published in 1985.
World, Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 287.
11
9 Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History,
Id.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.
excluded minorities, and workers has hoc tribunals on Rwanda and former
advanced but the gap remains between the Yugoslavia and finally in the International
theory of human rights belonging to all, Criminal Court.
regardless of race, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social IV: Tensions and controversies
origin, caste, property, birth or other status, about human rights today
and the reality of inequality and
discrimination. To understand how human rights are
part of the global agenda, we need to ask (A)
The Second World War was the why states even accept the idea of human
defining event for the internationalization of rights obligations when they are supposed to
human rights. In 1940, H.G. Wells wrote be sovereign and therefore do what they
The Rights of Man or What are We Fighting want within their territory. Then we will
For?; Roosevelt announced the “four explore (B) the current list of human rights
freedoms” (freedoms of speech and worship generally accepted, before asking (C)
and freedoms from want and fear) in his whether they correspond to the basic values
1941 State of the Union address; the UN of all societies or are imposed from the
Charter established in 1945 an obligation of outside for ideological reasons. Finally, we
all members to respect and observe human will examine (D) how they are transformed
rights and created a permanent commission from word to deed, from aspiration to
to promote their realization; the trial of Nazi practice.
doctors defined principles of bioethics that
were codified in the Nuremberg Code in A. Why do sovereign states accept human
1946; and the Nuremberg Trials, in 1945– rights obligations?
46, of 24 of the most important captured
leaders of Nazi Germany, established The principle of state sovereignty
individual criminal responsibility for mass means that neither another state nor an
human rights violations. Each of these international organization can intervene in a
events connected with World War II has had state’s action to adopt, interpret and enforce
major repercussions for human rights today. its laws within its jurisdiction. Does this
In the War’s immediate aftermath, bedrock principle of non-intervention in domestic
human rights texts were adopted: the affairs of states mean that they are free to
Genocide Convention and the Universal violate human rights? Along with the
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the principle of non-intervention, upon joining
Geneva Conventions in 1949 on the the United Nations, states have pledged
protection of victims of armed conflict, themselves “to take joint and separate action
followed in 1966 by the International in co-operation with the Organization for the
Covenants on Human Rights and scores of achievement of the purposes set forth in
UN and regional human rights texts on Article 55,”17 which include the promotion
issues such as torture, the rights of the child, of “universal respect for, and observance of,
minorities, discrimination against women, human rights and fundamental freedoms for
and disability rights, along with the creation all without distinction as to race, sex,
of investigative and accountability language, or religion.”18
procedures at the intergovernmental level.
Individual criminal responsibility for mass
17
violations of human rights re-emerged— Article 56 of the UN Charter.
after the hiatus of the Cold War—in the ad 18
Article 55 of the UN Charter. Article 1(3) of the
© Harvard University 2017
Marks 8 Human Rights
proclaimed on the expectation that they will regards as inter-related and equally
be of lasting value but in fact all have important—are not watertight and reasons
emerged when social pressures have been for considering them inherently different
strong enough to challenge power relations may be challenged. In practice, the context
and expand the list. Consider, for example, dictates the most effective use of resources,
that torture was an accepted means of institutions, and approaches more than the
obtaining a confession, that slavery was nature of the theoretical category of rights.
widely practiced and accepted for centuries,
and that women were treated as chattel or as C. Are human rights the same for
inferior in most societies and only received everyone?
political rights in the last century. Thus,
these CPR have not been permanent features The claim that human rights are
of society. It is also argued that CPR are to universal holds that they are the same for
be implemented by states immediately, may everyone because they are inherent in
be enforced through judicial remedies, and human beings by virtue of all people being
are relatively cost-free since they merely human, and that human rights therefore
require the state to leave people alone (so- derive from nature (hence the term “natural
called “negative rights”), whereas ESCR rights”). The UDHR refers to “the inherent
should be implemented progressively, in dignity and … equal and inalienable rights
accordance with available resources, since of all members of the human family [as] the
they require state expenditure (so-called foundation of freedom, justice and peace in
“positive rights”) and are not suitable for the world.” The American Declaration of
lawsuits (“non-justiciable”). In many Independence proclaims that “all men are
circumstances this is true; however, many created equal, that they are endowed by their
ESCR have been made “justiciable” (that is, Creator with certain unalienable Rights” and
people can sue the state if they consider that the French Declaration of 1789 refers to the
the right has not been respected), and many “natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of
CPR are not achieved merely by reacting to man.”
