Showing papers on "Human rights published in 1972"

Folk Devils and Moral Panics

Abstract: 'Richly documented and convincingly presented' -- New Society Mods and Rockers, skinheads, video nasties, designer drugs, bogus asylum seeks and hoodies. Every era has its own moral panics. It was Stanley Cohen’s classic account, first published in the early 1970s and regularly revised, that brought the term ‘moral panic’ into widespread discussion. It is an outstanding investigation of the way in which the media and often those in a position of political power define a condition, or group, as a threat to societal values and interests. Fanned by screaming media headlines, Cohen brilliantly demonstrates how this leads to such groups being marginalised and vilified in the popular imagination, inhibiting rational debate about solutions to the social problems such groups represent. Furthermore, he argues that moral panics go even further by identifying the very fault lines of power in society. Full of sharp insight and analysis, Folk Devils and Moral Panics is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand this powerful and enduring phenomenon. Professor Stanley Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He received the Sellin-Glueck Award of the American Society of Criminology (1985) and is on the Board of the International Council on Human Rights. He is a member of the British Academy.

A United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Abstract: By Resolution 2062 (XX) of December 16, 1965, the United Nations General Assembly requested the Economic and Social Council to transmit to the Commission on Human Rights a proposal by Costa Rica to create the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, so that the Commission might study the matter and report on it to the General Assembly at its twenty-first session in 1966. The Commission on Human Rights considered the item in March 1966, and by resolution 4 (XXII) established a Working Group comprising nine members of the Commission to study the proposed institution and to report to the Commission at its twenty-third session in 1967. The item was not taken up by the Third Committee during the Assembly’s twenty-first session in 1966, partly because background studies on the subject had not been completed, and partly because the Committee had allocated most of its time to the task of completing measures of implementation for the two International Covenants on Human Rights.

Basic documents in international law

Abstract: 1. CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS 2. Declaration of principles of international Law concerning friendly relations and co-operation among states in accordance with the charter of the United Nations 3. Statement of the four sponsoring powers on voting procedure in the security council 4. Constitution of the international labour organization 5. Charter of the organization of African unity 1. CONVENTIONS ADOPTED BY THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE LAW OF THE SEA, 29 APRIL 1958 2. Declaration of principles governing the sea-bed and the ocean floor, and the subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction 3. Convention of the law of the sea (Parts I-X) TREATY ON PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE ACTIVITIES OF STATES IN THE EXPLORATION AND USE OF OUTER SPACE, INCLUDING THE MOON AND OTHER CELESTIAL BODIES VIENNA CONVENTION ON DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 1. GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION OF 1962 ON PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURAL RESOURCES 2. Charter of economic rights and duties of states 1. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 2. International covenants on human rights 3. Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples 4. International convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination 5. The european convention for the protection of human rights VIENNA CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF TREATIES ARTICLES ON RESPONSIBILITY FOR STATES FOR INTERNATIONALLY WRONGFUL ACTS STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE PROSECUTION OF PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW COMMITTED IN THE TERRITORY OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA SINCE 1991 INDEX

The International Court of Justice and the Human Rights Clauses of the Charter

Abstract: The Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa), notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), contains a veritable tour d’horizon of contemporary international law and of the law of international organizations. It ranges over provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations and over many articles of the Charter of the United Nations.

The function of judicial decision in European economic integration.

Abstract: The present generation lives in a time of transition. The isolated national legal order, the supreme idea of 19th Century legal science, begins to be superseded by the evolution of a wider international and transnational net work of legal rules and conceptions. With the recognition of a fundamental guarantee of human rights as a binding ingredient of the framework of inter national law, the strict separation of the internal system of the states from the international community is transcended. To this extent, the rules of international law now exercise a direct influence upon the national legal order. In some conventional arrangements safeguarding human rights, the individual is given direct access to international protection against his own state. The piercing of national borders by transnational norms finds its strongest expression in the formation of regional communities of states which seek to develop a common fund of legal rules, concepts and principles among their members. The leading role in this direction lies with European organizations. In the Community formed by the signatories of the European Convention on Human Rights, the members accept for themselves a stan dard of legal guarantees for fundamental rights of the individual laid down in the Convention. The organs of the Convention, including the Court and foremost the Commission, fulfill their tasks by measuring the national laws of the member states against the basic requirements embodied in the Euro pean Convention.

