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Human Rights in
Suggested outline:
· I will not give an input about the
Human Rights (HR) situation in
· Discussions on what is HR – more
than just political in nature – 5 components of HR
· Equipping the SCMs for HR advocacy –
monitoring, documenting, campaign
Basic Human Rights Principles
Human rights are
universal, to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion or orientation, national or
ethnic origin, social origin, property or other status. Yet, for various
reasons, certain individuals or groups experience denial or transgression of
their rights. The reason could be highly political such as in the case of an authoritarian
leader suppressing all form of opposition. Or it could be the dominance of the
majority (e.g., ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic) to the exclusion of
the minority.
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Human rights principles
assert that all human beings are equal - all and thus should thus be afforded
ways to enjoy rights equally. Moreover, they recognise
the reality that there are some groups that are at a disadvantage compared to
others. In other words, some kinds of individuals and groups are more vulnerable
to being victimised than others. Additional rights
are identified for these vulnerable groups in order to ensure their protection.
Among the so-called vulnerable groups are women, children, refugees,
minorities, indigenous peoples, ageing persons and, disabled persons, etc.
The Work of the Human Rights Community
Human rights organisations can be grouped into governmental and
quasi-governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental organisations.
These can be found at various levels: international, regional, sub-regional,
national and local. The many tasks implemented by these organisations
fall under the areas of standard-setting, enforcement of standards,
institution-building, education, promotion, law reform, situation monitoring
and casework. The greater part of NGOs perform direct services through
casework, such as in providing legal assistance in the pursuit of justice, or
in providing relief and rehabilitation services to specific victims.
Standard-setting refers
to the work of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) that elaborate human rights declarations,
conventions, covenants and other international instruments and enjoin states to
abide by their provisions. Among the IGOs that carry
out human rights standard-setting are:
·
The
United Nations (U.N.) and its sub-bodies
·
Specialised agencies related to the U.N. like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO)
·
Regional
bodies like the Organisation for African Unity, the Organisation of American States and the Council of Europe.
International Human Rights Standards
Standards
are set and expected to be met so that human rights are enjoyed equally and
vulnerable groups are protected accordingly. These standards are contained in
international instruments, referring to declarations, conven-
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tions, covenants, treaties and other agreements among
States.
An example
of a human rights standard is in relation to the right to life. Article 6
paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
states that "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life". As
for the treatment of prisoners, standards can among others be found in the
instrument Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners among
others.
Another
example of a standard concerns the protection of children through the
specification of a minimum age for employment. Some relevant paragraphs in this
regard are found in the ILO Convention 138 concerning the Minimum Age for
Admission to Employment, as follows:
Article
2, paragraph 1: "Each Member for which this Convention is in force
undertakes to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective
abolition of child labour and to raise progressively
the minimum age for admission to employment or work to a level consistent with
the fullest physical and mental development of young persons."
Article
2, paragraph 3: "The minimum age specified in pursuance of paragraph 1 of
this Article shall not be less than the age of completion of compulsory
schooling and, in any case, shall not be less than 15 years.
Kinds of International Human Rights Instruments
The numerous
instruments on human rights can be categorised as
follows:
· General and special
instruments
· Global and regional
instruments
· Binding and non-binding
instruments
A general
instrument, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
comprises a wide range of human rights. A special instrument on the other hand
deals with specific subjects such as rights of women, rights of the child,
employment, freedom of information, etc.
Global
instruments are those produced by global organisations
like the United
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Nations
and the International Labour Organisation. Regional instruments
are those produced by regional mechanisms like the Organisation
of African Unity, Organisation of American States and
the Council of Europe.
Instruments
could be binding or non-binding on States. Declarations such as the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights or the American Declaration on the Rights
and Duties of Man are not legally binding, but just the same form part of
international law and are often quoted in national law and jurisprudence. They
are expressions of good intentions and as such carry great moral force behind
them. A non-binding instrument also has an impact on a bigger number of States
that it influences because it is adopted by the whole governing body of an IGO,
such as the United Nations General Assembly.
