Showing papers on "International human rights law published in 1985"

International Human Rights and Cultural Relativism

Abstract: This chapter addresses the philosophical status of cultural relativism and outlines the link between human rights law and moral philosophy. Supporters of cultural relativism argue that the theory creates a legal defense to the general duty incumbent upon governments to observe international human rights. The chapter considers two doctrines closely associated with relativism. The first theory asserts that one can appropriately honor human rights in certain societies, usually the most sophisticated ones, but not in others, on account, for example, of the latter’s insufficient economic development. The second theory states that the law of human rights results from a conspiracy of the West to perpetuate imperialism. The position of relativist scholars who are human rights advocates illustrates an eloquent example of concealed elitism. Because the consequence of either version of elitism is that certain national or ethnic groups are somehow less entitled than others to the enjoyment of human rights, the theory is fundamentally immoral and replete with racist overtones.

The Advisory Practice of the Inter-American Human Rights Court

Abstract: The American Convention on Human Rights entered into force in 1978. To date, 18 OAS member states, out of 31, have ratified it. Included among the states parties to the Convention are all the Central American Republics as well as Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The five Andean Pact nations have ratified, as have Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada. Argentina is the latest state to become a party; it did so on September 5, 1984, and thus became the first and, to date, only Southern Cone country to do so. The others—Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay—have not ratified; nor have Brazil, the United States, Suriname and a number of English-speaking Caribbean states.

Changing African Perspectives on the Right of Self-Determination in the Wake of the Banjul Charter on Human and Peoples′ Rights

Abstract: In the history of modern Africa the issue of self-determination has always been of special significance. For a better part of a century and in some cases more, almost the entire continent was subject to colonisation by various European powers. The end of the Second World War and the subsequent adoption of the United Nations Charter, incorporating the principle of self-determination, heralded a new phase for the African colonies in international relations. Defined in its simplest terms, self-determination is the principle by virtue of which a people freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Selfdetermination is in essence the right of self-government. A territory exercises the right by either opting to establish itself as an independent state, associating with an existing state or by accepting to be integrated into an existing state. Self-determination so defined was thus used as the basis for decolonisation in Africa and provided the foundations for equal statehood for the former colonies of Africa in international relations.After decolonisation, the issue of self-determination still persists in Africa attracting sentiments and implications well exemplified by the conflicts Over Biafra and Katanga in the 1960s and currently in Eritrea, the Tigray province of Ethiopia and the Southern Sudan. The very successful propagation of self-determination as the right of every people to self-government by African nationalists during the colonial days seems to have left behind a legacy of a question for post-independence Africa—is the ideal of self-determination

The United Nations and Human Rights, 1945-1985

Abstract: Between 1945 and 1985 there has been a marked change in the treatment of human rights at the United Nations. On the foundation of a few vague references to human rights in the UN Charter there has evolved an International Bill of Rights indicating numerous obligations of increasing salience. This core of global rules has been supplemented by a series of particular human rights instruments, some with special control mechanisms. Once the subject of human rights seemed idealistic and abstract, but by the 1980s there was growing attention through an increasing array of UN organs to specific countries and patterns of behavior such as torture and people who have disappeared. The subject of humans rights has not faded away like that of military coordination under the Security Council nor has it remained on the back burner like the Trusteeship Council. Rather it has emerged more and more as one of the subjects to which member states give great attention, if not always for the same reasons. Considerable debate exists at the United Nations over the significance of this change in the treatment of human rights. Clearly, the institutional and procedural changes in the field of human rights have been striking. It also seems clear that there is some legal significance to these changes. At least it now can be said that states have accepted a number of new legal obligations and that numerous "cases" exist which can be used as "precedent" should actors choose to do so in pursuit of human rights values. Ambivalence begins to set in when one tackles the subject of the practical significance of these changes for the condition of human rights beyond UN meeting rooms. There is considerable disagreement

The Lawful Rights of Mankind: An Introduction to the International Legal Code of Human Rights

Abstract: When we talk about human rights today, we are on much finer ground than if we were discussing the "moral" and "natural" rights of man which philosophers have debated for so long. Since 1945 a veritable legal revolution has prompted the installation of a complete, universally agreed code of human rights in international law. This book explains for the general reader what lies behind the code, how it was made, how it works, and what it says.