abuse but require a considerable investment
of time and resources (for example, to train Another basis for saying that human
law enforcement officials or establish an rights are universal is to rely on their formal
independent judiciary). adoption by virtually all countries that have
endorsed the UDHR or have ratified human
Another reason they are often rights treaties. Cultural relativists claim that
considered different in nature concerns human rights are based on values that are
denunciation of violations, which is often determined culturally and vary from one
considered appropriate for CPR but should society to another, rather than being
be avoided for ESCR in favor of a more universal.21 There are several variants of this
cooperative approach to urge governments position. One is the so-called “Asian values”
to do all they should to realize these rights. argument, according to which human rights
However, many situations arise where an is a Western idea, which is at odds with the
accusatory approach for dealing with CPR is way in which leaders in Asian societies
counter-productive and where it is
21
appropriate to refer to violations of ESCR. See Terence Turner and Carole Nagengast (eds.),
Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 53, No. 3
So these two categories—which the UN (special issue on human rights) (Autumn 1997).
provide for the needs of their people without has been of considerable interest since the
making the individual supreme, prioritizing “Arab Spring” of 2011, in which both
instead the value of societal harmony and Islamic and human rights values motivated
the good of the collective.22 A related view peoples across the Middle East and North
holds that the concept of human rights is a Africa to overthrow deeply entrenched
tool of Western imperialism used to disguise dictatorships, with very mixed results, and
political, economic and military ambitions the emergence of extremist terrorist
of Western nations against those in the organizations claiming to act according to
developing world.23 A third is the “clash of their interpretation of Islam.26
civilizations” argument that only the liberal
West, among the roughly seven civilizations The World Conference on Human
in the world, is capable of realizing human Rights (Vienna, June 1993) addressed the
rights since the other civilizations lack general question of balancing universal and
sufficient sense of the individual and the cultural claims with this compromise
rule of law.24 This issue of compatibility of language:
human rights with diverse belief systems
and religions has special geopolitical All human rights are universal,
indivisible and interdependent and
repercussions in relation to Islam, for
interrelated. The international
example, on which views are divided25 and community must treat human rights
globally in a fair and equal manner, on
22
See, for example, Bilahari Kim Hee P.S. Kausikan, the same footing, and with the same
“An East Asian Approach to Human Rights,” The emphasis. While the significance of
Buffalo Journal of International Law. Vol. 2, pp. national and regional particularities and
263-283 (1995); Sharon K. Hom, “Re-Positioning various historical, cultural and religious
Human Rights Discourse on "Asian" Perspectives,” backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is
The Buffalo Journal of International Law, vol. 3, pp.
the duty of States, regardless of their
209-233 (1996); Kim Dae Jung, “Is culture destiny?
