Introduction to Human Rights
A review of readings and topics
The International Human Right
Legal Framework
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International law is the rules agreed upon by the
governments of the world.
Principle of sovereignty: there is no higher authority
within the territory of a state than the government that
represents the people of that state.
International Law: a system of rules
 Treaties (or conventions (when many states sign onto
it): written contracts/agreements): hard law
 Customary laws: reoccurring actions that become
customary
 General principles: centrally acknowledged concepts
The International Human Right
Legal Framework (cont.)
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1945: UN Charter. The language of HR becomes a
fundamental value of the UN system and a general
principle of international law
Commission on Human Rights:
-provides state with a space for complaining about
each other’s Hr records
-Assigns special rapporteurs (or working groups)
working on specific countries and issues
1948: Universal declaration of HR
The International Human Rights
legal framework (cont.)
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1966: International Covenants on Civil and
Political Rights and on Economics, Social and
Cultural Rights
1993: Vienna convention set up the High
Commission on Human Right (HCHR)
1993: International Criminal Tribunal for
Yugoslavia ( ICTY)
1994: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR)
2002: International Criminal Court (ICC)
Positive and Negative Rights
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Rights in general (and human rights in particular) are
often describe as (valid) claims that create duties. There
are also conceived of as entitlement
If X has a right to P then (at least) someone has a duty:
a) not to interfere with X or b) to aid X
A right that creates a negative duty is in that sense a
negative right (International Covenant on Civil and
Political rights)
A right that creates a positive duty is in that sense a
positive right (International Covenant on social,
economic and cultural rights)
Negative and Positive Rights (cont.)
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Henry Shue in Basic Rights argues that human rights
entail 3 types of duties:
1- Duty not to deprive the right-holder of the
enjoyment of her right
2- Duty to protect against deprivation
3- Duty to aid those whose rights have been violated
Shue also argues that the distinction negative/positive
rights is not valid, most rights entail both positive and
negative duties
Cultural Genocide
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Neither the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide nor the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights addresses directly the
crime of Cultural Genocide.
Morsink argues that not having the rights of minority
groups included in these two documents is damaging.
Failure to include cultural genocide (which was part of
the first draft of the genocide convention) results from
the horrors of World War II ethnic cleansing and from
the composition of the League of Nations.
Morsink concludes that the Universal declaration must be
amended.
Cultural Genocide (cont.)
The case of Native Americans
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Prof. Den Ouden warns against the phrase “minority
groups rights” that, she argues, is often associated with
special rights and tinted with racism.
It is a case of tribal sovereignty and self determination
(competing sovereignties: Native-American selfdetermination versus US constitution)
And a case of multiple violations of a collective right to
self-determination and of a right to a future
(reservations, economic, dependency, prohibition of
native languages in boarding schools, etc…)
Immigrant Rights (Globalization,
the state and Human Rights)
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Sovereign states have a right to control their borders
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Given that right, how should government treat citizens
and non-citizens? How should governments rule?
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According to contemporary international Human Rights
norms states should be:
a) liberal states b) democratic states c) welfare
states
<-> Economic globalization is a threat to the welfare state
Immigrant Rights (Globalization, the
state and Human Rights) (cont.)
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Immigrants and refugees are less protected than citizens
and are being subjected to various forms of Human
Right violations
Examples of violations
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Labor rights violations (non payment of wages, hazardous work conditions)
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Social rights violations (denial or lack of access to health care, lack of safety and
police protection)
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Political rights violations (illegal arrest, detention, deportation, being kept in an
immigration status of undocumented without an option to regularization, being
denied access to political representation)