HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

WEEK-2
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

•The Broad Review of Human Rights Law,

• Nature and Evolution of HRL,
•Basic Principles of Human Rights,
•Reimagining Human Rights Law and International Legal Discourse,
•Significance of International Human Rights Law in Global Problems,
•The Global Conceptual Framework for Contemporary Human Rights
Discourse and Summation.
 INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Discussion Topics:
• What is a right? What are human rights? Why do we have them? Why do
we have a human rights movement?
• Who counts as a human and on what grounds?
• Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights?
• Are human rights truly universal, global?
• What kinds of human rights problems does the world face today?
• What role do national and international judicial institutions play in
addressing these?
• Do the governments really care about human rights?
• How did human rights come to shape the foreign policy imperatives of
states in post-1945?
• What do human rights treaties require states to do?
• Why do states sign up to human rights treaties? Do they ever keep human
rights commitments?
• the Human Rights not only form part of legal education but
also span across all disciplines.
• it constitute a truly crosscutting subject in university
curricula.
• This reflects the Plan of Action of the World Programme
for Human Rights Education, which emphasizes the need
to develop “strategies for infusing human rights as a
cross-cutting issue into all higher-education disciplines” –
• that is, not only law but also social studies, history,
technical or scientific fields.
• the discipline of human rights has reached a certain
maturity
• HRE has been defined through several general
and programmatic statements.
• In classical United Nations (UN) language,
“education should promote understanding,
tolerance, peace and friendly relations
between the nations and all racial or
religious groups and encourage the
development of United Nations activities in
pursuance of these objectives.”
• the issue of human rights is frequently discussed in international
discourse, among world leaders, and in the international media.
• there are world conferences on human rights, speeches from Presidents
and Popes alike about the need for tolerance and respect for human rights,
• and media outlets airing one program after another on the poverty and poor
living conditions around the world.
• However, what is exactly meant by human rights remains controversial
and ambiguous, it is increasingly clear that there is some international
concept of human rights.
• in societies where citizens are by and large free to participate in the
political process and express opposition to their government, where they
do not simply disappear in the blink of an eye and are generally free from
hunger and poverty, human rights may never be a chief consideration or
concern.
• The truth is, this only describes the situation of a minority of the world’s
population.
• the acknowledgment of human rights as an issue by the international
community has led to the creation of a vast network of laws, treaties, and
international organizations.
• most states today recognize some limits to their sovereignty and, at least
ostensibly, acquiesce to treaties and covenants designed to protect those rights.
• Prior to World War II, such a concept would have been deemed untenable, as
state sovereignty remained the norm of international relations.
• states were the final arbiter in the treatment of their citizens and other states
should refrain from intervening in their affairs.
• The Holocaust and atrocities associated with the Nazi regime served as a
catalyst for the human rights movement, propelling the issue into the
international arena.
• after the Nazis attempted to systematically eliminate the Jewish
population from Europe, as well as targeting gypsies, the handicapped,
elderly, and homosexuals, the world’s response was one of horror.
• it was the extermination of over six million people by the Nazi regime that
created the political will to mount the first true challenge to the idea of
sovereignty with respect to human rights.
•while international discourse on the importance of human rights
has continually increased since the end of World War II, many
states continue to violate a wide range of rights.
•in fact, some of the worst human rights violations have occurred
and still occurring in modern times:
•the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia,
•the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia,
•the slaughter in Rwanda,
• the genocide in the Darfur region of United Sudan,
•Continuous persecution of Minorities in South Asia.
•Rohingyas in myanmar
• food insecurity, lack of clean water, and lack of basic healthcare
continue to be everyday realities for much of the world.
• in the Democratic Republic of Congo, children are being forced
to fight in wars;
• and in most of the South asian region particularly in
Bangladesh India and Nepal, children are being forced to
work as child labour or in sweatshops for subsistence wages
instead of attending school.
• for many people, the lack of human rights is a daily reality
and This suggests that while citizens in parts of the world
are experiencing greater respect for human rights, the
majority have yet to realize and enjoy the full spectrum of
human rights.
• the early formulation of norms we characterize today as
human rights is inseparable from historical and
philosophical manifestations of human striving for justice.
• the deepest origin of human rights no doubt derives from
basic human instincts of survival of the species and
manifestations of empathy and altruism that evolutionary
process is only beginning to explain.
• in legend, literature, religion and political thought, justice
and eventually the concept of human rights became
socially constructed over time into complex webs of social
interaction striving toward a social order in which human
beings are treated fairly as individuals and collectivities.
• the best-known histories of the human rights movement
tend to begin with the ancient religions and societies.
• Undoubtedly, religion and law have an ambiguous role in
this historical process. The history of religions is replete
with advances in the moral principles of behavior. Many of
which directly influenced the drafting of human rights
texts. But also in crimes committed in the name of a
Supreme Being.
• similarly, the emergence of the rule of law has been critical
to the advance of justice and human rights against the
arbitrary usurpation of power in most societies but also in
preserving the impunity of oppressors.
• The implementation of human rights is in crisis world-wide.
• The annual reports of Amnesty International , Human Rights
Watch and other human rights organizations continue to
reveal widespread gross violations of human rights in
numerous countries worldwide
• Democracy is non-existent or a sham in many countries.
• National resources are squandered by despotic rulers instead
of being used to satisfy the basic economic and social needs
of their people.
• Corruption is rife.
• The judiciary lacks the strength, the means, or the will to
protect human rights in many places.
• National human rights institutions are non-existent or
non-performing in a number of cases.
• Countries ratify human rights treaties without making
the slightest attempt to give effect to them.
• Self-righteous representatives gather in the halls of the
United Nations and use their majorities to insist that
countries grossly violating human rights be treated with
kid gloves through dialogue and cooperation, instead of
through forthright condemnation of atrocities.
• The UN Human Rights Council does little for the actual
protection of human rights, and its Universal Periodic
Reporting Process, for the time being, lacks teeth.
The situation is dire.