The myth of Asia’s anti-democratic values,” Foreign
Affairs, vol. 73, pp. 189-194 (November/December Human Agency and Human Rights in Islamic
1994); Arvind Sharma, Are Human Rights Western? Societies," Muslim World Journal of Human Rights,
A Contribution to the Dialogue of Civilizations, New vol. 1: issue 1, Article 5. Available at:
York: Oxford University Press, 2006, Conclusion, http://www.bepress.com/mwjhr/vol1/iss1/art5; Bat
pp. 254-269; Makau Mutua, "Savages, Victims and Ye’or, “Jihad and Human Rights Today. An active
Saviours: The Metaphor of Human Rights." Harvard ideology incompatible with universal standards of
International Law Journal 42, pp. 201-245 (Winter freedom and equality,” National Review Online, July
2001). 1, 2002. Available at
23 http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-
See, for example, Jean Bricmont, Humanitarian
yeor070102.asp]; Mohamed Berween, “International
Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War,
Bills of Human Rights; An Islamic Critique,”
Monthly Review Press, 2007, pp. 35-90; Makau
International Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 7:4
Mutua, Human Rights: A Political and Cultural
October 2004, pp. 129 –142;
Critique Philadelphia, PA: University of
Pennsylvania Press (Pennsylvania Studies in Human 26
Rights), 2002, Chapter 2: “Human Rights as an In its resolution 30/10 of 1 October 2015, the
Ideology,” pp. 39-70. Human Rights Council reaffirmed “that terrorism,
including the actions of the so-called Islamic State in
24
See Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), cannot and should not
and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Simon be associated with any religion, nationality or
& Schuster, 1996. civilization.” (para. 4)
25
See, for example, Abdullahi An-Naim (2004)
"‘The Best of Times’ and ‘The Worst of Times’:
© Harvard University 2017
Marks 13 Human Rights
political, economic and cultural systems, the agenda, a political body may then
to promote and protect all human rights commission a study, eventually leading to
and fundamental freedoms.27 drafting a declaration, and then a
convention, which has to be ratified and
This statement nevertheless captures an enter into force and is possibly followed by
important feature of human rights today, the adoption of an optional protocol
namely, that they are universal but must be providing for complaints procedures.
realized in the context of the prevailing
values of each society. To understand fully All the major human rights issues, such
the challenge such contextualization as torture, women’s rights, racial
represents we need to examine the means discrimination, disappearances, rights of
and methods through which universally children and of persons with disabilities,
accepted human rights are put into practice. went through these phases, lasting from ten
to thirty years or more. This is how the body
D. How are human rights put into of human rights norms has expanded
practice? considerably from the International Bill of
Human Rights to the current array of several
Human rights are traditionally studied
hundred global and regional treaties.
in a global context through (1) the norm-
Following a related process, war crimes,
creating processes, which result in global
genocide and crimes against humanity, have
human rights standards and (2) the norm-
been addressed by other treaties calling for
enforcement processes, which seek to
criminal prosecutions of perpetrators.
translate laudable goals into tangible
practices. In addition, there are (3) The process can be summarized in
continuing and new challenges to the Table 2:
effectiveness of this normative regime.
Table 2: Norm-creating process
1. The norm-creating process
Lobbying for a resolution by NGOs and a
The norm-creating process refers to limited number of government delegations
authoritative decision-making that results in Adoption of a resolution calling for a study
the formal acknowledgement of specific Completion of a study
rights and obligations in a given society and Adoption of a resolution calling for a declaration
clarifies what is expected to realize the Drafting and adoption of a declaration
rights in practice. The typical norm-creating Adoption of a resolution calling for a convention
process in international human rights
Drafting and adoption of a convention
regarding a social issue begins with
Ratification and entry into force of the convention
expression of concern by a delegate at a
Setting up of treaty-monitoring body which
meeting of a political body (such as the UN
issues interpretations of obligations
Human Rights Council and lobbying for co-
sponsors to a resolution, which is eventually Resolution calling for an optional protocol (OP)
allowing for complaints
adopted by that body. Once the issue is on
Drafting and adoption of an OP
Ratification and entry into force of the OP
27
United Nations, World Conference on Human Treaty body passing judgment on complaints
Rights. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action. June 1993, para. 5.
report back on their findings and request Committee of Ministers of the Council of
redress from governments. The “thematic” Europe, the Assembly of the Organization of
rapporteurs are specifically mandated to American States, all have adopted politically
study issues such as forced disappearances, significant resolutions denouncing
summary executions, torture, toxic waste, governments for violations of human rights
and the rights to health, adequate food and and demanding that they redress the
housing. As of 2017 there were some 43 situation and often that they provide
“thematic mandates”. In addition, there were compensation to the victims. Parliamentary
13 “country mandates” covering Belarus, Commissions and National Human Rights
Cambodia, Central African Republic, Côte Commissions, as well as local and
d’Ivoire, Democratic People’s Republic of international NGOs, also follow-up their
Korea, Eritrea, Islamic Republic of Iran, investigations with firmly worded and
Mali, Myanmar, Palestinian Territories, politically significant demands for change.
