Rolf Künnemann The Road to Freedom

A Textbook on Human Rights

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The Road to Freedom

Copyright: Rolf Künnemann

FIAN International P.O.Box 10 22 43 69012 Heidelberg www.fian.org

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Preface

Dear human rights trainee, dear human rights trainer,

This book is about freedom - the absence of oppression. And about human rights - the safeguards against oppression.

“The Road to Freedom” is a textbook for courses of civil society organisations, colleges and universities, advanced adult education. It could also be useful for staff in 1national and international states authorities, as it deals with the most basic duties of their institutions.

The purpose of this book is to give human rights educators a tool for teaching - and human rights students a source for learning - along with study material to be freely adapted or easily copied.

You will know a lot about human rights. You may have already used human rights in your political or legal work. After all, human rights have become a crucial political concept. Why then should you study this textbook?

Human rights have often been referred to in political parlance, but all too often merely in a rhetorical sense or in a biased and reductionist manner or with oppressive states championing as human rights promoters and defenders. There is a risk of human rights being misused for foreign policy interests or as a vehicle for the demands (justified or not) of specific privileged pressure groups.

The task of this textbook is to return from the booming rhetorics to the simple meaning of human rights in order to strengthen them as tools for vulnerable groups and their supporters to address and combat the worst forms of oppression. It is a sad fact that human rights today are still a far cry from the minds of many oppressed people. For human rights education this means to return to the basic concepts of human rights.

Besides returning to the basic function of human rights as weapons against oppression, there is yet another reason why I want to invite you to study this textbook and use it in your human rights education: I feel it is necessary to start from scratch when teaching human rights, and to present a systematic and balanced treatment. Human rights have been distorted. Some people have tried to reduce them to certain civil rights, others turned them into expressions of moral disgust about physical atrocities. The UN General Assembly and many others have kept reminding us of the indivisibility and interdependence of economic, social, cultural, civil and political human rights. In practise, however, not much more has happened in the UN or other intergovernmental organizations that would really take economic and social rights serious as human rights.

Indivisibility can only be put into practise by starting human rights education with coherent concepts applicable to all fields of human rights: The basic concepts of political rights, for example, should not differ from those principles used in economic

FIAN International 3 g32e The Road to Freedom or social rights. Spelling out basic concepts must not be seen as an unnecessary abstraction. Coherent concepts are an inevitable step to liberate the full potential of human rights. It makes no sense to somehow add on economic, social and cultural rights through simplistic theories borrowed from the development paradigm. Human rights altogether (including civil human rights) have to be taught from the beginning in a way that makes indivisibility obvious. This has been attempted in part I, The Basic Concepts of Human Rights.

Only once this elementary stage has been mastered can there be any meaningful focus on a specific field of human rights like civil or political human rights or economic, social or cultural human rights. Part II deals with the 16 Groups of Human Rights as they are codified in the International Bill.

Human rights are meant to be used. For this matter we deal in part III with the question how to use human rights. Part IV provides tools for human rights training.

I hope that you, dear human rights trainer and trainee, will find this textbook both a source of inspiration and a weapon in the struggle on the road to freedom.

Heidelberg, September, 2004 – Rolf Künnemann

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How to use this book

This book is meant for studying and teaching. The target groups range from university students in law or political science to NGO activists, from developmental workers and the human rights communities to the practitioners in the political parties and in the labour unions.

In the beginning you will find our emphasis on concepts somewhat unusual. I think greater clarity on human rights will reward you for your discipline in working your way through Parts I and II. This clarity can only grow out of careful use of concepts and terminology. The glossary at the end of the book will be a helpful point of reference.

The text is interspersed with concepts for review, questions for discussion and faqs (frequently asked questions). Some questions for discussion are mere exercises: repetition or application of the concepts learned. Others are merely supposed to trigger an open ended discussion. Sometimes, however, questions deal with material that could have gone into the text, but didn’t. They carry a * and hints or even replies can be found in chapter 17. The faqs should also be seen as "questions for discussion": The replies given in the book should be discussed in the course. Please take your time to work through both the faqs and the questions for discussion until you feel at ease with the concepts. At the end of the book there will be forms for quizzes on the specific chapters and subjects. Model answers for these quizzes are provided as well.

