Human Rights

What Are Human Rights?

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality,
ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and
liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to
work and education, and many more.  Everyone is entitled to these rights, without
discrimination.

International Human Rights Law

International human rights law lays down the obligations of Governments to act in certain
ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

One of the great achievements of the United Nations is the creation of a comprehensive
body of human rights law—a universal and internationally protected code to which all
nations can subscribe and all people aspire. The United Nations has defined a broad range
of internationally accepted rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.
It has also established mechanisms to promote and protect these rights and to assist states
in carrying out their responsibilities.

The foundations of this body of law are the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly in 1945 and 1948,
respectively.  Since then, the United Nations has gradually expanded human rights law to
encompass specific standards for women, children, persons with disabilities, minorities and
other vulnerable groups, who now possess rights that protect them from discrimination that
had long been common in many societies.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history

of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds
from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General
Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) as a
common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first
time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. Since its adoption in 1948, the
UDHR has been translated into more than 500 languages - the most translated document in
the world - and has inspired the constitutions of many newly independent States and many
new democracies. The UDHR, together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and its two Optional Protocols (on the complaints procedure and on the death
penalty) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and
its Optional Protocol, form the so-called International Bill of Human Rights.

Economic, social and cultural rights

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entered into force in
1976. The human rights that the Covenant seeks to promote and protect include:

 the right to work in just and favourable conditions;

 the right to social protection, to an adequate standard of living and to the highest
attainable standards of physical and mental well-being;
 the right to education and the enjoyment of benefits of cultural freedom
and scientific progress.

Civil and political rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its First Optional

Protocol entered into force in 1976. The Second Optional Protocol was adopted in 1989.

The Covenant deals with such rights as freedom of movement; equality before the law; the
right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence; freedom of thought, conscience and
religion; freedom of opinion and expression; peaceful assembly; freedom of association;
participation in public affairs and elections; and protection of minority rights. It prohibits
arbitrary deprivation of life; torture, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment; slavery and
forced labour; arbitrary arrest or detention; arbitrary interference with privacy; war
propaganda; discrimination; and advocacy of racial or religious hatred.

Human Rights Conventions

A series of international human rights treaties and other instruments adopted since 1945
have expanded the body of international human rights law. They include the Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), the Convention on
the Rights of the Child (1989) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (2006), among others.

Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council, established on 15 March 2006 by the General Assembly and
reporting directly to it, replaced the 60-year-old UN Commission on Human Rights as the
key UN intergovernmental body responsible for human rights. The Council is made up of 47
State representatives and is tasked with strengthening the promotion and protection of
human rights around the globe by addressing situations of human rights violations and
making recommendations on them, including responding to human rights emergencies.
The most innovative feature of the Human Rights Council is the Universal Periodic Review.
This unique mechanism involves a review of the human rights records of all 193 UN
member states once every four years. The Review is a cooperative, state-driven process,
under the auspices of the Council, which provides the opportunity for each state to present
measures taken and challenges to be met to improve the human rights situation in their
country and to meet their international obligations. The Review is designed to ensure
universality and equality of treatment for every country.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights exercises principal responsibility
for UN human rights activities. The High Commissioner is mandated to respond to serious
violations of human rights and to undertake preventive action.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the focal point for
United Nations human rights activities. It serves as the secretariat for the Human Rights
Council, the treaty bodies (expert committees that monitor treaty compliance) and other UN
human rights organs. It also undertakes human rights field activities.

Most of the core human rights treaties have an oversight body which is responsible for
reviewing the implementation of that treaty by the countries that have ratified it.  Individuals,
whose rights have been violated can file complaints directly to Committees overseeing
human rights treaties.

Human Rights and the UN System

Human rights is a cross-cutting theme in all UN policies and programmes in the key areas of
peace and security, development, humanitarian assistance, and economic and social
affairs. As a result, virtually every UN body and specialized agency is involved to some
degree in the protection of human rights. Some examples are the right to development,
which is at the core of the Sustainable Development Goals; the right to food, championed by
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, labour rights, defined and protected by the
International Labour Organization, gender equality, which is promulgated by UN Women,
the rights of children, indigenous peoples, and disabled persons.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December.