Somalia, Sudan and Syrian Arab Republic. This form of sanction may appear toothless
The second means of protection is since it is not backed up with coercive force;
adjudication of cases by fully empowered nevertheless, in practice many governments
courts, the main international ones being the take quite seriously the pronouncements of
International Court of Justice (which can such bodies and go to considerable lengths
only decide cases between states that agree to avoid such political “naming and
to submit their dispute to the Court), the shaming,” including by improving their
International Criminal Court (which can try human rights performance.
individuals for genocide, crimes against The seventh means of responding to
humanity, war crimes and the crime of human rights violations is through
aggression), as well as the regional courts, humanitarian relief or assistance. Provision
namely, the European Court of Human of food, blankets, tents, medical services,
Rights (open to persons within the 47 sanitary assistance, and other forms of aid
member states of the Council of Europe); save lives and improve health of persons
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights forcibly displaced, often as a result of large-
(open to the 25 states parties—23 active scale human rights violations. Refugees and
parties—to the American Convention on internally displaced persons come under the
Human Rights); and the African Court of protection of the UN High Commissioner
Justice and Human Rights (open to the for Refugees (UNHCR), which deploys
African Commission on Human and massive amounts of aid, along with the
Peoples’ Rights, individuals and accredited International Committee of the Red Cross,
NGOs from those of the 54 African Union the International Organization for Migration
members that have ratified the protocol (IOM), the United Nations Children’s Fund
establishing the Court, numbering 24 in (UNICEF), the World Food Programme
2017). (WFP), the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the UN Office for the
Political supervision refers to the acts
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
of influential bodies made up of
(OCHA) and other agencies, as well as
representatives of states, including
major NGOs like Oxfam, Care, and the
resolutions judging the policies and
International Rescue Committee.
practices of states. The UN Human Rights
Council, the UN General Assembly, the Finally, the use of coercion is available
© Harvard University 2017
Marks 16 Human Rights
only to the UN Security Council, which can Syria,30 but only in Darfur31 and Libya32 was
use its powers under Chapter VII of the UN it used to authorize enforcement action. The
Charter to impose sanctions, cut off way R2P was applied in Libya explains in
communications, create ad hoc criminal part the reluctance to use it for enforcement
tribunals, and authorize the use of force by action in the civil war in Syria.33
member states or deploy UN troops to put an
end to a threat to international peace and These eight means and methods of
security, which it has on occasion implementation are summarized in Table 3
interpreted to include human rights below.
violations. Human rights considerations
were part of the use of Chapter VII in 3. Continuing and new challenges to human
Cambodia, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq and rights realization
other locations.28 This forceful means of
protecting human rights is complex and can The adoption of norms and the
have harmful health consequences, as has implementation of accountability procedures
been the case with sanctions imposed on are not enough to eliminate the deeper
Haiti and Iraq in the 1990s. If used properly, causes of human rights deprivation. The
Chapter VII action can be the basis for most salient challenges to the effectiveness
implementing the “Responsibility to of human rights at the global level relate to
Protect”, a doctrine adopted at a 2005 UN the reliance on the state to take
Summit that reaffirms the international responsibility for correcting its ways;
community’s role to prevent and stop structural issues of the global economy
genocides, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and favoring the maximization of profits in ways
crimes against humanity when a national over which human rights machinery has
government fails to do so.29 The little or no control or impact; and cultural
responsibility to protect (R2P) was explicitly conditions based on patriarchy, class, caste
referred to in Security Council Resolutions and ethnicity, which only change slowly
concerning the Great Lakes region, Sudan, over time as power relations and mentalities
Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen, Mali, South change. In all these arenas, human rights are
Sudan, Central African Republic, and highly political: to the extent that they are
30
For references to Responsibility to Protect (RtoP or
28 R2P) in Security Council Resolutions, see
See Bertrand G. Ramcharan, The Security Council http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/co
and the Protection of Human Rights, Martinus mponent/content/article/136-latest-news/5221--
Nijhoff, 2002; Bardo Fassbender, Securing Human references-to-the-responsibility-to-protect-in-
Rights: Achievements and Challenges of the UN security-council-resolutions.