Another useful tool in the back of the book are the proposals for curricula (chapter 15) with suggestions how to present this material in course work. For advanced students the material can be dealt with in a one semester course (14 two-hour sessions). Normally, however, ample time should be given for discussion so that a one year course (28 two-hour lessons) would be most appropriate. The textbook can also used for "crash courses on human rights" or to hold workshops only on specific topics like indivisibility, full realisation, economic human rights, or international obligations.

Acknowledgment:

This book is a thoroughly revised version of my earlier textbook “Food and Freedom”. My gratitude in the context of the first version for the contributions of Ranjit Nayak and Angelika Weber and the editorial assistance of Emma Ernfors extends to this new book as well. Thanks go to Nora Walls for her editorial work for “The Road to Freedom”. The revised version gained a lot from the feedback on the earlier one, in particular by Marie Ganier-Raymond and Renate Schüssler and from comments of Priscilla Claeys. They are not to be blamed for what has become of their suggestions. I have greatly benefitted from my experience working with FIAN International. The views expressed, however, are my own and are not to be attributed to FIAN International.

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Table of Contents Page

Part I The Basic Concepts of Human Rights 11

1. Freedom versus Oppression 12

1.1 Freedom: The role of the new state 12 1.2 Cases to consider: Learning to identify a violation when you see it 14

2. The Human Standards 19

2.1 The three key elements of a human right 19 2.2 Each human right refers to a human standard 22 2.3 Indivisibility, interdependence and universality 24 2.4 Oppression and the human standards 27 2.5 Violation of rights or deprivation of standards 28 2.6 Crimes: Corporations, landlords and other third parties 29 2.7 Lax language - elegance or confusion 32

3. Obligations of States and States’ Authorities 33

3.1 The nature of states' obligations 33 3.2 Obligation to respect 35 3.3 Obligation to protect 36 3.4 Obligation to fulfil 38 3.5 Obligations of authorities and institutions 40 3.6 External obligations 43 3.7 International obligations 45

4. Towards the Full Realization of Human Rights 49

4.1 Implementation and enforcement 49 4.2 Justiciability 50 4.3 Realization 52 4.4 Non-discrimination and sustainability 54 4.5 Ethics and human rights 56

Part II The 16 Groups of Human Rights 59

5. Economic Rights 63

5.1 The right to work 63 5.2 The right to just conditions of work 65

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6. Social Rights 69

6.1 The rights to an adequate standard of living and to social security 69 6.2. The right to health 73 6.3 The rights of families, mothers and children 74

7. Cultural Rights 76

7.1 The right to participate in cultural life 76 7.2 The right to education 77 7.3 The rights of minorities 77

8. Civil Rights 80

8.1 The rights to life and personal security 80 8.2. The right to a fair trial 81 8.3 The rights of prisoners 83

9. Political Rights 85

9.1 The right to participation in political life 85 9.2 The right to freedom of opinion 86 9.3 The right to freedom of association 87 9.4 The right to freedom of peaceful assembly 88 9.5 The right to liberty of movement 88

Part III How to Use Human Rights 91

10. Empowering Victims and Their Support Groups 92

10.1 Human rights don't struggle for self-interest but for justice 93 10.2 Human rights identify and challenge oppression 93 10.3 Human rights struggle for democracy 94 10.4 Human rights are not negotiable 94

11. Building Alliances 96

11.1 Human rights unite the diversity of involved groups on a joint platform 96 11.2 The strength of value abstinence 96 11.3 International networking 98

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12. Using the Instruments of International Human Rights Law 99

12.1 The International Bill of Human Rights 100 12.2 Intergovernmental bodies concerned with promotion and monitoring 102 12.3 How can NGOs participate in the UN human rights system 105

13. Using Mechanisms of Domestic Human Rights Law 109

13.1 Relating domestic law to human rights 109 13.2 Determining failures in enforcement 110 13.3 Addressing gaps in implementation 110 13.4 Applying international human rights law in domestic courts 110

