Chapter 4: Human Rights
Introduction and Key Questions
Human Rights: This chapter focuses on the history of and debates about human rights as
well as explores emerging human rights issues.
1. What are human rights and from where do they originate?
2. What issues prevent universal agreement on what constitutes human rights?
3. Are human rights culturally specific or universal?
4. How are human rights monitored and how are human rights treaties enforced?
Origins and Historical Foundations
Where do rights come from?
Natural law emphasizes duties imposed by God suggests that a common human morality
exists suggests that all people have an inherent sense of right and wrong.
Posits that good laws must Reflect the essential nature of all peoples Incorporate only
those principles of justice rooted in the natural reasoning process .
Positivisim Human rights laws should not be based on naturalist assumptions. human
rights exist because states consent to them.
Key Historical Documents
Magna Carta (1215) put limits on power of British Monarchy
- French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) contained a list of rights
to which all French citizens were entitled
-US Bill of Rights (1791) contained a list of rights for citizens of the newly created United
States. Rights were not a function of one’s class or social position
Listed rights for all citizens, including:
Right to free speech.
Right to religious respect.
Right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Right to liberty and protection of property.
Historical Context
Abolitionists, those fighting to abolish slavery, and Suffragists, those fighting for political
rights for women, were strong advocates of human rights in the 1800s. League of Nations
charter contained human rights provision.
United Nations and the International Bill of Rights
United Nations Charter
Preamble of the Charter states: “We the Peoples of the United Nations Determined. . . to
reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person,
in the equal rights of men and women . . . do hereby establish an international organization
to be known as the United Nations.”
“Article 1 states that the purpose of the UN includes “promoting and encouraging respect
for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex,
language, or religion.”
Articles 55 and 56 pledge all nations to work with the UN in order to protect human rights.
“International Bill of Rights”
1. United Nations Charter
2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948
3. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CPR)
4. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR)
Cold War and Rights Debate
Cold War drove policy debate over rights .
Soviet Union focused on Economic and Social rights,, US focused on Political and Civil
rights.
Developing countries promoted group rights including: the right to develop the right to
peace the right to a clean environment the right to the common heritage of humankind.
Debate over Rights
Negative vs. Positive Rights
Negative Rights Often civil and political rights are called negative rights because they
involve the right not to be subjected to an action of another human being or group, such as
the state. Thus, negative rights exist so long as individuals or governments don’t do
anything to take those rights away.
Positive Rights Positive rights involve the provision of something through the actions of one
or more individuals or the state. Positive rights may include certain civil and political rights,
such as police protection and the right to counsel, as well as economic and social rights,
such as public education, health care, and social security.
Cultural Relativism and Universalism
Cultural Relativists vs. Universalists
Are human rights the same for everyone (universal) or are they different depending upon
where a person lives or the culture to which they belong (culturally relative)?
Cultural relativists argue that the human rights movement has been driven by rich and
powerful Western nations that have defined human rights in terms of the cultural tenets of
their own societies.
The universalist perspective argues that human beings’ basic needs are universal, and that
individual human beings have specific rights simply by virtue of being human. Human
rights, they maintain, apply to everyone, regardless of their cultures or where they live.
Organizations and Enforcement
United Nations Commission on Human Rights Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) established in1993 Human Rights Council,
replaced the UN Commission on Human Rights Regional organizations with human rights
agendas European Convention on Human Rights European Social Charter European Court of
Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
United Nations Commission on Human Rights (Replaced by the Human Rights
Council):
Originally responsible for promoting and protecting human rights worldwide. It was later
replaced by the Human Rights Council, which continues this work by investigating
human rights violations and making recommendations.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
Established in 1993, the OHCHR is the main UN office dedicated to monitoring human
rights conditions globally. It supports investigations, assists countries in improving their
laws, and provides reports to the UN.
Regional Organizations:
Some regions have their own human rights systems:
European Convention on Human Rights: A treaty that protects civil and
political rights in Europe.
European Social Charter: Focuses on social and economic rights such as
housing, health, and employment.
European Court of Human Rights: A court where individuals can bring cases if
they believe their rights have been violated by a member country.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs):
Groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch play an important role
in monitoring human rights by reporting abuses, raising awareness, and pressuring
governments to act.
How are Human Rights Monitored and Enforced?
Enforcement Mechanisms
Many human rights treaties require member nations to submit regular reports on their
compliance with the treaty NGOs, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
publish annual reports on states’ human rights records International Tribunals, for
example: Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Tribunal for Rwandan genocide International
Criminal Court– established in 1998 and came into force in 2002. It is the court of last
resort and has the power to try heads of state and their representatives for massive and
gross human rights violations including, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity,
and aggression.
Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Doctrine of humanitarian intervention
Historically there was a lot of debate over whether countries can violate one another’s
sovereignty in order to protect a country’s citizens’ human rights. In 2005, the UN agreed
that there was a “Responsibility to Protect (R2P).” This means:
“Clear and unambiguous acceptance by all governments of the collective international
responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and
crimes against humanity. Willingness to take timely and decisive collective action for this
purpose, through the Security Council, when peaceful means prove inadequate and national
authorities are manifestly failing to do it.”
Emerging Human Rights
The Right to Water 2003 UN declared that everyone was entitled to a right to clean water.
Sexual Rights includes a person’s right to choose/refuse sexual partner(s) (rather than
having them chosen for or forced upon her/him), the right to choose whether or not to
procreate, the right to choose a partner of the same or different sex, and the right to alter
one’s own sex.
DNA Rights International Declaration on Human Genetic Data (2003) demands the
“protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the collection, processing, use,
and storage of human genetic data and the biological samples from which they are
derived.” . Xavier Bosch, “UN Agency Sets out Global Rules for Protecting Genetic Data,”
Lancet 362, no. 9377 (July 5, 2003): 45. For the full text of the UN Declaration, please see
[Link] 4042241f4,[Link].
Human Rights and Non-State Actors
NGOs , multinational corporations (MNCs ), and criminal enterprises have been responsible
for both violating human rights as well as taking on some of the roles originally assumed to
be the purview of nation-states, including providing education, food, and health care. Given
the increased role these various types of actors are playing in both violating human rights
and providing aid in the void left by weak governments, human rights advocates and policy
makers may need to broaden their focus from the ways governments interact with their
citizens to the various roles that other types of organizations play in both protecting and
abusing human rights.
Conclusion
Although human rights have a long history, with relevant documents dating back as far as
the 13 th century, it was only in the post-World War II era that they assumed a central
place in both international relations and relations between states and their citizens. The
atrocities of World War II helped to propel the movement forward, but it was the advent of
international organizations like the UN that made possible the codification of many human
rights principles. While scholars, activists, and others continue to debate issues such as the
universal applicability of rights and governments’ responsibilities to protect them, one clear
pattern has emerged: human rights are increasingly taken seriously by states,
organizations, and individuals.