Resources
 Status of Ratification of 18 International Human Rights Treaties
 Human Rights Indicators
 Universal Human Rights Index
 Human Rights Day
 concerning emergency obstetric care, into numbers (Volochko, 2010). This indicator, as any other,
serves to give an insight into the current state of affairs by generalising the status of maternal mortality
in a given place at a given time. It is only useful if combined with multiple indicators or with relevant
qualitative data. This is because maternal health and mortality relate to different groups and individuals
in different ways. Subsequently, only in-depth analysis of intersecting categories of analysis such as
location, class and ethnic group can provide an approximation of social reality. What is more, maternal
mortality rates only cover women in relation to pregnancy and birth - not the general state of women’s
mortality (such as other cases of deaths amongst women and their incidence according to class) or a
comprehensive picture of women’s health (such as maternal morbidity arising out of complications due
to low quality care). Therefore, maternal mortality rates are important in mapping the status of women
in a particular place and during a specific period of time, but must not be analysed in isolation (Araújo,
2002). Notwithstanding, the indicator serves to reveal the social exclusion suffered by women and can
map out the reasons for exclusion such as class, status, race, age, disability, geographical location and
nationality (Araújo, 2002; Volochko, 2010).

The Relationship of Human Rights to Health

Relating human rights to health means looking at all aspects of rights work – formal law based work,
and informal rights work, like activism and service delivery. It helps that health is named as a right in
legally binding treaties, but the reality of how one works to see connections between ill-health,
discrimination or marginalization, and political choices for example, is key.

What follows are a few core statements and frameworks linking human rights to health.

The World Health Organization states in its Constitution that “health is a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity and that the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every
human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.
Enjoyment of this right is vital to all other aspects of a person’s life and is crucial to the realization of
many other rights.”

Several rights relating to health are established in international human rights treaties as well as in US
law.

In addition to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also establishes a right to health:

Article 12

 The States Parties to the Present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of
the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
  The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full
realization of this right shall include those necessary for:
o The provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the
healthy development of the child
o The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene
o The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other
diseases
o The creation of conditions which would assure access to all medical services and medical
attention in the event of sickness

Another document of particular relevance to public health is the Declaration of Alma Ata adopted at the
1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care, which affirmed health as a fundamental human
right and asserted the need for comprehensive health care services for all people. (The Alma Ata
document can be found at: www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/declaration_almaata.pdf  )

Q: How do you see these other rights pertaining to health?

 The right to privacy

 The right to non-discrimination
 The right to participation
 The right to information
 Rights to liberty and security of the person
 Rights to the benefits of scientific advances
 The rights to safe and healthy working conditions

Q: What other rights would you include in this list?

 

Key Relationships between Human Rights and Health

In their book on health and human rights, Jonathan Mann, Sofia Gruskin, Michael Grodin and George
Annas [J.Mann, S. Gruskin, M.Grodin and G. Annas (eds.) Health and Human Rights: A Reader, New
York: Routledge (1999)] have set out three ways in which human rights and health can be seen
connected:
1. The impact of human rights violations on health
Some examples of the impact of violations of human rights on health are obvious; for example, a
person who is tortured will experience health problems as a result. Other examples of impacts of
human rights violations on health are less obvious. Denial of access to accurate information about
HIV/AIDS is an example of a human rights violation with serious health implications, as is denial of
information about contraception and HIV/AIDS prevention methods like condoms. Failure to fulfill or
comply with a human rights obligation is called “nonfulfillment”.

2. The impact of health policies and programs on human rights

This connection of health and human rights can take several forms.

 Public health policies and programs are created with the aim of bettering the health of the
population, however, in deciding what health issues will receive priority, states and
organizations may fail to recognize and address issues that disproportionately affect women or
minority groups, in violation of the right to non-discrimination.
 States may fail to take measures to assure that the right privacy is upheld and that
confidentiality is maintained in the provision of health services.
 States are allowed to limit rights in the name of protecting the public’s health from epidemic
disease. Many US court cases have upheld the state’s right to deprive a person with active
tuberculosis of their liberty by quarantine.

3. The inter-relationship between enjoyment of rights and conditions that promote health
A focus on the underlying conditions that create health and well-being reveals that many of these
conditions are human rights issues. The most profound underlying condition is social and economic
status. Lower socioeconomic status has been repeatedly linked to poorer health. Racial and gender
discrimination are also underlying conditions which can negatively impact health.