Part IV Tools for Human Rights Training 113

14. Glossary of Human Rights Terms and Concepts 114

15. Curricula for Workshops and Training Courses 120

15.1 Units for basic human rights education 120 15.2 Suggestions for human rights education and training 123

16. Quizzes for Human Rights 126

17. Answers to Questions for Discussion 134

Annex The International Bill of Human Rights 139

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Part I – The Basic Concepts of Human Rights Part I

Basic Concepts of Human Rights

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1

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1. Freedom versus Oppression

1.1 Freedom: The Role of the New State?

Human rights are essentially about “freedom” and “the state”. The state is a “system of governance”. This includes the nation state, but also other elements such as municipalities, federal states, national and international states authorities. Strictly speaking, international authorities (intergovernmental organisations) belong to the community of (nation) states, which in itself shows signs of a “system of governance”.

Freedom is an even more complicated term than state: A simplistic - and somewhat individualistic - definition of my freedom is “the possibility of doing what I want”. It is then understood that persons who happen to want something else would insist on their own freedom - and if this (for whatever reason) does not happen, I should feel free to “just do it”. This concept of freedom grounds behaviour on struggle rather than mutual respect and concern: If person A wants to bring about situation X and person B wants to prevent situation X, than A and B cannot have freedom at the same time. Moreover, if B cannot insist on her own freedom (because B will be born in 20 years from now, or is old, poor, or less aggressive), then A will have his way, at the expense of B’s and society’s wellbeing.

Such a concept of freedom fits the ideology of the “free market”: Through free markets the “invisible hand” magically brings about the best of all worlds. Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation feed global big business with ever new markets and resources. When this implies destroying people’s livelihoods, police and military are required: The “invisible hand” of the market needs the visible fist of a state, whose main concern is to defend the interests of capital in search for quick profit. Therefore the invisible hand (and the visible fist) have to be propagated as prerequisites for freedom and democracy. This may be unfortunate, but we can rest assured: Freedom will in future trickle down eventually, if we let money have its way. Such an ideology of “money’s freedom” turns freedom upside down - and into a justification of oppression.

The original understanding of freedom can be restored by recalling that in ancient and medieval times “freedom” meant for a person not to be owned by a lord or community. Being “free” included the liberty of movement, the choice of spouse, and having property. Freedom was lost as a result of a crime, of selling oneself, of high debt or defeat in war. A man enjoyed freedom, when he was not a slave, servant or dependent. Women were in general not considered free. In ancient Greek democracy, freedom (and being a native of the community) was the prerequisite for participating as a full member of society. The same is true for ancient peasant societies. Here it also meant feeding oneself on one’s own land. Bonded (non-free) people were either captives of a conquered city/people or persons so highly indebted to another member of the same community/people that the complete labour capacity (and even the childrens’ labour) was owned by the “master” to whom the debt was owed. In the European middle ages, people who had to provide a certain amount of labour to the feudal lord were also considered bonded: Free people paid their dues to the lord in cash or kind. To sum up: Freedom has meant the absence of oppression, and included

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Part I – The Basic Concepts of Human Rights in particular, the ownership of property and the participation in the political affairs of the community/state. This is a far cry from a rich person’s “doing what I want”.

Human rights embodies the visions of oppressed people - and their longing for freedom. Many freedom struggles - of slaves, of marginalized peasants or of women - were carried to break the shackles of oppression both in antiquity, the middle ages, and early modern times. Human rights as a concept entered the centre stage of history first in the context of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution during the last quarter of the 18th century. Human rights provided the foundation for a new concept of state: The state as an agent for freedom.

The human rights movement has seen the state mostly as a destroyer of freedom rather than an agent for freedom. Ironically this reinforces the negative state image constantly promoted by neo-liberals and business media who (in times of severe crisis of their economic model) have reason to fear the state as an agent for freedom of the victims. During the past two decades the human rights movement has realised these shortcomings and started to develop a more sophisticated approach to the different fields of human rights (economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights) and to different types of states obligations. This new approach gives the movement both more coherence and more political weight in its struggle for freedom. Human rights defenders will always address states with critical voices - but not in order to reduce state activities and leave more room for oppression by unaccountable corporations or a rich oligarchy who want to separate themselves from the people. No, the true purpose of criticism is to construct a new type of state owned by the people and finally fulfilling the promise of the state as a an agent of freedom.

