International Human Rights Treaties Research Articles

Human Rights: What the United States Might Learn from the Rest of the World and, Yes, from American Sociology

The U.S. Constitution includes civil and political rights—as individual rights—but does not include what is internationally understood to be “human rights,” namely rights we enjoy as equals, including economic, social, and cultural rights, and protections for vulnerable persons, such as children, minorities, mothers, and refugees. The United States has not ratified any international (United Nations) or regional (Organization of American States) human rights treaty, is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court, and is no longer a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It might be concluded that Americans do not know what human rights are. It is more complicated than that. While opinion polls show that Americans often endorse individual rights—e. g., the rights of women—they do not frame them as being interdependent or being within the purview of government. Can we conclude that human rights have no place in the United States? Not at all. This article concludes by showing that many U.S. institutions of higher learning have programs in human rights and that some academic associations, including the American Sociological Association, recognize human rights.

Framing Asymmetry: Devolution and the United Kingdom’s Four Children’s Commissioners

The United Kingdom’s four children’s commissioners, established under separate legislation for Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, are amongst the best known of the public institutions created since the beginning of devolved government in 1999. Like many such offices around the world, they are the result of domestic political and social processes as well as the influence of the requirements of international human rights treaties, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Different processes in the four countries have produced differing remits and emphases, but each commissioner is in part a response to concerns about the vulnerability of children in difficult circumstances. The commissioners’ activities include vigilance over the access of such children to support, in particular support for getting their voices heard. The commissioners have also developed prominence on the international stage as independent children’s rights institutions and all have been active in promoting children’s participation in social accountability for human rights implementation. This article explains the commissioners’ different roles and remits and examines ways in which they contribute to accountability for human rights implementation in the political, administrative, legislative, judicial and social spheres. It concludes by suggesting that their status as both “children’s champion” and independent children’s rights institutions is likely to assure their long-term endurance in the still-evolving process of constitutional change in theuk.

Avoiding Obligation

This article examines the decisions of governments to enter reservations upon ratification of international human rights treaties. I argue that, in the context of the human rights regime, reservations are simply attempts to avoid international legal obligations where they would be consequential. I develop an explanation for their use that focuses on the following two factors: the legal constraints that already exist in domestic law and the likelihood that international agreements will be enforced by domestic courts. Using an original measure of domestic legal protection of civil, political, and personal integrity rights, I find evidence that governments are more likely to enter reservations when domestic legal standards are lax compared to those in the treaty and when judiciaries are likely to enforce treaty-based obligations. This suggests that full adoption of international human rights treaties is more likely when treaties will not create genuine domestic legal constraints and that explanations for treaty adoption and implementation must take reservations into account. It also suggests that adoption of international human rights law is best explained by the specific legal institutions that relate to domestic enforcement rather than broad distinctions between democratic/autocratic political institutions.

La inconstitucionalidad por omisión. Necesidad de reconocimiento de la figura en Colombia como factor garantista de los Derechos Humanos

<p>La Asamblea Nacional Constituyente colombiana no aprobó la figura de la inconstitucionalidad por omisión. Esta figura aplicada en otros ordenamientos jurídicos es fundamental para la defensa de los principios que dieron origen de la Constitución Política. La figura de la inconstitucionalidad por omisión busca garantizar que la voluntad del constituyente tenga plena realización y no que se desnaturalice. La materialización constitucional tiene su negación en la desvalorización inercial de la Carta; puede existir una violación por omisión en el desarrollo de los tratados internacionales de Derechos Humanos, debidamente suscritos y ratificados por un Estado, pudiendo comprometer el bloque de constitucionalidad.</p>

The Process of Viet Nam’s Preparation of the National Report under the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review

Viet Nam has finished two national reports under the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review. The Vietnamese national reports were prepared in accordance with the general guidelines of the Human Rights Council and experience learnt from other countries. However, the process of Viet Nam’s preparation of its national reports reveals some shortcomings that should be considered. In order to fulfill the obligations of international human rights treaties of which Viet Nam is a party, the process of Viet Nam’s preparation of national reports should be continuously improved to further ensure and promote fundamental human rights in Viet Nam.

Of Politicians and Technocrats, and Why Global Health Scholars Are Inevitably a Bit of Both: A Response to Recent Commentaries.

Of Politicians and Technocrats, and Why Global Health Scholars Are Inevitably a Bit of Both: A Response to Recent Commentaries.

Reservations to international human rights treaties.