EXAMPLE: Around the world, particularly in developing countries, married women are contracting HIV
at high rates. Although they have information on HIV and have access to condoms, they are unable to
protect themselves because of actual barriers to saying no to sex, negotiating condom use, or affecting
their husbands’ sexual practices. Women’s increased vulnerability to HIV is now seen as linked to their
poverty and low status, which is in turn linked to specific and explicit choices in how society and law
are organized around gender, ethnicity and class lines. For example, laws which deny or discriminate
against women in their ability to hold or control money, property and inheritance, impede their
education etc., function to make women more subordinated to their sexual partner, including their
husband, and unable to control safer sexual practices.

Giant strides have been taken in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the
common killers associated with child and maternal mortality, but working towards
achieving the target of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030
would require improvements in skilled delivery care.
In Nigeria, the major challenge to the attainment of the SDGs is the lack of awareness
and inadequate sensitization of the public of these goals, what they entail and how
their implantation impacts the quality of life of the average citizen. Studies in Nigeria
show that more than 50% of the population is unaware of what the sustainable
development goals are or how they affect their own development. How then can these
goals be achieved if people do not know about them or how they fit into the
implementation of the goals?

Governments have the prerogative to ensure that people understand that they play a
large role in taking up actions especially regarding identifying one particular goal which
speaks to them the most, connecting it all on how best the other goals can be achieved.

Unfortunately, people in Nigeria continue to experience avoidable deaths; they

continue to die of treatable illnesses. The habit of periodic medical check-up has still
not been formed and swaths of the population only go to the doctor or to the hospital
when seriously ill only to be misdiagnosed or wrongly medicated.

Most of the time, people seek medical assistance when the illness has reached an
advanced stage. In some cases, no medical attention is sought due to paucity of funds.
In such situations, individuals are forced to seek quack or native doctors. It is rather
absurd!

The realization of SDG 3 face a serious challenge as so very little has been done when
there is clearly much to do.

Since independence, Nigeria has survived on public health “guesstimates”, rather than
informed estimates. There is no single dependable, reliable, validated and easily
verifiable public health dataset in Nigeria. Even organisations that ought to have these
datasets like the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) do not have a validated,
verifiable dataset of those enrolled into the insurance system. All attempts to have
national ID cards, proper censuses and nationwide surveys have failed to deliver
verifiable results. This account for seemingly “150 – 200%” coverage rates on National
Immunization days, even when there are obvious deficiencies in the process. The basis
for most calculations and projections are very faulty. Good Health And Well-Being
cannot be attained in Nigeria when there are no real baseline data with which to
compare progress.

There is the absence of formative, midcourse and proper end-line evaluation. Lots of
resources may be invested into the management of SDGs but all that would be futile if
little was done in terms of progress (formative), midcourse and end-line (summative)
evaluations to effectively and scientifically look at the progress of the roll-out of the
SDG program. If these are to be done, it would give the managers early warning signs
on when the delivery of the SDG program is going off-course, and thus, necessitate
midcourse corrections. Evaluations, audits and consequent corrections would need to
be carried out. Rather, the program is dependent on oral reports, informal adhoc data
from program managers designed to make the National President and the world
happy, as well as positive newspaper reports of opening of new healthcare centres,
donation of medical equipment and increased employment of healthcare workers.
These are wrong measures of success.

In a recent study conducted by the Pan African Medical Journal and presented at the
38th/39th West African College of Physicians Annual General and Scientific Meeting in
Abuja, Nigeria, there were more than 10 different healthcare workers’ strikes in Nigeria
over a 36-month period. These paralyzed the healthcare industry, resulting in avoidable
mortality and morbidities, as well as catastrophic health expenditure and resultant
outgoing medical tourism.

Children and pregnant women are the worst victims of the healthcare worker industrial
action. Without access to affordable healthcare services, deaths are inevitable.

The upscale of social discord, killings and bombings in the northern part of Nigeria; and
kidnapping in southern Nigeria reversed the gains of so many years of investments in
healthcare in Nigeria, especially in affected communities. Today, there are several
hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons who are current victims of
communicable diseases, malnutrition and several other social problems. This figure
was estimated to be 1,538,982 as of April 2015 by the internally-displaced monitoring
centre. As these people live on charity, have limited access to healthcare services,
school enrolment and healthy shelter, their health and emotional conditions are far
from ideal. These people are also denied access to quality care, even when they could
afford it. Sexual exploitation and harassment has led to several unwanted pregnancies
and maternal deaths. Fear of attacks has led to mass exodus of healthcare workers
resulting in brain drain of the health sector, closure of healthcare facilities and
deserted communities, causing difficulties in accessing healthcare during emergencies,
outbreak of communicable diseases, and many avoidable deaths and complications.

