Universal Declaration On Human Rights Research Articles

What Care for Birthing Mothers? The Relevance of UDHR Art. 25 in the Framework of Obstetric Violence in Italy and Portugal

Obstetric violence (OV) was first defined in 2007 in Venezuelan law as gender-based violence (GBV), i.e., having structural roots rather than happening in contingent or subjective situations. In Venezuelan Law, OV is framed as breach of multiple human rights of women (e.g. right to life, right to be free from violence, and right to health): more recently, international human rights law has followed suit– recognizing that pregnancy and childbirth care must be provided according to the principles enshrined in article 25 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), the right to health. Its actual implementation, however, still shows a cleavage between standards and practice. This work seeks to examine the meanings of the term “care” in art. 25 UDHR in international, regional, and domestic legal documents and its actual articulation. Support to such critical analysis is provided by scientific literature, providing a review of the legal notion of OV and its prevalence in the context of analysis. This work focuses on Italy and Portugal - countries particularly relevant for the recent developments of the subject matter in Europe, also in light of the influence exercised by Latin American activism through Spanish activism. While the meaning “care” in the context of childbirth is quite deep and comprehensive in human rights standard-setting instruments, also highlighting how OV disrupts such care by jeopardizing the agency, dignity, health, and self-determination of the birthing person, such care is still not up to those standards – in jurisprudence as well as in in the daily reality of the analyzed countries.

Contending Discourses on Human Rights and Dignity in the Post-World War II Era

This article examines the contending discourses on human dignity among leading figures of the “Third World”—a disparaging category for the downtrodden nations of the world—within the context of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). It delves into the discursive contestations played out by figures from Third World nations, which had just gained independence or were in the process of decolonization. In particular, this article examines discourses on human rights and dignity by Sukarno, Indonesia’s independence leader, and others who vehemently fought against colonialism based on their ideology and faith.

Promoting fishing profession and general well-being: A call for labour policy

Fishing is a longstanding occupation in the world. Small-scale fishing (SSF) communities of South Asia face many challenges in their lives and livelihoods. This study was conducted in one Jaladas village of southeastern Bangladesh to determine the conditions of fishing labours in big boats and provide some evidence-based recommendations for enhancing their holistic well-being. This study adopted the qualitative research design, specifically the Focus Group Discussion (FGD). A random survey of 50 households was conducted to find out socio-economic conditions. This paper finds that the young Jaladas are pushed away from their birth-ascribed occupation and engaged as fishing labours in big boats. Their existing working environment is like an ancient slavery system. Fishing labours are bound to work under such adversative conditions for survival. SSF communities become poorest of the poor due to lake of sufficient concentration from the government, NGOs, private sector, international development agencies and other actors. Moreover, relevant articles of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and FAO initiated SSF Guidelines are not implemented properly in support of fishing labours working in large boats. Highest profit-earning mentality of commercial entrepreneurs, apathy, absence of rules of law; and non-recognition the rights of labours under small-scale fisheries sector in Labour Law of Bangladesh are major reasons for plights of fishing labours. Still research works are very inadequate in this area. Therefore, global human rights organizations are in dark from real scenario. This paper urged that the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) should include prioritized needs of fishing labour as provisions during the amendment of Labour Law. Proper execution of Labour Law and establishing the rules of law are concerning issues for ensuring the well-being of fishing labours.

Compliance of Pakistan with ILO Standards on Freedom of Association

The right to form an association is considered the social, economic and political right of a person. The principle of freedom of association is not only enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) but also in various UN and ILO instruments. The right to organize and form organizations of employers and workers is the prerequisite for sound social dialogue and collective bargaining. The right to freedom of association ensures that workers and employers can freely associate to efficiently negotiate working conditions and work relations. Collective bargaining not only allows for negotiating better working conditions but also prevents labour disputes and thus increases workers’ productivity. The article explores the right to freedom of association in Pakistan.