An economic bill of rights

Abstract: All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being. America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

International law, national tribunals, and the rights of aliens

Abstract: This volume in the Procedural Aspects of International Law Series is es­ sentially a collection of essays which provide a useful introduction to ques­ tions which an American lawyer would want to consider in contemplating litigation outside the United States. The authors describe their works as studies of selected problem areas in which they seek to highlight those as­ pects of national legal systems where litigants might be disadvantaged be­ cause they were aliens (p. 295). Frank G. Dawson, an American, has written on foreign investment prob­ lems. He has practiced law in New York and has been stationed in Caracas. He is now an international investment banker in London. Thus he pre­ sumably contributes the Latin American materials reflected both in text and footnotes. His co-author, Ivan L. Head, was formerly Professor of Inter­ national Law at the University of Alberta, and is now a Canadian Govern­ ment official. One assumes that he provided the background of United Kingdom law and practice and its very considerable impact both on the “old” and “new” members and former members of the Commonwealth. The chapters are readable and discursive descriptions of diverse topics. The first two chapters form a brief history of diplomatic protection, fol­ lowed by an informative essay on \"Extralegal Problems Which May In­ trude Upon the Judicial Process” (Ch. III). A more technical discussion begins after the first hundred pages looking at both the theory and then treaties and legislation dealing with the “Access by Aliens to Foreign Tribunals” (Ch. V). Then comes a general introduc­ tion to the civil law in terms of the “Problems Encountered by Aliens in Litigation” (Ch. VI). After a very general account of some nationalization problems, there follows a good technical discussion concerning exchange control as it affects enforcement of foreign awards (Ch. VIII). However, in this discussion this reviewer may have missed any reference to national investment guaranty legislation as one possible remedy. The final Chapter IX comes the closest to a conceptual discussion of the rdle of national courts as participants in a horizontal legal order in the absence of a developed ver­ tical international legal order.1 Of course, the local remedies rule is dis­ cussed at various points in the volume and there is enough material, includ­ ing citations, to permit the reader to seek a fuller discussion of the principle in operation should he so desire. The nine chapters taken collectively provide a wide introduction to the subject of litigation abroad, and through the footnotes a similar introduc­ tion to some primary sources and leading cases as well as much current writing. One can appreciate the considerable effort that went into assem­ bling these materials dealing with various legal systems. At many points

John jones and the black convention movement, 1848-1856

Abstract: Little progress had been made in extending full citizenship to the Black minority. In the nineteenth century, the Black Convention Movement was an attempt to alleviate this social inequity. The National Convention, with its state and local auxiliary societies gave the Black man a sense of identity. In these societies, he obtained a feeling of confidence and self-respect. It brought Northern Blacks together as no other organization did and provided them with an opportunity to arrive at a common perspective of problems and solutions (Foner, 1964: 126). The Convention developed national and local leaders who were to play formidable roles in erasing slave codes and other abuses of human rights. Black leaders from the Chicago area were John Jones, Henry D. Wagoner,

Due Process of Law Before the European Court of Human Rights: The Secret Deliberation

Abstract: “Secrecy of the deliberation,” a term of art used widely in court procedure, is neither a universal principle nor one with a single meaning. Continuing an old Germanic tradition, courts in some Swiss cantons, as well as the Federal Court in Lausanne, deliberate in the presence of the parties. In most of the Western world, including the common law countries, Latin mAmerica, and Scandinavia, the principle of secret deliberations is accepted but does not cover the vote, that is, the position taken byeach judge. In all six Common Market states, however, the vote is secret and the individual judge is under an obligation not to reveal his position. Originally adopted under the regime of absolute government to protect the independence of the judge, this extended secrecy has come under attack recently, especially when applied to constitutional litigation. Legislation enacted in the German Federal Republic in December, 1970, giving members ofthe Federal Constitutional Court the right to reveal their vote, may be the precursor of changes in this matter.