Instruments
that are legally binding are covenants, conventions and other agreements
such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. A
certain process is followed before an instrument becomes legally binding on a
state. The usual process is through signature and ratification. Signature
refers to the signing of the instrument by a government, which thereby and in
so doing declares its intention not to do anything contrary to the provisions
of the instrument. Ratification refers to the confirmation of the signature, as
effected through an official vote by the country's
legislature, and in so doing agreeing to be legally bound to the instrument.
For some states, specifically those where the executives also wield lawmaking
functions, a single act of accession takes the place of the two-act process of
signature and ratification. Accession achieves the same purpose as signature
and ratification, that of making the instrument legally binding. States that
ratified or acceded to binding instruments are referred to as State Parties or
Contracting Parties.
Some
instruments have protocols. A protocol is an agreement that is a supplement to
a main instrument. An example is the Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which allows the U.N. Human Rights
Committee to receive complaints from individual victims. As the title implies,
it is optional for a State Party to ratify or accede to it. The
individual complaint procedure therefore is not binding to all State Parties
that ratified or acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political
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Rights, but only to those who ratified or acceded to its
protocol.
States have
two kinds of obligations: moral obligations with respect to non-binding
instruments and legal obligations with respect to instruments which they signed
and ratified or acceded to. States are expected to meet their obligations by
passing domestic laws and by ensuring that these laws are implemented.
Below is a
table showing some examples of instruments grouped according to the above
categories.
|
|
|
GLOBAL |
REGIONAL |
|
GENERAL |
NON-BINDING |
·
Universal Declaration of Human Rights |
·
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man |
|
GENERAL |
BINDING |
·
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ·
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights |
·
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms ·
American Convention on Human Rights ·
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights |
|
SPECIAL |
NON-BINDING |
·
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National
or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities ·
Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners ·
Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of
Crime and Abuse of Power |
·
Declaration on Education for Democratic Citizenship (of
the Council of ·
Inter-American Declaration of Principles On Freedom of
Expression ·
Declaration on the Rights and Welfare of the African Child
(of the Organisation for African Unity) |
|
SPECIAL |
BINDING |
·
International Convention on the Elimination of All Form of
Racial Discrimination ·
Convention on the Rights of the Child ·
ILO Convention No. 100 concerning Equal Remuneration for
Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value |
·
European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ·
OAS Convention on Asylum |
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|
Exercise 1: Human Rights in Share and list the HR issues in
their respective countries and compare with the International declaration of
HR to see which has been violated. In subregions
(15 minutes) Plenary – reporting from the group
sharing (20 minutes) |
There are 5 components to the Universal Declaration Human
Rights
· Civil rights
· Political rights
· Economic rights
· Social rights
· Cultural rights
The first two are
covered in Articles 6-21 and the latter three are covered in Articles 22-27.
Individual human rights, imposes three types,
or levels, of obligations on States: the obligations to respect, to protect and to fulfill. In turn, the obligation to fulfill incorporates
both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation to provide.
The obligation to respect requires
States not to take any measures that result in preventing access to a certain
human right (such as the right to life). The obligation to protect requires measures by the State to ensure that
enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to a
certain right (such as the right to a fair trial). The obligation to fulfill (facilitate)
means that the State must proactively engage in activities intended to
strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure
their livelihood (such as food and health).
Whenever an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their
control, to enjoy a certain right, States have the obligation to fulfill
(provide) that right directly.
Human rights are extended equally to each individual. No person can have a different set of rights
simply because of his or her individual identity or community status.
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2. Equipping the SCM for Human Rights work
· Monitoring
· Documentation
· Campaigning
a. Monitoring
What is monitoring?
Monitoring is an
activity carried out to find out what is wrong with a certain situation or
individual case. So, human rights monitoring is undertaken to see whether
international human rights standards or norms are met in domestic settings.
Kinds of monitoring:
Situation monitoring focuses on a situation in general. Many human rights
groups for instance produce reports that largely describe and analyse the occurrence of violations in a country. Aside
from documentation of events, a situation report may also include an assessment
of the progress of a country in terms of relevant human rights legislation and
the performance of human rights institutions. The different forms of situation
monitoring are all useful whether for the purpose of monitoring government
compliance with treaty obligations or for domestic monitoring purposes, for
example such as to be able to undertake denunciation and public awareness
activities. E.g.