Human and Peoples′ Rights: Distinctive Features of the African Charter

Abstract: The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights was adopted unanimously in June, 1981, by the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U.). Although it is not yet in force its adoption represents an important landmark in the protection and promotion of human rights on the African continent. The O.A.U. has in the past been sharply criticized for its apparent indifference to the suppression of human rights in a number of independent African States. Although the founding Charter of the O.A.U. of 1961 makes reference to the issue of human rights in Article II l (e) and also mentions in general terms the need to promote the welfare and well-being of the African people, its primary concern has been with the eradication of colonialism and apartheid on the African continent. In this context it is clearly committed to the achievement of human rights and self-determination of the peoples of South Africa and Namibia. However, other breaches of human rights on a widespread scale, such as the massacre of thousands of the Bahutu tribe of Burundi in 1973, was neither discussed nor condemned by the O.A.U. Similarly, the mass murders and other atrocities during the former regime of Idi Amin (Uganda 1971–79) and subsequently and also those which took place during the regime of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, (Central African Republic 1966–79) and Marcias

Africa and International Law — the Emergence to Statehood

Abstract: At the beginning of this century only two African countries, Liberia and Ethiopia, were recognised as independent states which could be fully involved in international law. Both participated in the activities of the League of Nations. Today, with the exception of Namibia, the face of Africa is covered by sovereign states.

How Does the Constitution Secure Rights

Abstract: Foreword / William J. Baroody, Jr. -- How the Constitution protects our rights / Robert A. Rutland -- The Constitution and the Bill of Rights / Herbert J. Storing -- Two models of adjudication / Owen M. Fiss -- The Constitution as Bill of Rights / WalterBerns -- Subsistence rights / Henry Shue -- American constitutionalism and individual rights / Nathan Tarcov.

Human Rights and Third World Development

Abstract: The intertwining of development and human rights is the subject of the twelve essays collected by the editors. The individual authors extensively examine the commonly held belief that economic development cannot take place in Third World countries without the short term sacrifice of political liberty and demonstrate that there is considerable evidence to the contrary. Following a theoretical stage-setting that concentrates on the severe power limitations and the dependency of weak Third World states, case studies focus on such issues as state terrorism, food, the right to modernize, refugees, and support of apartheid in Latin America, the People's Republic of China, the Middle East, and Africa. Several essays concern the implementation of human rights and the role of multinational corporations and international nongovernmental organizations in protecting them. The final essay considers the international framework of government, law, and organization as a means for implementing human rights development in the Third World.

A Defense of Employee Rights

Abstract: Recent trends in business ethics along with growing attacks upon unions, suggest that employee rights will be a major social concern for business managers during the next decade. However, in most of the discussions of employee rights to date, the very meaning and legitimacy of such rights are often uncritically taken for granted. In this paper, we develop an account of employee rights and defend this conception against what we take to be the strongest in-principle objections to it.

Human rights in post-Mao China

Abstract: The concept of individual human rights in the People's Republic of China, as in all communist countries, is fundamentally different from that in the West. Even so, the record of the Mao Zedong years is generally acknowledged as dismal even in China. This book investigates human rights in China from a historical perspective but concentrates on the p

Human Rights and Foreign Policy: Principles and Canadian Practice

Abstract: This article has two purposes. First, it attempts to establish the bases for legitimate state interference and possibly intervention in the internal affairs of another state to promote basic human rights. Second, it will test the utility of this argument by applying it to a consideration of Canadian policies related to South Africa and to development assistance. We will first define and defend the concept of basic human rights. We will then consider the strength of the argument that the principle of nonintervention should be given primacy in interstate relations. Against this argument we will develop the basic propositions which seem to require human rights components within a foreign policy. On the basis of these propositions we will hazard a series of policy prescriptions. We will then discuss the process which determines the priority to be given to these prescriptions in comparison to the policies required by other foreign policy objectives. All that accomplished, we will consider in turn Canadian policy in two important issues: first, whether Canada should actively interfere or perhaps even intervene in the liberation struggle in South Africa; and secondly, whether Canadian foreign assistance should be used to press Third World recipients to greater respect for basic human rights. We thus hope to contribute to the body of literature that seeks to apply to important issues of foreign policy concepts of basic human rights and morality.'

The Civil Rights Movement in Colonial Igboland

Abstract: This article points out some of the inadequacies of past official measures to deal with the problems of social prejudice and discrimination against the Osu, the Ohu, and the other species of slavery which survived the legal abolition of the slave trade and slavery in Igboland. It also discusses the campaign by the Osu and Ohu to emancipate themselves, and to secure equal legal and social rights with freeborn, especially in respect of rights to land and freedom of choice in marriage. Indirectly, the paper illustrates the often overlooked limitations of legislation as an instrument of social policy, and raises questions about alternative policy approaches to this and similar problems of social inequality based on custom, tribe, caste and so on. For over half a century, government officials and humanitarian pressure groups deplored the institutions of Osu and Ohu among the Igbo, and sought by legislation and propaganda to eradicate the prejudice and stigma attached to them. But these institutions still persist in an insidious manner, sustained by culturally forced interbreeding and by other subtle forms of customary inhibitions. The terms Osu and Ohu are no longer in common use, and there are known instances of tolerance and of progressive assimilation, especially of the Ohu; but the idea remains, couched in various local pseudonyms and euphemisms meant to obscure reality and circumvent the legal sanctions against "words spoken or published which impute that a person is an Osu, an Ohu ... or is subject to a legal or social disability or social stigma which is similar to or nearly similar to that borne by an Osu, an Ohu,"l and so on. The main difficulty in discussing any form of social discrimination and inequality in Nigeria is the technical one that no such status exists in the eyes of the law. The partially suspended 1979 Constitution, like its antecedents, upholds unambiguously the principle of "equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law," and deprecated in strong terms any form of prejudice, stigma, or discrimination based on place of origin, sex, religion,