Security Council, Published to Oxford Scholarship
Online: January 2012, publication date: 2011, 31
Security Council Resolution 1706 of 31 August
available at:
2006.
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acp
rof:oso/9780199641499.001.0001/acprof- 32
Security Council Resolution 1970 of 26 February
9780199641499
2011, and Security Council Resolution 1973 of 17
(DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641499.001.0001).
March 2011.
29
The doctrine was affirmed by the UN General
33
Assembly in paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 See Spencer Zifcak, “The Responsibility to Protect
World Summit Outcome Document and reaffirmed in after Libya and Syria,” Melbourne Journal of
its resolution A/RES/63/308 of September 2009. International Law, vol. 13, (2012), pp. 2-35.
truly relevant to people’s lives they and, in progressively more meaningful and
challenge the state, the political economy effective ways, by networks of solidarity
and cultural traditions. At the same time, that have profoundly changed societies in
they offer a normative framework for the past. That is how practices such as
individuals and collectivities to organize for slavery, apartheid, colonialism, and
change, so that state legitimacy is measured exclusions of all sorts have been largely
by human rights performance, the political eliminated. Similarly, environmental
economy is freed from gross economic degradation, poverty, terrorism, non-
disparities and social inequities, and cultural representative government, discrimination
identity is preserved and cherished in ways based on sexual orientation and an
that are consistent with prevailing values of expanding array of other challenges in the
individual autonomy and freedom. Appeals 21st century will continue to test the value of
to human rights in bringing about such human rights as a normative and
change is usually supported, at least institutional guide to policy and practice.
rhetorically, by the community of nations
Table 3: Means and methods of human rights implementation
Promotion
Protection
Rights: The Quest for Dignity, Cambridge, Aryeh Neier, The International Human
UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010. Rights Movement: A History, Princeton, NY:
Andrew Clapham, Human Rights: A Very Princeton University Press 2012.,
Short Introduction (Very Short James W. Nickel, Making Sense of Human
Introductions), New York: Oxford Univ. Rights, Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2007.
Press, 2007. Margot E. Salomon, Global Responsibility
Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights, for Human Rights, Oxford, UK: Oxford
4th edition, Westview Press, 2013. Univ. Press, 2007.
Richard A. Falk, Human Rights Horizons: Amartya Sen, “Elements of a Theory of
The Pursuit of Justice in a Globalizing Human Rights,” Philosophy & Public
World, New York: Routledge, 2001. Affairs, vol. 32, No. 4 (2004), pp. 315-356.
James Griffin, On Human Rights, Oxford, Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How
UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009. Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing
World Politics (The Norton Series in World
Lynn Avery Hunt and Lynn Hunt, Inventing Politics), 2011.
Human Rights: A History, New York: W.W.
Norton & Co., 2008. Beth A. Simmons, Mobilizing for Human
Rights: International Law in Domestic
Micheline Ishay (ed.), The Human Rights Politics, New York: Cambridge Univ. Press,
Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches, 2009.
and Documents from Ancient Times to the
Present, Second Edition, New York:
Routledge, 2007
Selected websites
A. Official UN sites:
Micheline Ishay, The History of Human
Rights: From Ancient Times to the 1. Office of the High Commissioner for
Globalization Era, New York: Norton and Human Rights (UN):
Co., 2008. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/Home.aspx
Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of 2. World Health Organization:
International Human Rights: Visions Seen, http://www.who.int/hhr/en/
3rd ed. Philadelphia: University of 3. World Bank:
Pennsylvania Press, 2011. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERN
Hersch Lauterpacht, International Law and AL/EXTSITETOOLS/0,,contentMDK:207496
Human Rights, with an introduction by 93~pagePK:98400~piPK:98424~theSitePK:95
Isidore Silver. New York: Garland, 1950 474,00.html
(reprint 1973). 4. UNDP:
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/li
Daniel Moeckli, Sangeeta Shah & Sandesh
brarypage/democratic-
Sivakumaran International Human Rights
governance/human_rights.html
Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd
ed. 2014. 5. UNESCO:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human human-sciences/themes/human-rights-based-
Rights in History, Cambridge MA: Belknap approach
Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.