The absence of National Health Insurance Scheme is a genuine cause for concern. As at
mid-2012, NHIS still covered only about 3 percent of the population (that is about 5
million individuals). By the time of this report, less than 6 percent of Nigerians have
access to health insurance schemes in Nigeria. Again, this figure is not verifiable, nor is
it reliable. People pay for services from out-of-pocket expenditure, accounting for more
than 60% of healthcare costs in Nigeria. This results in various types of delays including
accessing care, seeking care, receiving care at the health facilities, obtaining prescribed
care, and delays in leaving the healthcare facility after treatment has taken place. These
delays deepen the physical challenges of the patients and facilitate nosocomial
infections, which usually results in additional associated cost of care.

Difficult as it sounds, it is not all doom and gloom for Nigeria. The SDG 3 can be met
but only with seriousness and commitment. The Federal government must engage in
meaningful collaborative effort with state and local governments to stem off the
enigma surrounding the country’s healthcare system. The era of paying lip service to
healthcare should be done away with.

Proper and measurable process (formative) evaluations are critical at key intervals and
should be built into the implementation plans. This will help keep the implementation
of the SDG 3 program on course, and when deviations occur, make corrections early
enough to achieve the goal as at 2030. Systems should be developed and put in place
in all segments of the health system – including fund management systems.

Individuals should be trained and retrained to ensure proper reorientation with a new
integrated care mentality. These trainings should also be aimed at building
transparency into the system, developing skilled data managers and excellent
evaluators who will conduct both the process and summative evaluations.

The time to work differently in Nigeria is now. Positive change is a choice, and not a
chance occurrence. Change results from choices made, not a product of what is
happening. It is triggered by purpose, passion, focus, sacrifices, and discipline. Nigeria
must make positive changes to achieve Good Health And Well-Being come 2030.
Key Actors, Standards and Venues
This section focuses on the formal, legal frameworks of the international and national
system of rights protection.

Key Actors

Key actors include

 Inter-governmental organizations
 national and local governments
 non-governmental organizations
 civil society movements and actors such as trade unions, religious institutions, corporations

Inter-governmental organizations (IGO)

An IGO is an organization established by three or more national governments through a treaty to

pursue common aims. An international organization can be universal in scope (such as the United
Nations, the International Organization for Migration) or regional (the Organization of American Sta
Organization of African Unity, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation). Other IGOs whose work may have an impact on rights includ
the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Some IGOs have human
rights treaties at the center of their work; some have no references to human rights what so ever.

The United Nations: A Universal IGO

The United Nations was formed in 1945, after World War II, to promote peace and security among
nations. Promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms also became part of the organization
main purposes, in part in response to the atrocities of the Holocaust. The UN Charter established
human rights obligations for member states; over the last 50 years the UN has developed a wide ra
of bodies and programs that address human rights and has adopted many treaties that address hum
rights.

Q: Which IGOs is the US a member of?

UN, OSCE, WTO, OAS

Regional IGOs

Different regions of the world have developed specific human rights standards, which are establishe
and enforced through regional Inter-governmental Organizations (IGOs).
  The Americas: The Organization of American States (OAS) has several rights related
standards, including the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Ameri
Convention of Human Rights, and protocols (subsidiary treaties) which address Economic and
Social Rights and Violence against women.
 Africa: The African Charter for Human and People’s Rights sets standards for members of th
African Union; the AU has also has set specific standards for children’s rights and women’s
rights.
 Europe: has three different rights related systems. The two with binding legal rights standar
are the Council of Europe, whose Convention on the Protection of Human Rights provides for
binding decisions and the European Union, whose Charters and directives set standards for
workers rights. The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe has political
declarations on rights. Not every European nation is a member of all three systems.
 Asia: Asia does not have a regional IGO with a binding rights treaty, but it does have two IG
ASEAN and SAARC which increasingly address rights issues.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

An NGO is an organization that is independent from governments in its initiation and determination
its mandate and activities, although some NGOs receive governmental funding. In general, NGOs do
not operate for a profit. NGOs can play a role in national and international affairs by virtue of their
activities, but they do not necessarily possess any official status.