The first step on this road to freedom is a better understanding of oppression: Freedom does not mean the absence of state, but the absence of oppression.

Questions for Discussion

1.1 Describe key elements of states and the community of states. 1.2 What is wrong with understanding freedom as “the possibility of doing what I want”? 1.3 Describe the ideology of “money’s freedom”. Can you relate this to current debates about economic policy? 1.4 Why are human rights sometimes misunderstood as “anti-state”? 1.5 How can the state become an agent for freedom? 1.6 Why do we have to learn about oppression in order to understand freedom?

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1.2 Cases to consider: Learning to identify a violation when you see it

Here is a discussion of five human rights cases. You should not try at this point to fully understand the analysis of these cases and their technicalities. They will be referred to in the future. As a point of introduction, however, they may give you an idea of what we will be dealing with.

Case 1: Torture and maltreatment of Turkish detainee by German police

Torture is the deliberate infliction of great pain in order to punish people, to extract information from them or to make them confess. Torture is a severe crime against human rights. If torture is applied by state authorities like the police, prison staff or the armed forces, it is a violation of human rights.

Ahmet D., a Turkish Citizen, was detained in October 1995 by German police in front of a disco in the German city of Hamm. Eye witnesses report that his hands were tied on his back before he was pushed in the back seat of the police car. While he had to sit in the back of the police car he was brutally beaten in the face by two policemen. He reported that due to these beatings that he was unable to leave the police car when it arrived in the police station. A medical investigation revealed that some of his facial bones had been fractured. Later on he had to go through two facial surgeries.

A recent study "Police and Foreigners" commissioned by the German states revealed a pattern of cases of torture in German police custody. In many cases the victims were foreigners. The UN Human Rights Committee criticized the lack of independent mechanisms to investigate such incidents.

Case 2: US "personal responsibility and work reconciliation act" of 1996: Right to food for the poor abolished in US law

For over 60 years, The US government had been committed to secure the basic necessities of life for its poor. Specific welfare programs had considerably reduced the suffering of America's poor and hungry.

On August 22,1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996. The Act had disastrous consequences for the millions of people in America struggling to feed themselves and their children.

The law eliminated America's 60-year commitment to social welfare, cutting over $60 billion from the social services budget, and decentralized the system, giving individual states great leeway in overhauling their welfare programs. The decentralization left the states, many of which were already cash-strapped, fiscally responsible for programs which they cannot afford. In California, officials expected to have to spend an additional $10.7 billion providing aid to those who are denied assistance under the new law. In New York City alone, the additional cost to local

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Part I – The Basic Concepts of Human Rights government was estimated at 720 millions. In many cases, local governments were thus forced to scale back benefits even further than federal mandates require.

The legislation was designed to force long time welfare recipients to find employment: After two years beneficiaries must have found work. Otherwise social welfare payments are stopped. This has been problematic because not enough proper jobs exist to absorb the millions who are pushed off the welfare rolls. People have no choice but to accept all kinds of jobs. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "job prospects for those most likely to be on welfare, single mothers with no high school diploma and little work experience, are about as grim as the average worker faced during the Great Depression" of the 1930's. Flooding the job market with millions of new workers created a vast pool and serve to further depress the wages of the working poor, the majority of whom currently do not earn a living wage.

The law abolished the legal right to an adequate standard of living by limiting social welfare payments to a maximum of five years during one's life time.

Some of the most drastic cuts in the law applied to the food stamp programme and other hunger prevention programs plunging hundreds of thousands of children into poverty. The US has never ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which has been signed by 134 other states. Ratifying states are duty-bound to fulfil the right to food of all parts of the population. During the World Food Summit held in Rome in November 1996, the head of the US delegation, Ms. Melinda Kimble openly stated that the US could not support language about the right to food since the welfare reform would then be in violation of international law.

Case 3: European beef dumping destroys livelihoods of nomadic people in Burkina Faso

In the Sahelian states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger some 4 million people live by raising cattle and selling it to farmers further south or in the cities. This group of nomads is extremely vulnerable. Life expectancy is below 50 years. The nomadic tribes depend on the functioning of cattle and beef trade for survival. Within a few years, however, their market for beef almost collapsed.