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a) monitoring of
human rights violations
b) legislative
monitoring the drafting and passing of legislation
c) monitoring the
implementation of laws and policies
d) monitoring the
establishment and progress of human rights institutions
Case monitoring is very focused and victim-oriented. Consistent
work for or on behalf of a client, whether an individual victim or a group of
victims, such as in pursuing justice or in providing medical attention, is
called casework. Following and documenting the developments in the case
of a client is an essential and integral part of casework. E.g.a)
monitoring the legal process undergone by a case b) monitoring of relief and
rehabilitation services provided to a client c) monitoring of other forms of
intervention in a case
Humanitarian groups tend
to conduct more victim-oriented monitoring. The majority of
human rights NGOs work both towards changing a general situation and in
response to specific needs of victims and thus carry out situation monitoring
and case monitoring at the same time.
Whether it is a
situation monitoring or a case monitoring, the purpose for Human Rights
monitoring are:
1.
To
assist governments in applying international standards;
2.
To
be able to pressure governments into adopting and implementing international
standards;
3.
To
be able to undertake domestic legal actions like taking cases to court;
4.
To
be able to undertake other actions like denunciations and publicity campaigns,
with the goal of bearing pressure on the government and/or to enhance public
awareness; and
5.
To
be able to help particular victims
6.
To
be able to provide early warning in potential conflict areas.
Human Rights Monitoring
is basically done by three groups:
- Inter-governmental
organizations (IGOs)
- Governmental
organizations (GOs)
- Non-governmental
organizations (NGOs)
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Among these, probably
the most dynamic is the Human Rights NGOs because they accomplish among them a
wide range of activities, from human rights education to advocacy to direct
services to victims, with the majority carrying out monitoring, both of
situations and of individual cases of victims. The usual focus of situation
monitoring by NGOs is on violations. Some NGOs have broad mandates (e.g.,
monitoring of violations of civil and political rights) while others are specialised (e.g., responding to cases of disappearances,
torture, etc.). Also, diverse types of groups like development NGOs, women
groups and community-based groups have gradually taken on or included a human
rights approach in their work. Thus, the whole spectrum of human rights - from
individual to collective rights, from civil and political to economic, social
and cultural rights - is increasingly being monitored nowadays.
In the provision of
direct services, NGOs are bound to carry out case monitoring. It could be the
legal situation of a victim that is monitored or the progress of her/his rehabilitation.
progress.
NGOs have now gone
beyond monitoring direct violations, to monitor also
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the compliance of their governments
with treaty obligations. Moreover, some NGOs have been actively taking part in
the activities of treaty-monitoring bodies, such as in the submission of
alternative or "shadow" reports. Some organizations produces regular “report cards”.
The Information Web
In general, the sources
of data can be governmental or non-governmental. Below is a chart that shows
the usual flow of human rights information.
Those who undertake
direct monitoring, such as human rights NGOs, usually have as sources the
people actually involved in the events being investigated, as well as
evidentiary documents like death certificates, etc. External users such as
scholars and policy-makers, usually take material from the NGOs, as well as
other bodies such as governmental agencies, as their sources. U.N.
treaty-monitoring bodies mainly receive reports from governments, but they also
consider information from other sources.
It can be noted that the
information often is used again usually get back to local and national bodies.
For instance, the UNDP report is based on many national reports and its
assessment of country performance is increasingly being quoted in NGO
publications.
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b. Documentation
A natural progression
from monitoring would be documentation.
Purposes
of Human Rights Documentation
Human right organisations are usually set up for the following
purposes:
· Human rights education
· Standard-setting
· Direct assistance to
victims
· Pursuit of justice
· Establishment of
historical records
Information
materials like human rights covenants, manuals on the United Nations system for
protection of human rights, texts of domestic laws pertaining to human rights,
and periodic reports of international and national human rights organisations are used extensively in human rights
education.