Mapping International Laws on Human Rights in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic Indonesia

Human rights are granted by all people regardless of discriminatory differences. In this sense, human rights must be respected, guarded, and protected by individuals, broad society, and the State. Generally, human rights are outlined in several international instruments such as Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1976. From a national perspective, Indonesia has played its roles in addressing and combating human rights violations by adopting some international provisions into the 1945 Constitution of the Republic Indonesia (Article 28) and ratifying several international instruments on human rights. Recognizing the correlation between international and national law, the study intends to examine to what extent Indonesia has adopted human rights material in international provisions into its constitution. The result of this study shows that almost all contents on human rights in article 28 of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic Indonesia are also contained in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights 1948. Several provisions on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1976 seem very similar to provided contents on the UDHR 1948. Therefore, it is undebatable that ICCPR and ICESCR also influence the inclusion of human rights contents in the 1945 Constitution on the second amendment in 2000.

The Responsibility of the People’s Republic of China for Alleged Human Rights Violations against the Uighurs

Following the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) after the World War II, the international community has begun to try to respect and to protect human rights. Among the basic principles in the protection of human rights are the principles of equality and non-discrimination that every human being is considered to be equal without differences. Unfortunately, presently, many human rights violations against minority groups are triggered by differences of ethnicity, religion, race, or language. In 2018, the CERD Committee reported that there were arbitrary arrests of ethnic minority Uighurs in the Xinjiang region ofChina. A number of reports say that the Chinese government had violated several basic rights of the Uighurs. Several international human rights law conventions have regulated remedies when a state commits a human rights violation. This paper is intended to examine the forms of human rights violations committed against the Uighur minority and the legal remedies that can be done to hold the Chinese state accountable for alleged human rights violations committed.

ASEAN and European Human Rights Mechanisms, What Should be Improved?

The human rights mentioned in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) are universal values agreed upon countries in the world. This is reflected by the fact that no state rejects the United Nations General Assembly Resolution in 1948. It is even strengthened by the ratification of two major international human rights covenants, which have binding legal powers. They are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in 1966. European states are legally bound to human rights through the European Human Rights Convention that is signed in 1950 and come into force in 1953. On the other hand, ASEAN states are bound to human rights as parties of ICCPR, ICESCR, and their commitment to the regional level ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights. Both in European Union and ASEAN have their own human rights mechanisms: the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). This study employed a comparison method with a normative legal research approach to compare the human rights mechanisms in Europe and in ASEAN. It also deals with the implementation of human rights protection by the states in the two regional organizations. As a result, although the two regional organizations have human rights mechanisms applied in their areas, with experiences through cases appealing to European Human Rights Courts, Europe provides more assurance and legal certainty towards individuals when a state commit human rights violations against individuals. On the other hand, the AICHR, as the equal commission in ASEAN region, tends not to have sufficient legal power in handling human rights cases occurred in its territory.

Race and the UDHR in an Age of Artificial Intelligence

In contributing to a symposium on the 70-year anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), this essay focuses in particular on the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for race equality. AI is being used to make decisions about individuals’ lives without humans in the loop. An automated system’s “inputs” are designed by human beings. Nonetheless, the “outputs” of AI are machine-generated. That machines can now make such decisions poses a challenge for human rights, which was developed to protect humans (as rights-holders) and to hold humans accountable, as opposed to nonhumans. Optimistic observers had speculated that technology could help usher in a post-racial future, given that automated decision making seemed to be free of human bias. Plus, technology offers the freedom to construct and perform online identities as well as build online communities. However, drawing on new research on how we see and do not see race, this essay argues that even as we move into a digital age of posthumanism and transhumanism, race endures as a construct. Using a critical race theory lens, the essay interrogates the role of machines in making decisions that have racial impacts and the challenges this poses the human rights framework.