Where an organization's membership or activity is limited to a specific country, it's considered a

national NGO; if its activities cross borders, it becomes an international NGO. Some of the best-kno
international NGOs include Médécins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
CARE, and Oxfam.

Since the founding of the UN, there has been a worldwide proliferation of NGOs. Some advocate sta
for law or policy change; other NGOs provide services. Some try to do both.

Name some local or national NGOs that do health and human rights work? Are they always explic
about doing ‘human rights’? What are their mandates and activities?

 
B. Standards

Human rights standards can be created

 By drafting laws at the local or national or international level

 By wide-ranging, explicit and established practice of states (when standards are created this
way, they are called customary law .) International customary law has been accepted to bar
things such as slavery, piracy and torture.

EXAMPLE: Torture is established as a customary international law violation and is a legally drafted

treaty standard. That doesn’t mean that every government agrees on what actions make up torture
agrees that evidence shows that they have committed torture, as in the case of Abu Ghraib.

 By incorporation in documents of political commitment, such as the final documents of World

Conferences [see venues, below].
 By vote in an international or national venue, explicitly creating a standard that is not in the
form of a law, but has the weight of being agreed to and voted on formally such as Declaratio
adopted by the UN General Assembly.

International human rights standards

Key elements of international rights standards are that they

1. Create three kinds of obligations on states (to respect, protect and fulfill rights)
2. Define the scope and content of the human rights claim
3. Require non-discrimination in application
4. Set up remedies for failures
5. Are publically known and available to all

Some of the most important international human rights standards are:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights  (UDHR) (1948) http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.htm

The UDHR is the formal basis of all rights work in the UN system – it promises a range of rights to
everyone, without discrimination. These rights include civil and political rights and economic,
social and cultural rights (including freedom from torture and slavery, rights to information, an
adequate standard of living, and to education).
 What are these categories of rights?
Why were they separated?

During the work to draft binding legal standards, derived from the UDHR, the politics of the Cold Wa
and the specific ideologies of nation states, led to a polarization of rights claims. The ideological
opposition between the USSR and the USA at that time resulted in a drafting of standards which
divided rights into two different categories –

 negative obligations, requiring only that the state refrain from harming. The two categories o
rights associated with this position are civil and political rights (for the most part, this is
what the US Constitution is structured as)
 affirmative or positive obligations,  requiring that states take steps to fulfill rights, including
setting up systems to provide the service necessary to enjoy the right, such as schools for th
right to education or health services for the right to health. These obligations were associated
with economic and social rights. This model includes some US state Constitutional obligati
(public health obligations, education, etc.) and Soviet socialism.

Two major human rights treaties were drafted as a result of this polarization of ideology:

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) – This Covenant affirms some key
rights such as non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex and religion, among other grounds, equa
before the law, freedom from arbitrary detention, liberty and security of the body, freedom of
information, etc.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) –  this Covenant sets
out basic economic, social and cultural rights. In notes that while states can progress to fulfill these
rights, according to their level of development, they cannot at any time discriminate in their steps. T
right to health is covered in this treaty.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm

In the lead up to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, the post-Cold war politi
allowed advocates to overcome this dichotomy, pointing out that almost all rights had aspects of
positive and negative obligations and most national governments accept a hybrid of obligations.

Q: What kind of right is the right to health? civil, economic or political?

What aspects indicate positive obligations of states? What negative? Do
these questions even make sense?

 
 Q: Is the right to health the right to be healthy?

A: No. it is the guarantee of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health through the state’s provision of services and facilitation of the conditions
required for well being (clean air, access to clean water, food, shelter, etc. Notice
that the right to health is the product of and reliant on other rights: a demonstration
of the inter-related nature of rights).