30Apr 2016 Reservations to international human rights treaties. Samovich Yulia Vladimirovna. FSFEI HVE \

Confronting and Adapting: Intelligence Agencies and International Law

Intelligence activity is — or, more accurately, was — the last bastion of foreign relations unconstrained by international law. States could steal diplomatic secrets, covertly assess rivals’ military capabilities, and disseminate propaganda inside other states without fear of international legal sanction. This absence of regulation made sense as long as a state’s intelligence activities were primarily directed at foreign states and their officials. However, intelligence activity now implicates private actors as never before, as states engage in bulk data collection, steal secrets from corporations, and expand their focus on non-state actors such as terrorist groups. As a result, some states and advocates now are pressing for a formalist approach to international law, claiming that states should interpret various bodies of existing international law as applicable to state intelligence activities. Others contend that intelligence activities will and should remain untouched by international legal constraint. Both approaches are flawed: the realpolitik view of the (non-existent) relationship between intelligence and international legal constraints is unsustainable and creates troubling legal black holes. The formalist view fails to acknowledge important reasons why state-on-state intelligence activities are distinct from diplomatic and military actions that states view as constrained by international law. This Article identifies a better way to mediate the relationship between intelligence and international law. Rather than rejecting international law altogether or, alternatively, imposing a rigid legal framework on intelligence activity, it argues that states should differentiate between international laws that protect individuals against tangible harm (such as international humanitarian law and human rights treaties) and those that protect states against harms that are often dignitary (such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity). The Article proposes a sliding interpretive scale whereby states engaged in intelligence activity have less freedom to interpret and apply individually-focused international rules and more freedom to interpret state-protective rules. It also illustrates how several states have begun to pursue this approach in practice. Ultimately, this Article argues that states and human rights advocates both must adapt — in different ways — their expectations about the proper role of international law in the world of intelligence operations.

Architectures of intergenerational justice: Human dignity, international law, and duties to future generations

ABSTRACTThis article draws attention to the constitutive requirements of intergenerational justice and exposes the limitations of regulative arguments based on international human rights law. Intergenerational justice demands constraining the regulative freedom of the international community, and it is tempting to assume that adequate constraints are already contained within existing treaties including international human rights treaties. In fact, intergenerational justice demands bespoke constitutional norms at the international level, and it demands entrenching constitutional norms. International human rights law per se implies neither of these constitutive propositions and both are problematic in light of the present structure of international law. Nevertheless, a combination of arguments concerning intergenerational justice and the systemic implications of human dignity yield a more constitutive account of human rights and therefore an internal critique of the overall architecture of international law.

Human Rights and Disability Advocacy. By Maya Sabatello and Marianne Schulze. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. 304 pp. $59.95 cloth.

Human Rights and Disability Advocacy. By Maya Sabatello and Marianne Schulze. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. 304 pp. $59.95 cloth.The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention) which entered into force on May 3, 2008 has been hailed as marking a both in relation to how international human rights treaties are developed (from state-centric to participation by Disabled Persons' Organisations [DPOs] and Non-Governmental Organisations [NGOs]) and how international human rights law approaches disability (from medical model to social model) (see, e.g., Melish 2007). With 160 signatories and nearly 10 years having passed since the Convention was open for signature in May 2006, the Convention is now in a phase of domestic implementation and the international origins of the Convention and its paradigm shift might seem in relative terms a distant past. In Human Rights and Disability Advocacy editors Maya Sabatello and Marianne Shulze take readers back to the Convention's development via a series of first person reflections by individuals from a diverse range of DPOs and NGOs who were involved in the treaty negotiations.The book provides a useful complement to scholarship which takes a more abstract or formal approach to the Convention's development. In taking a first person approach from multiple perspectives rather than a single, chronological narrative the interplay of the chapters in Human Rights and Disability Advocacy form a bricolage that provides an enriching insight into the challenges, complexities, and tensions of international human rights advocacy and how these play out specifically in relation to human rights of people with disability. different authors in each chapter are unexpectedly candid and reflective of their first hand experiences-sharing successes as well as failures, disappointments, and disagreements-and together illuminate the complex lived, material, and affective dimensions of the development of international human rights law and specifically of the Convention.The multiperspectival narrative structure of Human Rights and Disability Advocacy provides important and unanticipated insights into the strategies and challenges of new diplomacy, including in relation to working in coalitions and lobbying states parties. For a legal readership, one chapter which is particularly valuable is Tara J. Melish's chapter on Disability Rights International's approach to the Convention drafting negotiations which was focused on achieving the goal of legal technical and operational effectiveness at international and domestic levels (as opposed to a focus on aspirational and concept driven goals) and careful, legal attention to international law principles in this strategy.This book will be of interest and use to disability legal and critical disability scholars and students because it poses provocative, material challenges to the theorizing of disability. While the editors of Human Rights and Disability Advocacy make the point that the approach to disability in the Convention owes much to theorizing on social models of disability, the chapters in Human Rights and Disability Advocacy implicitly show the converse: that the experiences of the individuals involved in the development of the Convention can in turn inform the further theorizing of disability as a political category. One of the fascinating themes to emerge from the book's structure and multiperspectival approach is the hierarchies, tensions and at times interesting alliances between different disability categories and groups of disabled people: summed up by MacQuarrie and Laurin-Bowie as: The negotiations of the [Convention] brought the world together to talk about disability. With that came stereotypes, assumptions, and outdated language use about disability - and not just from government delegations. ... the tensions and differences among and within civil society organizations were, in many ways, more difficult and more important to overcome than those between government delegations and civil society organizations (p. …

