Which State obligations arise from human rights?

➢States are the primary duty-bearers of human rights obligations.

➢Human rights can be violated by any person or group.

➢Treaties and customary law impose three obligations on States: the

duty to respect; the duty to protect; and the duty to fulfil.

➢They apply to all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

➢States have a duty to provide a remedy at the domestic level for

human rights violations
What does the “obligation to respect”
mean?

 The “obligation to respect” means that States are obliged to refrain from
interfering in the enjoyment of rights by individuals and groups.
 It prohibits State actions that may undermine the enjoyment of rights.
 For example, with regard to the right to education, it means that
governments must respect the liberty of parents to establish private schools
and to ensure the religious and moral education of their children.
What does the “obligation to protect”
mean?
 The “obligation to protect” requires States to protect individuals against
abuses by non-State actors, foreign State agents, or State agents acting
outside of their official capacity.
 The obligation entails both a preventative and remedial dimension.
 A State is thus obliged to enact legislation protecting human rights;
 States to combat the widespread phenomenon of domestic violence
against women and children.
 States have a responsibility to take positive measures – in the form of
pertinent criminal, civil, family or administrative laws, police and judiciary
training or general awareness raising – to reduce the incidence of domestic
violence
What does the “obligation to fulfil”
mean
 According to the “obligation to fulfil”, States are required to take positive
action to ensure that human rights can be realized.
 The extent of the obligation to fulfil varies according to the right concerned
and the State’s available resources.
 Generally speaking, however, States should create “the legal, institutional
and procedural conditions that rights holders need in order to realize and
enjoy their rights in full.”
 for instance, States must provide ways and means for free and compulsory
primary education for all, free secondary education, higher education etc.
The State’s obligation to respect,
protect and fulfil: examples
 Right to life
 Respect : The police shall not intentionally take the life of a suspect to
prevent his or her escape.
 Protect: Life-threatening attacks by an individual against other persons
(attempted homicide) shall be crimes carrying appropriate penalties under
domestic criminal law. The police shall duly investigate such crimes in order
to bring the perpetrators to justice.
 Fulfill: The authorities shall take legislative and administrative measures to
progressively reduce child mortality and other types of mortality whose
underlying causes can be combated.
 Right to food

 Respect: The authorities shall refrain from any measures that would
prevent access to adequate food (for instance, arbitrary eviction from
land).

 Protect: The authorities shall adopt laws or take other measures to prevent
powerful people or organizations from violating the right to food (such as a
company polluting the water supply or a landowner evicting peasants).

 Fulfill: The authorities shall implement policies – such as agrarian reform – to

ensure the population’s access to adequate food and the capacity of
vulnerable groups to feed themselves
 The right to an effective remedy

 Effective legislative, administrative and judicial body along with

independent and impartial body.
 In case of violation of human rights , there will be effective remedy before
a competent and independent domestic body vested with the power to
order reparations and to have its decisions enforced.
 According to the Human Rights Committee (the UN body in charge of
monitoring implementation of the ICCPR;
 Article 2(3)(a) of the ICCPR obliges States to take effective steps to
investigate violations of human rights “promptly, thoroughly and effectively
through independent and impartial bodies.”
 Failure to do so may in and of itself amount to a violation of the ICCPR
The right to obtain remedy under international
and regional human rights treaties: examples

 According to Article 2 (3) of the ICCPR, States Parties undertake “to ensure
that
 (a) … any person whose rights or freedoms … are violated shall have an
effective remedy” and that
 (b) persons claiming such a remedy shall have their “right thereto
determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities,
or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the
State”; and “to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy”.
 Article 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms (EHCR) stipulates that: “Everyone whose rights
and freedoms as set forth in the Convention are violated shall have an
effective remedy before a national authority …”
Human Rights body in Bangladesh

 National Human Rights commission

 Established under the National Human Rights Commission Act, 2009