Several other major human rights treaties are of significant importance to public health practitioner
Below are treaties which are particularly relevant to work in reproductive, adolescent and child heal
and public health work in situations of forced migration.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) –  This Conventio

bans discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity and makes the state responsible for ensuring
that non-state actors do not discriminate (in health care, in housing, in employment etc). It also
accepts that states may need to take temporary special measures to remedy the barriers from racis
histories.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_icerd.htm

 Article 1: 1. In this Convention, the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction,
exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origi
which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exerc
on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural or any other field of public life.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW) (1979) – This Convention bans discrimination against women, including on marital status
says that States must use all appropriate measures to eliminate inequality in public and private life.
CEDAW’s understanding of descrimination is broad, not limited to intentional descrimination and
reaches economic and social rights, as well as private life. Thus, this treaty helps set the framework
reproductive and other health rights. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/e1cedaw.htm

 Article 1: For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "discrimination against wom
shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the ef
or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women,
irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human right
and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

Evolving Standards in Human Rights: The Case of Violence Against Women

Human rights standards are dynamic, constantly evolving in response to advocacy efforts and chang
norms.

Violence against women (VAW) is not addressed in the text of the Convention on the Elimination of
Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1965. However, in the years since CEDAW was enacted,
advocacy campaigns led to recognition of VAW as a human rights violation under the treaty, throug
interpretation by the committee of experts that monitors it. For example, in 1992 General Commen
was adopted to affirm that VAW functions as a form of discrimination against women and therefore
falls within the treaty. It also established that the Convention holds states accountable for acts by n
state actors, if it does nothing to protect against them.

Convention on the Rights of the Child ( 1989) – this Convention promotes the rights of all perso
under 18, and establishes that the principles that govern a child’s rights include their best interest,
their ability to thrive, their equality, and their ability to increasingly participate in the decisions
affecting them. It balances special protection and rights for minors with their rights and freedoms.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm

Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families (1990) – this Convention’s primary objective is to protect migrant workers, both legal and
irregular from exploitation and other rights violation. It has been signed thus far by (primarily) send
countries.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/m_mwctoc.htm

Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or

Punishment (1984) – this Convention establishes that torture is an abuse attributable to the state
defines its scope and that it can be prosecuted anywhere a torturer is found, among other obligation
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) This early

Convention defines the crime of genocide and states that all nations must intervene to stop genocid
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm

Q: If genocide or ethnic cleansing is happening, can the human rights

system do anything?

While the Refugee Convention and Protocol obligate nations to respect key right of

persecuted persons (refugees) who can get across an international border, and
humanitarian aid agencies can provide services to maintain lives, and the rules of
war are supposed to constrain combatants from killing civilians, the human rights
system is relatively powerless to halt killing once it starts (except through exposure
and shaming pressure) unless the Security Council votes to act (sanctions, armed
intervention) or nations of the world unilaterally respond with diplomatic pressure –
or head up their own intervention (which is against international law if not
sanctioned by the UN security council). This is one of the most difficult challenges to
peace and rights today, and is at the center of the complex relationship between
humanitarian action and human
rights. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/o_c_ref.htm
National human rights standards

On the national level, a Constitution or other nation-wide legislation sets the standards for human
rights claims.

In the US, it is the US Constitution (1787), and federal law alongside a network of state and local
laws and constitutions that set government obligations and rights. The US system is dense and
complex. However, the guarantees of the US Constitution are relatively limited in scope compared w
the guarantees of international law, especially in the realm of economic and social rights. Key US
Constitutional rights have been added over the last 200+ years and are contained in the Bill of Righ

 Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances.
 Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants s
issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 Amendment 13: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crim
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States , or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.

Q: How do US Constitutional guarantees match up with some of the

international rights? Look at the definition of non-discrimination in the
ICCPR and the US Constitution?

Q: Does the US government have any responsibility for public health? How?
Compare with the ICESCR, article 12.

 Amendment 14, section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subjec
the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citize
of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, with
due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws.
Reproductive health rights in national Constitutions : evolving and contested standards

In early 2004, both houses of the Bolivian Congress unanimously passed a Framework Law on
Reproductive and Sexual Rights that would have consolidated and given force to already existing
norms in Bolivian law, and those to which the Bolivian government has committed itself through
international agreements including the ICPD Programme of Action. Under pressure from the Catholic
and evangelical churches in Bolivia, however, President Carlos Mesa refused to sign the bill on May
2004 and returned it to the Congress for further review and discussion. Congress is expected to ren
consideration of the issue in September, 2004.

Local/State standards
Each state of the United States has a constitution that establishes rights standards and protections
residents of that state. While the US Constitution has no standards with regard to the health and we
being of the population, the New York State Constitution does:

 Article XVII, S1. The aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be
provided by the state and by such of its subdivisions, and in such manner and by such mean
as the legislature may from time to time determine.
 Article XVII, S 3. The protection and promotion of the health of the inhabitants of the state
matters of public concern and provision therefore shall be made by the state and by such of i
subdivisions and in such manner, and by such means as the legislature shall from time to tim
determine.