The Strategic Use of Human Rights Treaties in Hong Kong’s Cage-Home Crisis: No Way Out?

AbstractUsing a socioeconomic rights framework, this article will evaluate government policy relating to housing welfare in Hong Kong. In particular, it will explore the alarming plight of cage tenants in Hong Kong, a highly marginalized group estimated to be as many as 200,000 in number, who live day to day in cramped, dank dwellings averaging 15 square feet in size. It will argue that current government policies are incompatible with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It will further look at strategies for domesticating these international human rights treaties. In doing so, this article will contribute to the ongoing debate concerning the legal nature of socioeconomic rights.

The Case for Political Candidacy as a Fundamental Human Right

While the right to vote enjoys widespread recognition and enforcement, the same may not be said of the closely related right to stand for election, otherwise referred to as the right to candidacy. Even though the right to candidacy is recognized in numerous regional and international human rights treaties, it is not included in most domestic Bills of Rights. Furthermore, the view remains in some academic quarters that political candidacy should not be properly considered a fundamental right. In response, this article seeks to offer a theoretical justification of the right to candidacy by outlining the central values and interests which underlie the right. It further offers a derivative justification of the right, by examining the extent to which the right’s protection is necessary for the full realization of other human rights, including the right to vote. The case is made that political candidacy ought to be recognized as an enforceable constitutional right in all liberal democracies.

STATE SOVEREIGNTY, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN MOBILITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

International human mobility and human rights can be linked by the dinamogenesis theory. The State sovereignty isn’t the same it was in the past. The State can’t decide about the right to entry without consider international human rights treaties. The nationality has an important row in finding how dinamogenesis can modify the interpretation of the State sovereignty. The right to entry is built in the evolution of human rights. Now State has no more the discretion to decide who can enter its territory, due to dinamogenesis and human rights.

STATE SOVEREIGNTY, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN MOBILITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

International human mobility and human rights can be linked by the dinamogenesis theory. The State sovereignty isn’t the same it was in the past. The State can’t decide about the right to entry without consider international human rights treaties. The nationality has an important row in finding how dinamogenesis can modify the interpretation of the State sovereignty. The right to entry is built in the evolution of human rights. Now State has no more the discretion to decide who can enter its territory, due to dinamogenesis and human rights.

Religious Freedoms In Republic Of Macedonia

Abstract With the independence of Republic of Macedonia and the adoption of the Constitution of Macedonia, the country went through a substantial socio-political transition. The concept of human rights and freedoms, such as religious freedoms in the Macedonian Constitution is based on liberal democratic values. The Macedonian Constitution connects the fundamental human rights and freedoms with the concept of the individual and citizen, but also with the collective rights of ethnic minorities, respecting the international standards and responsibilities taken under numerous international human rights conventions and treaties, of which the country is a party. Republic of Macedonia has ratified all the so called “core human right treaties” and now the real challenge lies in the implementation of the international standards. Some of these international conventions and treaties of the United Nations and of the Council of Europe are inherited by succession from the former Yugoslavian federation. Religious freedoms are guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of human rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the European Convention on Human Rights (1953), the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981) (all documents ratified by the Republic of Macedonia). According to the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia “The freedom of religious confession is guaranteed. The right to express one's faith freely and publicly, individually or with others, is guaranteed„. After the conflict of 2001 the Ohrid Framework Agreement secured group rights for ethnicities that are not in majority in the Republic of Macedonia. The present Law on the legal status of the church, religious communities and religious groups of 2007, repealed the Law on religion and religious groups of 1997.