ISLAM AND HUMAN RIGHTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CAIRO DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

This article discusses the Islam and Human Rights while making significant reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and Cairo Declaration of Human Rights 1990. It argues that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UNDR) 1948 and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights (CDHR) 1990 in Islam have major differences which cannot be reconciled. The UNDR, for instance, cannot be relied upon by Muslims because of its severe discrepancies and opposition to the Islamic law. The thrust of the article is that the purported universal rights meant for specific people especially the western world and not the whole humanity. Any attempts by a section of Muslim to implement these rights collectively means that they will have to abandon the teachings of Islam at the expense of the secular western values.

ISLAM AND HUMAN RIGHTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CAIRO DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

This article discusses the Islam and Human Rights while making significant reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and Cairo Declaration of Human Rights 1990. It argues that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UNDR) 1948 and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights (CDHR) 1990 in Islam have major differences which cannot be reconciled. The UNDR, for instance, cannot be relied upon by Muslims because of its severe discrepancies and opposition to the Islamic law. The thrust of the article is that the purported universal rights meant for specific people especially the western world and not the whole humanity. Any attempts by a section of Muslim to implement these rights collectively means that they will have to abandon the teachings of Islam at the expense of the secular western values.

The Impact of Political Culture on the Human Rights-based Approach to Development in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

The Human Rights-based-Approach (HRBA) to development has been endorsed by the United Nations (UN) and development agencies as the preferable approach to development. It has the potential to adequately address poverty in the developing world and to align development work with universal instruments on human rights, such as the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) (1948). However, while much has been written about the HRBA as a viable approach to development, little is known about how the HRBA is implemented in practice, especially in non-western settings. This paper provides empirical data from a HRBA-framed poverty reduction project conducted in two ethnic communities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, undertaken by Action Aid International Vietnam (AAV). The results demonstrate that the adaptation of the HRBA to these two local contexts was not easy or smooth. While there are many dimensions that shape the success of development work, in this article I focus on the ways in which political culture can create obstacles to the implementation of the HRBA. The article concludes by recommending some strategies that work to ameliorate these concerns.

Examining Women’s Right in a Multicultural World: The Case of China and Ghana

Perhaps, after the horrific horrors from the Second World War, the twentieth century lightened the world on the darkness of cruelty against humanity. A growing concern that every human being was important and deserved better grew in the hearts of many people of the world. This resulted in the birth of Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) which defined the content of human rights and was adopted on December 1948 by the United Nations (UN). The UN was committed to promote and respect the rights of every living soul. However, the UDHR didn’t quickly spread to cover the rights of women in the world as various forms of discrimination still persisted against women. But it is with the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in December 1979 that universal standards were set for Women’s equality. After CEDAW, the discrimination against women has immensely reduced. But there still exist some forms of discrimination against women in societies. Some groups of women face extra forms of discrimination based on their ethnicity, age, nationality, health status, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, marital status, education, among others. UN and other International Agencies have fought tirelessly to improve women’s rights in the world, but there still remain some gaps. Women’s right which includes economic, social, cultural, political, and civil has been greatly improved in most parts of the world. Women’s participation in political and economic activities is seen everywhere in the world although it differs from one country to another. To this end, this paper seeks to examine women’s right in a world of different cultures. The paper makes close reference to China and Ghana.

The Editors' Foreword

The year 2018 marks the 70 th anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). A major anniversary – yet this is also a period of the contestation of human rights, with an uncertain outcome as to the fate of liberties and democratic institutions in some of the countries concerned. The present issue of COJOURN therefore focuses on the politics of international human rights.

