Human Rights

and The
Environment
The Contemporary World
Where do human rights come from?
• There are two prominent schools of thought that
explain the origins of human rights.
• Natural Law
• It suggests that common human morality exists (inherent
sense of right and wrong).
• It has validity everywhere.
• It further points out that:
• A good law must be in harmony with or reflect the essential
nature of all peoples.
• A good law incorporates only those principles of justice rooted in
the natural reasoning process.
• Laws that meet the above requirements are immutable.
Where do human rights come from?
• There are two prominent schools of thought
that explain the origins of human rights.
• Positivism
• Human rights should not be based on the naturalist
assumption.
• Human rights exist because states consent to
them.
• States are responsible for guaranteeing and
protecting human rights.
• Human rights are always dependent upon the
willingness of states to consent to protect them.
Brief Historical Background
• The signing of the Magna Carta (1215) was an attempt to
contain the abuses of the government (monarchy of Britain).
• This document proclaimed certain rights inherent in individuals
and declared the King himself was the subject of state laws.
• Writ of habeas corpus prevents citizens from arbitrarily being
detained by the government and allows those held in detention to
be informed of the charges against them.
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen by the
French National Assembly (1789) after the French
Revolution
• It is a document containing a list of rights to which all French
citizens were entitled.
• Right to speak one’s opinion, right to religious freedom, right to a
due process…
Brief Historical Background

• The victory by the 13 colonies over Britain

led to the formation of the United States as
a constitutional government.
• In 1791, the first 10 amendments to the US
constitution were added.
• The Bill of Rights ensures all citizens’ right to
life, liberty, the ability own a properly, and the
right to due process in legal proceedings,
regardless of class or social position.
 Human Rights in the Modern Era

• The nineteenth century saw the rise of a variety of

organizations that spoke to different human rights
concerns.
• Abolitionists, suffragists and peace activists.
• Abolitionists were by the institution of slavery, which
permitted ownership of one group by another, thereby
denying the basic rights of freedom and dignity to the
enslaved group.
• Suffragists rallied around promoting women’s rights.
• Peace activists argued that war, with its devastating
consequences, led to great suffering and many human
rights abuses.
Human Rights in the Modern Era
• After World War1 (1914-18) , the international
community of nation-states began to address the
topic of human rights via a newly created
international organization, the League of Nations.
• Negotiations for the organization’s creation
included lengthy discussions about the protection
of minorities within nation-states.
• The League required nation-states seeking
membership to pledge to protect their minority
populations.
 Human Rights in the Modern Era