The same
kinds of materials are also very important in the area of standard-setting.
At the local and national levels, the task of standard-setting can be performed
by examining international human rights treaties, campaigning for their
adoption at the national level, examining domestic laws, and monitoring
government's compliance to its obligations.
On the other
hand, organisations providing direct assistance
to victims as well as those working for justice, need
information about the actual events involving human rights violations.
Immediate assistance include for instance, the search for a victim who was
abducted, the filing of a petition for habeas corpus or the issuance of
a denunciation that can help in preventing further violations. In these
situations, a clear presentation of the facts surrounding the alleged violation
will help in enabling concerned groups to provide immediate assistance. Other
forms of assistance can be in terms of medical help, psycho-social therapy,
financial assistance and others.
Working for
justice for victims of human rights violations means seeking relief and
redress, such as the release of a person who was arbitrarily detained and the
payment of compensation where possible. Human rights NGOs
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can undertake publicity
campaigns and bear pressure on authorities to render justice to victims. On the
part of perpetrators, justice is secured when they are held accountable and
punished accordingly.
Human rights
NGOs must strive to obtain hard evidence to prove that violations
of human rights are taking place and to which degree. This involves both the
systematic documentation of particular cases and the compilation of trends and
statistics based on a larger amount of information collected and recorded over
time. This information can than be used for action at the national, regional
and international levels. For example, the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights will only seriously consider violations committed in a particular
country if its Special Rapporteurs
and/or human rights NGOs can provide credible evidence that such violations are
gross and systematic.
Systematic
documentation that can enable groups to combine pieces of information from
various sources is also crucial in bringing perpetrators to justice. For
example: at the end of 1986 in Argentina, the government passed the so-called
"Ley de punto
final", stipulating a time limit of 60 days for the presentation of any
further accusations of violations committed in previous years. After this time
limit, any punitive action against those incriminated would cease, eliminating
prospects for investigations on the situations of detainees and missing
persons. Human rights organisations turned to the
documentation system used in
Another
thing that human rights groups can do is to build up a memory of
violations as they occurred in the past under a repressive regime, because it
is important not to forget, and repression constitutes a part of the history of
a country. For example, the Russian human rights organisation
Memorial compiled an overview of human rights violations committed in the
Soviet Union under the Stalin regime, and human rights groups in
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mented mass killings that constituted part of the
genocide in 1994.
Consequently,
determining what to collect and how is very closely linked to the
purpose or need for that information. The information worker must have an idea
of what the users will need and how the information is being used. The sources
of information can be people or documents. And sometimes, certain political
situation makes it very difficult to obtain or publish sensitive information.
In situations like these it is very important that unpublished and non-textual
information is preserved in an appropriate way. In the 1970s and early 1980s
DAGA was involved in the documentation of political detainees during the
martial law period in
c. Campaigning
Some positive
implications for campaigning on human rights:
· Building solidarity with victims and
communities
· Pressure group for HR violators
· Education tool for the community
|
Group Exercise: Discuss the effectiveness of the
different forms of campaigns: 1.
Urgent appeals 2.
Signature campaigns 3.
Websites or email or fax? 4.
Legal action 5.
Oral interventions at the UNCHR 6.
Demonstrations 7.
Etc. There is no single success formula for human rights
campaign. Different situations call for
different strategies in the campaign |
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Quote from an
ex-political detainee in
“Sending out urgent appeals
and writing solidarity letters may seem mundane work for many of us who are
involved in human rights work. Some organizations handle numerous cases and
send out thousands of letters each week. And there comes a time when one begins
to wonder if such actions are not futile and if anyone actually bothers to read
all these mail and appeals.
I want to assure you
that from the perspective of the detainee, every card and letter counts. Even
if the tons of mail may not have direct, immediate effect on the attitude of
the government, they do help keep the issue alive in the corridors of the
government.
Not all the mail will be
passed on to the detainees but those that get through help strengthen the
spirit and morale of the detainees.
International mail
arriving at detention centers, although may not be delivered to the detainees,
have strong psychological effect on the prison wardens and they do provide some
form of protection for the detainees.”