Human rights treaties and mobilized dissent against the state

How does state obligation to international human rights treaties (HRTs) affect mobilized dissent? We argue that obligations to protect human rights affect not only state behavior but also the behavior of dissidents. We present a theory in which the effect of HRTs on dissent is conditional on expectations of when it will constrain government behavior. We assume that HRT obligation increases the likelihood that government agents face litigation costs for repression but argue that leaders are only constrained when they would be most likely to repress. The expectation of constraint creates opportunity: citizens are more likely to dissent in HRT-obligated states with secure leaders and weak domestic courts. We find empirical support for the implications of our theory using country-month data on HRT obligation and dissent events from 1990 to 2004.

The impact of economic and social human rights in New Zealand case law

Although New Zealand has traditionally relied on ‘progressive realisation’ of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) through public policy decision-making, recently there has been a small number of cases relying on international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to support the legal argument. This article reviews the implementation of the ICESCR in New Zealand through an analysis of this case law. The article argues that although there has been an increase in the number of cases relying of ESCR, the courts have been reluctant to grant a remedy without ESCR being explicitly incorporated into the domestic law. The article further argues that the attempt to provide a remedy for ESCR through the declaration of inconsistency under the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001 has highlighted the need for the inclusion of ESCR into the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

HIV epidemic and human rights among men who have sex with men in sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for HIV prevention, care, and surveillance

ABSTRACTRecent research has presented evidence that men who have sex with men (MSM) bear a disproportionate burden of HIV and are at increased risk for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, many countries in SSA have failed to address the needs of MSM in national HIV/AIDS programmes. Furthermore, many MSM face structural barriers to HIV prevention and care, the most significant of which include laws that criminalise male-to-male sexual contact and facilitate stigma and discrimination. This in turn increases the vulnerability of MSM to acquiring HIV and presents barriers to HIV prevention, care, and surveillance. This relationship illustrates the link between human rights, social justice, and health outcomes and presents considerable challenges to addressing the HIV epidemic among MSM in SSA. The response to the HIV epidemic in SSA requires a non-discriminatory human rights approach to all at-risk groups, including MSM. Existing international human rights treaties, to which many SSA countries are signatories, and a ‘health in all policies’ approach provides a strong basis to reduce structural barriers to HIV prevention, care, surveillance, and research, and to ensure that all populations in SSA, including MSM, have access to the full range of rights that help ensure equal opportunities for health and wellness.

The Hybrid Hukou: A New Proposal to Enhance Labor Mobility in China

Since 1958, the Chinese household registration system, known in English as the hukou system (户口), has limited the ability of Chinese citizens to move from one area of the country to another. Under the hukou system, Chinese citizens who move from rural areas to urban areas are prevented from accessing many benefits that are available to their urban-registered peers, including education for their children. This prevents people from relocating to areas where they would be the most economically productive, and in turn contributes to economic and social inequality. The hukou system is also inconsistent with the obligations set forth by international human rights treaties, which China has ratified or may ratify in the future. This article will suggest that a new category of hukou registration could be created to enable migration to urban areas, promoting a gradual transition to urban registration. This new category, which I call the ‘hybrid hukou’ registration, would increase China’s economic productivity, decrease inequality, and enhance human rights in China. The ‘hybrid hukou’ registration would also give Chinese cities time to adjust to the influx of newcomers, which would likely result from greater mobility.

Do Human Rights Treaties Help Asylum-Seekers?: Lessons from the United Kingdom

This article analyzes the circumstances under which international human rights treaties have helped or hurt asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom since 1991. Combining a database of nearly 2,000 asylum decisions and 51 interviews with U.K. refugee lawyers, it identifies several factors which help determine the impact of human rights treaties in individual cases. It focuses on the U.K. because that country has ratified or otherwise adopted numerous human rights treaties over the past three decades, and U.K. refugee lawyers regularly invoke those treaties in representing their clients.This article fills a gap in the treaty effectiveness literature by addressing the extent to which domestic courts rely on or otherwise reference human rights treaties in asylum litigation. It posits that the impact of such treaties in any given case depends on several factors, including the extent to which the treaty has been incorporated into domestic law and the gender of the applicant. This article also demonstrates that while such treaties help asylum-seekers in some cases, in others they may do more harm than good.