The Commission on Civil Rights—and Human Rights

Abstract: When there is a crisis of the conscience, the natural human response on the part of many churchgoers is to put a little something extra into the collection plate on Sunday. That is roughly what the nation did in 1957 when it created the Commission on Civil Rights.Just three years previously the Supreme Court, in Brown, had invalidated the old separate-but-equal rule. Some of the southern states had resolved to resist the decision with all their might. Civilrights groups had countered by mobilizing for a fight that would last longer than they expected.

Un Fact-Finding and Human Rights Complaints*

Abstract: N September 1963, President Kennedy sent two American officials to have 'a fresh look' at the situation in South Vietnam. Mr Joseph Mendenhall was an experienced diplomat who had previously served as political counsellor in the United States Embassy in Saigon. MajorGeneral Victor Krulak was the Pentagon's top-ranking expert in counterinsurgency warfare. The two men spent an exhausting four days in South Vietnam and then returned to Washington with such diametrically opposed assessments that President Kennedy was moved to ask, 'You two did visit the same country, didn't you? ' 1 The difficulty about facts is that there are so many of them. Facts, or alleged facts, pour into the United Nations headquarters in a continuous flood-speeches of delegates; conversations, formal and informal, between representatives of governments and UN officials; written communications from other international bodies, governments, would-be governments, non-governmental organisations (some formally recognised, some not), and individuals; reports from UN agencies and officials in the field; information in books, monographs, journals, newspapers, or otherwise in the public domain. The difficulty for the United Nations is not how to accumulate information but how to avoid being suffocated by it; and, secondly, how to distinguish between objective facts and slanted information provided for partisan purposes. Nor is the UN short of standing fact-finding machinery. The General Assembly has expressly conferred fact-finding responsibilities on the Interim Committee (the so-called Little Assembly) and the Peace Observation Commission, and has established both a Panel for Inquiry and Conciliation and a Register of Experts for fact-finding. The principal UN organs, including the International Court of Justice, may create ad hoc bodies for enquiry or fact-finding as needed. In addition, many UN members are parties to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for the peaceful settlement of disputes, or to bilateral, regional, or general treaties providing for international enquiry. UN fact-finding may be classified in various ways; by the type of body set up to establish the facts, by the kind of situation to be investi-

Judicial protection of some fundamental rights in Nigeria and in the Sudan before and during military rule

Abstract: Africa quite suddenly came within the focus of the world's political microscope in the last decade or so. Having thus come into view, it has aroused the interests not only of political scientists but also of lawyers all over the world to an extent almost unprecedented in world history. The colonial powers which had ruled most of Africa in modern times had themselves had centuries of political autonomy behind them. Within the past two decades these colonial powers have had, mainly voluntarily but in some cases as a result of revolt by the governed, to transfer political power to most of their erstwhile dependent peoples.

Advocacy for the Legal and Human Rights of the Mentally Retarded.

Abstract: Nine presentations from a conference on advocacy of the legal and human rights of the mentally handicapped are given. Robert Segal considers parents and professionals to be the primary advocates for the retarded, while Virginia Nordin examines the implications of recent court cases for the retarded's right to legal process and redress. The right to dignity is discussed by Marjorie Kirkland, and William Cruickshank suggests that the right not to be negatively labelled is important for the retarded. The right to financial assistance is presented by Mary Wagner. Lynwood Beekman recommends action at the local, county, and state levels to insure the right to education for the handicapped. Lorraine Beebe delineates the right to community services such as appropriate physical and mental health care. Inadequate finance and staff are seen by Lawrence Turtond to result in a.failure to provide the retarded with the right to adequate treatment in state institutions. Robert Burt considers questions implicit i the right to marry and the right of choice regarding sterilization. Reports of seven group workshops which discussed the presentations are given, as is an evaluation of the conference. (DB) Advocacy for the Legal and Human Rights of the Mentally Retarded ProceedingS of the Advocacy Conference