Human rights

and territorial
jurisdiction
 Bharathi . S
 Chandhika Prakash
SYNOPSIS
 HUMAN RIGHTS
 JURISDICTION
 DOMESTIC JURISDICTION
- UN CHARTER
 TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION
 CONCEPT OF EXTRA
TERRISTORIAL JURISDICTION
-RIGHT TO LIFE
 HUMAN RIGHTS
 MORAL PRINCIPLES OR NORMS
 ACHAEMENID , PERSIAN EMPIRE ESTABLISHED HUMAN RIGHTS
UNDER THE RULE OF CYRUS THE GREAT
 REGULATE STANDARDS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
 PROTECTED BY THE LAW
 VARIOUS CONVENTIONS ENFORCED THE HUMAN RIGHTS SUCH AS
ICCPR, UDHR , ICERD. ETC
 JURISDICTION

 DEFINITION – THE OFFICIAL POWER TO MAKE LEGAL DECISIONS AND

JUDGEMENTS
 IN INDIA , THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF JURISDICITION
 UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION – STATES OR INTERNATIONAL
ORGANISATIONS CAN CLAIM CRIMINAL JURISDICTION OVER A
ACCUSED PERSON REGARDLESS WHERE THE CRIME WAS
COMMITTED, NATIONALITY, RESIDENCE OR AN RELATION TO THE
PROSECUTING ENTITY.
 DOMESTIC JURISDICTION
 Like Article 15(8) of the Covenant of the League of Nations, Article 2(7) was inserted in the
United Nations Charter (UN Charter) to limit the authority of the organisation in respect of
disputes which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the member states.
 After 50 years of the establishment of United Nations (UN), today it seems that the importance of
the domestic jurisdiction clause has reduced considerably, if it has not already become a
misnomer in the context of the UN practice.
 Today, states rarely think that domestic jurisdiction can provide a shield against UN jurisdiction
in relation to any matter falling within its so-called reserve domain.1 Most of the views departing
from the legal notion of domestic jurisdiction tend to move in a direction that is exactly the
opposite of what the framers of the Charter wished while drafting Article 2(7)
 Posing the concept of domestic jurisdiction as a question of delimitation of competences
between the international organization and individual States requires us, first, to
determine which (positive) competences exactly have been vested in the United Nations
in the field of human rights. It also requires us to establish which organs of the United
Nations are to perform these competences and which specific functions each of these
organs have been attributed. The clarification of these three points will enable us to have
a better view of the context in which the concept of domestic jurisdiction, as embodied in
Article 2 paragraph 7 of the Charter, will evolve in the daily practice of the organs of the
United Nations.
 THE CLAUSE ON DOMESTIC JURISDICTION IN
THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
 •Article 2 paragraph 7 of the Charter reads:
‘Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially
within the domestic jurisdiction of any State or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the
present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.’

 In order to understand the meaning and scope of this provision as well as its application in the practice of the human
rights organs of the United Nations, the following aspects need to be considered:
(1)The place of the provision in the Charter;
The Charter of the United Nations attributes the domestic jurisdiction clause the rank of a principle of the Organization
by incorporating it in Article 2 of the Charter. The classification of the domestic jurisdiction clause as a ‘constitutional’
principle of the United Nations and its place in Chapter I of the Charter is a first remarkable difference with the
conception of the clause under the Covenant of the League of Nations
 (2) The standard by which a matter’s alleged essentially domestic nature must be measured;
A second difference between the domestic jurisdiction clauses of the League of Nations and
the Charter is that the former clearly establishes international law as the yardstick for
determining the alleged domestic nature of a matter. Court clearly establishes that the
boundary between the reserved domain and the domain governed directly by international
law is not a fixed one. In other words, there are no matters which are domestic by nature.
Matters, once left by international law for regulation by States themselves, may over time
become the subject of international regulation – either through the emergence of rules of
customary international law or through the process of treaty-making – and thereby cease to
be ‘solely’ within the domestic jurisdiction of States
 3) The entity endowed with the competence to decide authoritatively on a matter’s alleged essentially domestic
nature;
In the formula of the Covenant the decision as to the alleged domestic nature of a case lies primarily in the hands of
the Council of the League of Nations
The Charter, on the other hand, does not endow any organ in particular with the competence to decide authoritatively
on the applicability of the domestic jurisdiction clause. A proposal to provide for a role of the International Court of
Justice in this respect failed to obtain the required majority at the San Francisco Conference.

 (4) Interpretation of the terms ‘essentially within the domestic jurisdiction’ and ‘intervene’.
Article 15 paragraph 8 of the Covenant of the League of Nations provides that a State may plead that a certain matter
is ‘solely’ within its domestic jurisdiction. Under the system of the League the Permanent Court of International
Justice has had the opportunity to further clarify the scope of the term ‘solely’
 TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION
 THE POWER OF THE COURT TO INQUIRE AND PROCEED WITH THE
TRIAL OF MATTER THAT IS PRESENTED BEFORE IT
 IS DETERMINED ACCORDING TO THE DOMICILE OF THE DEFENDANT
OR PLACE OF THE DISPUTE OR CHOICE OF THE PLAINTIFF IS SOME
PERSONAL STATUS CASES (DIVORCE-WIFE)
 CONCURRENT JURISDICTION EXISTS WHERE TWO COURTS HAVE
SIMULTANEOUS RESPONSIBILTY FOR THE SAME CASE
 CONCEPT OF EXTRA TERRITORIAL
JURISDICTION
 IS THE SITUATION WHEN A STATE EXTENDS ITS LEGAL POWER
BEYOND ITS TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES.
 EXAMPLE : A STATE MAINTAINS JURISDICTION OVER ITS CITIZENS
WHEN THEY ARE OVERSEAS , WHEREAS CERTAIN CRIMINAL
OFFENCES CAN BE PROSECUTED IN A STATE REGARDLESS WHERE
THEY WHERE COMMITTED
 LIKE PIRACY, CHILD SEX OFFENCES
 STATES HAVE ADOPTED OWN APPROACH
 RIGHT TO LIFE
 WHETHER LETHAL FORCE VIOLATES THE RIGHT TO LIFE IS
DEPENDENT UPON VARIOUS CATEGORIES
 WHEN THE ACTIVITY OCCURS OUTSIDE THE STATES GEOGRAPHICAL
AREA GIVES ARISE TO LEGAL COMPLEXITIES
 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW ON THE RIGHT TO LIFE BE
APPLIED TO THE PRACTICE OF ONE STATE ON THE TERRITORY OF
ANOTHER DEPENDS UPON VARIOUS CONVENTION AND PERCEPTION
OF THE MEMBER COUNTRIES