Evolving Rights Work in the United States : The Case of Poverty

The Women’s Economic Agenda Project has worked on the issue of poverty in the United States for
more than 20 years with the mission of empowering poor women and families. WEAP organizes poo
women to learn about and confront violations like lack of healthcare, living wages, affordable housin
and adequate education, covered under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (articles 23, 25 a
26). While economic and social rights are not recognized under US law, by organizing and training
women to be advocates for the recognition of these rights in the US, they are changing the dialogue
around issues of poverty in the United States and making the case, using international human right
standards, that the state has a responsibility not only to respect and protect, but also to fulfill.

Along side of international standards, different sets of mechanisms, methods and strategies that can
be used for their enforcement. In the formal side, these mechanisms include treaty
bodies (committees of experts that are supposed to fairly monitor the conventions). In the
political/activist world, these mechanisms include human rights education, advocacy,
documentation and scholarly work.
Venues

where human rights standards and policies get made and their practice evaluated

In the UN, there are numerous and different venues for rights work

The Role of Human Rights in the United Nations

1. UN General Assembly: the authoritative parliamentary like body of the UN – all national

governments are members and can vote, and the body can draft and adopt human rights standards

2. UN Security Council: a 15 member body that with special powers, authorized by the UN Charte
including such powers affecting rights, as the power to intervene with military force in countries whe
situations threaten peace and stability.

Q: What five countries are permanent members of the

Security Council?

People's Republic of China, France, Russian Federation, United

Kingdom, & the United States

Many different proposals are swirling around the UN to change

the structure of the Security Council but none have yet been
formally vetted.
3. Other political bodies where human rights are debated

 UN Commission on Human Rights

 UN Commission on the Status of Women
 UN Crime Commission

4. Agencies and Funds that have incorporated human rights into their work

 UNAIDS – The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS

 UNICEF – The United Nations Children’s’ Fund
 UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund
 UNDP – United Nations Development Programme
 WHO – World Health Organization
 UNIFEM – United Nations Development Fund for Women
 UNOCHA – United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance
5.Independent Experts

o Treaty bodies: committees of experts elected by states but then charged with

independent monitoring of the implementation of the treaties
o Special Rapporteurs: individuals charged with reporting as independent experts on
themes in human rights, like the right to health or on specific countries

6. UN World Conferences (discussed below in detail)

Over the last decade or so, many developments have been made in rights, especially health as a rig
in various United Nations World Conferences. World Conferences of the 1990’s were instrumental in
making these changes happen, in large part due to the advocacy of local groups around the world.

The UN has used World Conferences to bring nations together at regular time periods to address
critical global issues and use the politics of debate to move global commitments, and in some cases
call for new rights. Key issues addressed in World Conferences over the last decade are:

 Rio Conference on the environment and development (1992) which addressed

environmental restoration, preservation and social development and aimed to meet the
challenges of global warming, pollution, biodiversity and the inter-related social problems of
poverty, health and population.
 Vienna Conference on Human Rights (1993) which addressed inter-related rights, women
rights as human rights, rights of indigenous people, etc. in the post-Cold War.
 The Cairo Conference on Population and Development (also known as the ICPD) (1994
which changed the paradigm of intervention from population control to reproductive rights.
 The Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women (also known as the FWCW) (1995) whi
addressed the global equality and development for women, increasingly integrating rights-
oriented actions in counter-acting violence, poverty, inequality in education and health and
addressing women’s participation on politics, the environment and peace.
 The Durban World Conference Against Racism (also known as the WCAR) (2001) probab
the last of the big theme conferences, attempted to address the global causes and impacts o
racism in all spheres of life, especially in economic, political and legal action; and committed
nations to eradicating both intentional and de-facto racism in all its forms, including as it
intersects with gender and citizenship.

**Although NGOs do not participate in the decision-making process or participate in writing the poli
that comes out of the Conferences in the Programme of Action, their advocacy and lobbying efforts
leading up to and during the Conferences, have proved to be very influential. The standards agreed
in the final Programme of Action of a World Conference are non-binding.
 The International Conference on Population and Development Cairo , Egypt (1994).