B. Sources of human rights information:
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence
security of person. has the right to be presumed innocent until
proved guilty according to law in a public trial
Article 4. at which he has had all the guarantees
necessary for his defence.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude;
slavery and the slave trade shall be (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal
prohibited in all their forms. offence on account of any act or omission
which did not constitute a penal offence,
Article 5. under national or international law, at the
time when it was committed. Nor shall a
No one shall be subjected to torture or to
heavier penalty be imposed than the one that
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
was applicable at the time the penal offence
punishment.
was committed.
Article 6.
Article 12.
Everyone has the right to recognition
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
everywhere as a person before the law.
interference with his privacy, family, home or
Article 7. correspondence, nor to attacks upon his
honour and reputation. Everyone has the
All are equal before the law and are entitled right to the protection of the law against such
without any discrimination to equal interference or attacks.
protection of the law. All are entitled to equal
protection against any discrimination in Article 13.
violation of this Declaration and against any
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
incitement to such discrimination.
movement and residence within the borders
Article 8. of each state.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy (2) Everyone has the right to leave any
by the competent national tribunals for acts country, including his own, and to return to
violating the fundamental rights granted him his country.
by the constitution or by law.
Article 14.
Article 9.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to
enjoy in other countries asylum from
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile. persecution.
Article 10. (2) This right may not be invoked in the case
of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair political crimes or from acts contrary to the
and public hearing by an independent and purposes and principles of the United
impartial tribunal, in the determination of his Nations.
rights and obligations and of any criminal
charge against him. Article 15.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
nationality nor denied the right to change his peaceful assembly and association.
nationality.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an
Article 16. association.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any Article 21.
limitation due to race, nationality or religion,
have the right to marry and to found a family. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the
They are entitled to equal rights as to government of his country, directly or
marriage, during marriage and at its through freely chosen representatives.
dissolution.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with public service in his country.
the free and full consent of the intending
spouses. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of
the authority of government; this will shall be
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental expressed in periodic and genuine elections
group unit of society and is entitled to which shall be by universal and equal
protection by society and the State. suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by
equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 17.
Article 22.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property
alone as well as in association with others. Everyone, as a member of society, has the
right to social security and is entitled to
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his realization, through national effort and
property. international co-operation and in accordance
with the organization and resources of each
Article 18. State, of the economic, social and cultural
rights indispensable for his dignity and the
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, free development of his personality.
conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and Article 23.
freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free
his religion or belief in teaching, practice, choice of employment, to just and favourable
worship and observance. conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment.
Article 19.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion the right to equal pay for equal work.
and expression; this right includes freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to (3) Everyone who works has the right to just
seek, receive and impart information and and favourable remuneration ensuring for
ideas through any media and regardless of himself and his family an existence worthy of
frontiers. human dignity, and supplemented, if
necessary, by other means of social
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to (1) Everyone has duties to the community in
special care and assistance. All children, which alone the free and full development of
whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy his personality is possible.
the same social protection.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms,
Article 26. everyone shall be subject only to such
limitations as are determined by law solely
(1) Everyone has the right to education. for the purpose of securing due recognition
Education shall be free, at least in the and respect for the rights and freedoms of
elementary and fundamental stages. others and of meeting the just requirements
Elementary education shall be compulsory. of morality, public order and the general
Technical and professional education shall be welfare in a democratic society.
made generally available and higher
education shall be equally accessible to all on (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case
the basis of merit. be exercised contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full
development of the human personality and to Article 30.
the strengthening of respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote Nothing in this Declaration may be
understanding, tolerance and friendship interpreted as implying for any State, group
among all nations, racial or religious groups, or person any right to engage in any activity
and shall further the activities of the United or to perform any act aimed at the
Nations for the maintenance of peace. destruction of any of the rights and freedoms
set forth herein.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the