• The League’s Charter contained no provision to punish

nation-states that abused their citizens’ rights.
• After World Ward 2 ended, the United Nations was
established, which focused more forcefully on human rights.
• The UN Charter itself contains aspirational provisions
designed to internationalize human rights norms.
• The UN Charter also requires nations to work at both the
regional and international level to develop treaties that
articulate various human rights.
• Nation-states are expected to create domestic legislation
necessary to carry out the Charter’s human rights provisions.
Human Rights in the Modern Era
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
• Adopted by the United Nations in 1948, the declaration
describes the rights to which all human beings are entitled.
• However, the document was only a “Declaration”, and not a
legally binding treaty.
• As a result, immediately following the General Assembly’s
acceptance of the UDHR, work began on the promulgation
of the legally binding treaties necessary to enshrine the
aspirations the UDHR had laid out in international law.
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CPR)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
(ESCR)
The debate over rights
• The task of codifying the principles of the UDHR was
difficult in part because of the Cold War had driven a
wedge between two former allies, US and Russia.
• One result was that the CPR and ESCR became tools
that the US and the SU used to assert their moral
authority around the world.
• Because countries were more focused on individual
rights, such as the right to free speech or to practice
one’s religion, the West argued it was better at
protecting human rights than was the Soviet Union and
its allies.
The debate over rights
• The Soviet Union (Russia) had argued for a greater
emphasis on economic, cultural and social rights.
• Their different focus allowed the Soviets to argue
that the West, particularly the US, regularly
committed human rights violations by not ensuring
had jobs, places to live and health care.
• Many in the developing world argued that human
rights should focus more on the human condition
overall and not simply on the individual.
The rights of developing states
• (1) The right to develop refers to both the political and the
economic development of the nation-state, with emphasis on
the economic side.
• Many developing countries argued that they had a right to
develop without outside interference and that this right had
been violated by colonialism.
• The international economic system has been set up in favor of the
developed countries.
• (2) The right to peace and freedom from outside intervention
became central to developing countries’ interpretation of
human rights.
• For instance, this right was being violated by nuclear proliferation
and other actions taken beyond their borders.
The rights of developing states
• (3) The proponents of the right to a clean environment argued
that nuclear weapons, manufacturing, along with air pollution,
acid rain, heavy use of chemicals, and pesticides, and water
pollution, all the byproducts primary of the developed states,
were profoundly impacting the global environment.
• Responsible practices in the developed world, and transfer of
technologies to mitigate the impact of pollution.
• (4) The right to common heritage of humankind follows from
the right to a clean environment, but it also deals with the
issue of common resources.
• Specifically, the right to common heritage of humankind indicates
that any wealth derived from “international spaces” should be
shared equally.
Negative versus positive rights
• Civil rights and political rights are often called negative rights
because they involved the right not to be subjected to an action
of another human being or group, such as the state.
• Negative rights exist so long as individuals or governments do
not do anything to take those rights away.
• For example, people can practice their right to free speech so long as
their governments do not make and enforce laws restricting speech.
• Positive rights may include civil and political rights such as
police protection, and the right to counsel as well as economic
and social rights, such as public education, healthcare, and
social security.
• However, the division between the two is not clear.
Cultural relativists and universalists
• Cultural relativists argue that the human rights movement has
been driven by rich and powerful Western nations that have
defined human rights in terms of the cultural tenets of their own
societies.
• Western culture is very individualistic in their conception of human rights
• Cultural norms differs so the Western standards should not be imposed
to non-Western culture.
• Universalist perspective acknowledges that the promulgation of
most human rights documents has been driven by Westerners
who have indeed put the individual at the center.
• Human beings’ basic needs are universal, ad that individual human
beings have specific rights simply by virtue of being human.
• Human rights apply to everyone, regardless of their cultures or where
they live.
How are human rights monitored and
enforced?
• The first UN body designed to protect and promote human rights was
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
• It primarily served a political purpose, providing a forum for member nations
to draft international human rights treaties, investigate rights violations, and
advise states on the implementation of rights agreements.
• In 1993, the UN created the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which was designed to
take an “active role in removing the current obstacles to the global
enjoyment of human rights”.
• In 2006, the UNGA voted to replace the highly criticized Human
Rights Commission with the Human Rights Council, which was
equipped with a Universal Periodic Review mechanism to assess
human rights situations in all 192 UN member states.
How are human rights monitored and
enforced?
• Complementing the UN-led efforts to protect human
rights are various regional organizations with human
rights agendas of their own.
• EU, ASEAN
• Various non-state actors also play a role in research and
promoting human rights as well as promulgating human
rights documents.
• Non-governmental organizations (Amnesty International)
• Jurists and publicists
• Lobbyists, celebrities, individuals
How are human rights monitored and
enforced?
• The only way to measure nation-state compliance is through
monitoring.
• However, human rights proponents and activists have had difficulty
in both monitoring and enforcing the treaties already in existence
because the current international system relies on sovereignty, or
non-interference in the domestic affairs of nation-states.
• So, a good deal of monitoring is done by NGOs such as AI.
• Remedies for violations of human rights are thus, limited, as
nation-states are reluctant to interfere in one another’s affairs.
• International tribunals, ICC, to bring human rights violators to
justice.
Emerging Human Rights
• The right to water
• One such issue has developed in response to a growing trend by
nation-states to privatize essential human services like water.
• Sexual rights
• “Sexuality” is a broad term that is used in a variety of contexts,
including a women’s right to choose/refuse sexual partner(s) (rather
than having them chosen for or forced upon her), the right to choose
whether or not to procreate, the right to choose a partner of the
same or different sex, and the right to alter one’s own sex.
• DNA rights
• The right to one’s human genetic data
• If DNA is extracted, it can be a tool for oppression by state and non-
state actors.