United Nations Conventions on Human Rights: The Practice of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Dealing with Reporting Obligations of States Parties

Abstract: 1. These human rights instruments are: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, opened for signature 19 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976; G.A. Res. 2200 A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 16 at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature 19 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976; G.A. Res. 2200 A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 16 at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966); the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, opened for signature 21 December 1965, entered into force 4 January 1969; 660 U.N.T.S. 195 (1969); G.A. Res. 2106 A (XX), 20 U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 4 U.N. Doc. A/6014 (1965); the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, opened for signature 30 November 1973, entered into force 18 July 1976; 1015 U.N.T.S. 244 (1976); G.A. Res. 3068 (XXVIII), 28 U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 30 U.N. Doc. A/9030 (1973); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, opened for signature 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981; G.A. Res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 46 at 193, U.N. Doc. A/Res./34/180 (1979); and the Convention Against Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, opened for signature 10 December 1984; G.A. Res. 39/46, 39 U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 51 (1984) [hereinafter cited as Convention Against Torture]. All these conventions have entered into force with the exception of the Convention Against Torture which was adopted on 10 December 1984.

Drafting an International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families.

Abstract: The open-ended Working Group (WG) completed its 3rd session of the 2nd reading on the Elaboration of an International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families during September 24-October 3 1986 in New York. In this session the WG elaborated a "dictionary" of terms related to the migrant worker and members of the family of the migrant worker that when ratified will be viewed as international standards. The WG also approved 8 articles primarily relating to civil and political rights. These included articles regarding the rights of migrant workers and their families to 1) leave any State including their State of origin; 2) life; 3) be excluded from forced or compulsory labor except under specific conditions; 4) the freedom of thought conscience and religion; 5) hold opinions without interference and the freedom of expression subject only to certain restrictions; and 6) liberty and security of person. The Conventions intention was to ensure the application of human rights to migrant workers. There were nearly 60 participating states in attendance with 1/3 of them from African states. African and Arab states played a very active role in the discussions. The number of women delegates has increased with each session. Future issues include 1) economic and cultural rights and 2) the additional rights of migrant workers and their families in a regular situation of lawful status.

Basic humanitarian principles applicable to non-nationals.

Abstract: This article examines the general status in international law of certain fundamental human rights to determine the minimum "no derogation" standards and then surveys a number of formal agreements between stages governing migration matters while examining some of the standard-setting work undertaken by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other institutions. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the right of everyone to leave any country including his or her own. The anti-discrimination provision is widely drawn and includes national or social origin birth or other status. Non-discrimination is frequently the core issue in migration matters; it offers the basis for a principles approach to questions involving non-nationals and their methodological analysis as well as a standard for the progressive elaboration of institutions and practices. As a general rule ILO conventions give particular importance to the principle of choice of methods by states for the implementation of standards as well as to the principle of progressive implementation. Non-discrimination implies equality of opportunity in the work field inremuneration job opportunity trade union rights and benefits social security taxation medical treatment and accommodation; basic legal guarantees are also matters of concern to migrant workers including termination of employment non-renewal of work permits and expulsion. The generality of human rights is due not because the individual is or is not a member of a partucular group and claims to such rights are not determinable according to membership but according to the character of the right in question. The individualized aspect of fundamental human rights requires a case-by-case consideration of claims and the recognition that to all persons now certain special duties are owed.

The United States and human rights

Abstract: These excellent books mark the reception in American thinking of the doctrine that economic and social rights (Shue, Brown/Maclean, Hoffmann, Vogelgesang, Falk) are at least as important as the civil and political rights of Henkin's ‘International Bill of Rights’. The English contribution to this literature, the collection of documents edited by Brownlie, makes no distinction between sets of rights; and by reprinting work by Prebisch and Figueres, Brownlie promotes the thesis that development and human rights go together. However, it is worth noticing that all these authors ignore the efforts by the majority of countries in the UN General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights to assert the related concept of rights to development, notably in GA Resolution 32/130 (1977).

The Influence of Parliament on Human Rights in Canadian Foreign Policy

Abstract: Despite much excellent scholarly literature written in recent years concerning Canadian foreign policy, surprisingly little has been written about the role of Parliament in foreign policy, and almost nothing about Parliament and human rights.' Among the literature that does touch on the role of Parliament there is evident a general perception that the Canadian legislature has very little influence on the formation of foreign policy.2 There is general truth to portrayals of Parliament's limited intervention into decisionmaking. Nevertheless, the main contention of this paper is that Parliament has managed to influence the development of Canada's human rights policy in a variety of ways and on a number of different levels.