Germline Engineering and Human Rights

With the ever-increasing range of medical technologies at our disposal to mediate the processes of life, from conception to death, comes an ever-increasing number of decision points about human control of fate. And as we debate altering our fate—whether dictated by a deity or by chance—the discussion frequently devolves into a question of whether we may alter not only our own fate, but also that of our children. The advent of genome editing, whether by older methods or the newer, often more easily used methods employing CRISPR, has only made debating the controversial possibility of heritable “germline” editing more urgent. The advent of genome editing, whether by older methods or the newer, often more easily used methods employing CRISPR, has only made debating the controversial possibility of heritable “germline” editing more urgent. On the eve of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held at the end of November 2018 in Hong Kong, a startling and disturbing story began circulating - a Chinese researcher announced the first births of children whose genomes had been edited at the embryonic stage. The work (assuming the claim can be verified) suffered from myriad problems, beginning with the lack of a compelling medical need, and including inadequate preclinical research, lack of peer review, flawed subject recruitment and consent procedures, and an apparent disregard for both formal and informal rules governing genetic manipulation of embryos. The summit's organizing committee issued a statement, distinguishing this experiment from what would be a responsible translational pathway forward. But not surprisingly, others around the world immediately called for a global, enforceable prohibition on such genetic engineering. On the occasion of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR)’s seventieth anniversary, this essay argues that the current human rights law on germline editing misunderstands both the mechanisms of genetics and the moral basis for human rights, suggesting a more nuanced approach as we move forward and keep pace with new gene-editing technologies.

Human Rights Law: Justifiable Legislative Measures — Cost & Benefits

Have you wondered what could have happened to this world without the enactment of laws or development of treaties that protects the human rights and her freedom? Remember the days of slavery, genocide, women subjugation, and widespread racial discrimination; the days when Nations were dominated by imperialists and dictators, all waging war against the rights and freedom of citizens. Those days are gone and a new dawn emerged - thanks to various international and state laws, human race could breathe a sigh of relief as they enjoy the rights and freedom they have been so long deprived. Over the course of Legal Methodology, one of the important topics discussed was about human rights legislation, its impacts on certain rights and protection of others. The Human Rights Act of 1998, Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (1981), American Convention on Human Rights (1969), European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) and many other international treaties have emerged and evolved over the years to protect, defend, strengthening, and support the rights and freedom of human race.

Equality and Nondiscrimination Through the Eyes of an International Religious Organization: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Response to Women's Rights and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights

This article draws on women’s rights and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) to explore how the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) represents, interprets and seeks to impact the right to equality and protection against discrimination as enshrined under international human rights law. The study is a novel one inasmuch as the OIC is neither a state nor a religious group per se. Rather, the OIC stands out as the only contemporary intergovernmental organization unifying its member states around the commonality of a single religion. In this capacity, the organization maintains no direct obligations or rights under key instruments such as the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Nevertheless, as part of its mandate representing 57 predominantly Muslim states, the OIC has increasingly asserted a role for itself on the world stage as “the collective voice of the Muslim world.” This new assertiveness is particularly evident in the context of debates surrounding the content of human rights norms in international fora such as the United Nations, where the OIC has sought to develop common policy positions and encourage its members to vote as a bloc on issues of concern. Against this backdrop, the article concludes supporters of universal human rights norms need to better understand how the OIC’s mission to “protect and defend the true image of Islam” may impact international debates over the substance of equality and nondiscrimination norms, and develop appropriate responses to these efforts as a means for ensuring universality is not undermined.The paper begins with a brief introduction to the OIC, and proceeds to explore its relationship with the principles of equality and nondiscrimination by examining its founding document and other relevant primary sources. With this understanding in place, subsequent sections examine the OIC’s contemporary understanding of these principles as manifested in rights debates surrounding women and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals and related SOGI issues. Throughout this examination, the role of the OIC’s newly established Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) is considered as a means of appraising whether a shift in the OIC’s position may be forthcoming. The paper concludes with several recommendations for concerned policymakers and human rights activists.