The Programme of Action that came out of the ICPD signaled a paradigm shift in the way that
population and development were thought about and thus, the way policies were created and carrie
out. The focus of family planning and reproductive health programs shifted from a means to achievi
demographic targets to a means empowering women and men with choice, access to information,
education and health services, and skill development.

 Paragraph 7.2: Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-
being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the
reproductive system and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implie
that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to
reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in... (READ MO
of Paragraph 7.2 )

The World Conference on Human Rights Vienna , Austria (1993) Vienna re affirmed the
universality, indivisibility and inter-relatedness of all human rights and affirmed that women’s huma
rights were part of universal human rights claims, including bringing attention to violence against
women, as well as paying attention to migrants, children and indigenous peoples.

 Paragraph 18: The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral
indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal participation of women in politic
civil, economic, social and cultural life, at the national, regional and international levels, and
eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex are priority objectives of the
international community...(READ Paragraphs 18 & 24 )

The Fourth World  Conference on Women (FWCW) Beijing , China (1995) Beijing tied together
many of the evolutions of the previous world conferences, and attempted to make health rights of
women more enforceble and realizable.

 Paragraph 9: The objective of the Platform for Action, which is in full conformity with the
purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, is the
empowerment of all women. The full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedom
of all women is essential for the empowerment of women...
(READ Paragraphs 9, 11 & 97)

 
2. HIV prevalence and people receiving ART data being reported by different data sources 3. Capturing
the rate of under-reported TB cases by data made available from facility and/or routine surveillance
systems 4. Incomplete notifications of Malaria cases in high-burden areas; reliance on
parasiteprevalence surveys for prediction of incidence 5. Clearly defining which population lies at-risk
for Malaria 6. On scaling up of immunization, the imperativeness of surveying large number of five-year-
old 7. Commonly observed trend of under-reporting of cases; issues in aggregating data across diseases.

Laws Protect People Living with HIV and AIDS

If you are living with HIV or AIDS, you are protected against discrimination on the basis
of your HIV under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans
with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Under these laws, discrimination means that you
are not allowed to participate in a service that is offered to others, or you are denied a
benefit, because of your HIV disease.

For more information, see the Department of Justice’s website.

For more information in the health care context, see the Office of Civil Rights’ Civil
Rights: HIV/AIDS.

Federal Law
Both Section 504 and the ADA prohibit discrimination against qualified persons,
including those with HIV/AIDS.

The ADA prohibits discrimination by employers, places of public accommodation,

and state and local government entities. Section 504 prohibits health and human
service providers or organizations that get Federal funds or assistance from
discriminating against you because you are living with HIV/AIDS. Examples of entities
that may be covered by the ADA and/or Section 504 include hospitals, clinics, social
services agencies, drug treatment centers, nursing homes, doctors’ offices,
dentists’ offices, daycares, public pools, and fitness gyms. Again, under these laws,
discrimination means that you are not allowed to participate in a service that is
offered to others, or you are denied a benefit, because of your HIV disease. The ADA
also protects your family and friends from discrimination because of YOUR HIV
status, based on their association with you.

For more information, see OCR’s Your Rights Under Section 504 and the Americans
With Disabilities Act.

Privacy
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also enforces the Privacy Rule under the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which protects the
privacy of your health information and gives you the right to review and make
corrections to your medical records. For more information, see OCR’s Health
Information Privacy, Protecting the Civil Rights and Health Information Privacy Rights
of People Living with HIV, or How to File a Complaint.

United Nation report 1987, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development Our
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Morris, S.M. 2002, Development and human rights at the United Nations Development Programme
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Kolp, F.A. 2010, The right to life with dignity: Economic and social rights respect in the world,
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Audrey Chapman (2015) The Foundations of a Human Right to Health: Human Rights and

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Marks, Jonathan H,M.A., B.C.L. 2005, "PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTH AND

HUMAN RIGHTS", The New England journal of medicine, vol. 353, no. 26,
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Olumese, O. 2019, Inhibitions to the Enforcement of Economic and Social Rights in the UK and
Nigeria: A Study of Two Worlds, Nottingham Trent University (United Kingdom).

Rubin, R. & Ponsor, A. 2018, "Affordable Housing and Resident Health", Journal of Affordable
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Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities2016, , Federal Information & News

Dispatch, LLC, Washington.