Intersectional Dialogue - A Cosmopolitical Dialogue of Ethics

The article is based on a critical cosmopolitan outlook on dialogue as not aimed at reaching consensus, but rather keeping dialogue of difference open, with the ability to reach common understanding of human rights on conflicting grounds. Intersectional dialogue is used as a concept that opens up possibilities to study, in a pragmatic sense, the ‘cosmopolitan space’ in which different axles of power met in the historical drafting of human rights. By enacting analysis of United Nations (UN) documents from 1948 on the process of drafting the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) the conceptualization of intersectional dialogue is put to work. The utopian foundation for deliberative democracy as dialogue in the absence of power and interest does not acknowledge the reality in which the human rights were negotiated and debated. The paper questions the dominant narrative of a western philosophical ground for the universality of human rights.

Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights and Business Schools' Responsibility to Teach It: Incorporating Human Rights into the Sustainability Agenda

The Preamble to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UNDHR) calls on every organ of society to teach and educate for the promotion of the rights it contains. However, few if any business schools have any systematic or critical human rights content in their accounting and business curricula. This oversight is increasingly problematic as concern grows over the burgeoning size and power of multinational corporations in relation to nation states, cases where large multinational corporations have been complicit in human rights violations, and increasing corporate roles in the provision of state services. This shift of human rights duties, responsibilities and accountability from nation states to corporations has resulted in a number of new United Nations initiatives, voluntary standards and international protocols to bring the UNDHR to bear on business activity. This paper explores how the universal human rights apparatus and discourse is impacting corporations' responsibilities for the protection and promotion of human rights and sustainable development. The emerging business and human rights discourse presents a number of challenges to the dominant ideology taught in business schools and is likely to be resisted. This paper presents a moral and pragmatic case for incorporating human rights into business and accounting education at tertiary and professional levels. It also outlines the principles that should underpin attempts to effectively integrate human rights into the accounting and business curricula as well as exploring the articulation between the human rights and sustainability discourses.

Der Europäische Minderheitenbegriff. Entwicklung und Wirkung. Teil 1

In Europe, more than 330 ethnic groups with altogether more than 100 million members exist. Almost all European countries host minorities on their national territory. But until now, the term “minority” has not been clearly and unambiguously defined in international law. However, there is mutual consent that a single state is not entitled to decide upon the existence of minorities on its national territory on its own. Otherwise, the state could simply deny the existence of a minority and withdraw itself from all internationally binding legal obligations in that area. Therefore, since the times of World War I, various efforts have been made to define the term “minority”.In international law, a universally recognized and binding concept of minorities does not exist. However, in order to determine which minorities are supposed to be protected, after World War II some regularly applied characteristics have been developed in international documents. Even without giving a clear definition of the term “minority”, documents of the UN, the UNESCO or the CSCE/OSCE provide a special protection of different kinds of minorities, such as ethnic, national, religious and linguistic minorities. First and foremost, they are protected by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1966, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989, the Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (UN Minorities Declaration) of 1992, various declarations by the UNESCO as well as several documents by the CSCE and later OSCE. However, the only international document within the frame of the UN, the UNESCO and the CSCE/OSCE, offering a (non-binding) definition of the term “minority”, is a UN study conducted by Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Francesco Capotorti. According to that study, which was published in 1979, the term “minority” denotes a group numerically inferior to the rest of a state’s population, in a non-dominant position, whose members are nationals of the state of residence and possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from the rest of the population and showing a certain sense of solidarity towards the group itself.In the second part of the essay, it will be shown that the European states took these documents as basis to create their own concept of minorities, which can be deduced from documents of the Council of Europe and the EC/EU.

Domestic Human Rights Organizations in Africa: Problems and Perspectives

The modern human rights movement, as it is known today, is largely the product of the horrors of the mainly European war of 1939-45. Its rise is mostly a direct result of the abominations committed by the Third Reich during that war. Drawing on the Western liberal tradition, the human rights movement arose primarily to control and contain state action against the individual. The two principal documents of the movement—the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)—largely establish negative rights that either limit or prohibit altogether government intrusion into the so-called “private realm.”