From 1984 to 1990 the EC increased its share on the West African beef market from 18 percent to 44 percent, by undercutting the price of the local producers with EC subsidies: In Ivory Cost, for example, West African beef sold in 1991 for 2.75$ per kilo, whereas frozen beef from the EC would have had to be sold at 3.75$ by EC producers just to cover their costs.

Thanks to EC export subsidies, however, the EC beef was dumped at 2.10$, while many nomadic producers were unable to sell their cattle and hence lost their livelihood. Their vulnerability was turned into deprivation by an international violation of the right to feed oneself.

The EC subsidies were necessary for the depriving act to come about. The EC was therefore involved not in a breach of a protection-bound obligation, as would have

FIAN International 15 g32e The Road to Freedom been the case by conniving with the beef producers or assisting them by a policy of non-intervention. Instead a respect-bound obligation was breached, depriving the Sahel nomads of their access to food.

After a campaign of several NGOs in West Africa and Europe, including FIAN, the EC reduced its subsidies for beef dumping in West Africa considerably, thereby alleviating the situation of the nomads. The EC subsidies were transferred instead - to beef dumping in Eastern Europe. In the field of international agricultural trade such dumping of agricultural surplusses on markets displacing vulnerable Southern producers violates the right to feed oneself.

Case 4: Failure to enforce Agrarian Reform: Massacre of Eldorado do Carajás, Federal State of Pará, Brazil

According to the Brazilian government there are 16 million rural poor half of them suffering hunger and malnutrition. The main reason for rural poverty in Brazil is landlessness. Brazil has vast stretches of idle lands (concentrated in the hands of the rich) and sufficient resources to carry out an agrarian reform and overcome landlessness. Large landholdings of 1000 ha and more) control 53 percent of agricultural land, almost one half of it is not cultivated.

Given the lack of alternative employment, agrarian reform is the only measure which would allow the rural poor to feed themselves in the foreseeable future. As there is no lack of resources for an agrarian reform, the human right to food obliges the Brazilian government to carry out agrarian reform as quickly as possible.

The National Agrarian Reform Plan was designed in 1985 to resettle 1,4 million landless rural families. The Brazilian government failed to overcome the (sometimes violent) opposition of large landowners and resettled only a small fraction of this target. Instead the state colluded in many ways with the landlords: From 1985 to 1996 there were 969 assassinations of rural workers, and more than 820 assassination attempts and 2400 death threats against rural workers. Very few of the killers were convicted. Instead, the military police quite often co-operated with the operation of the landlords private armies.

One of the most brutal massacres of landless peasants was perpetrated by the military police forces of the State of Pará took place on the 17th of April 1996. Some 1500 landless peasants had started a peaceful march on the road PA-150 to Belém, the capital of Pará. These peasants were part of 3000 landless families peacefully occupying the Macaxeira estate of Curianópolis since March. In Belém the peasants wanted to demand the overdue implementation of the agrarian reform by way of expropriation and redistribution of the estate. After two days of marching, tired and hungry, the landless were confronted by the military police who opened fire on the landless peasants, killing 19 and wounding some 50 more, including women and children. The autopsy revealed that at last 12 persons were executed through short distance shots in the head. According to recent information, the massacre had even been planned and financially supported by big landlords of the region who wanted to get rid of the landless peasants leaders. One of the landlords involved declared

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Part I – The Basic Concepts of Human Rights afterwards that a big amount of money had been collected for the realisation of the massacre. National newspapers quoted the disappointment of some military police commanders because “not all leaders had been killed”. It was the Governor of Pará, Mr Almir Gabriel, who gave orders to dislodge the peasants from the road and apparently allowed the use of violence.

The military investigation team immediately introduced a number of obstacles to prevent the gathering of evidence against the responsible military police officers: The dead bodies were displaced, the victims were not asked to identify the officers involved, the behaviour of the officers was not individualized, and no securing of evidence took place. Moreover, only some 13 peasants and 45 police officers were heard.

Case 5: Semarsot wildlife sanctuary threatens tribal people in Surguja District, Madhya Pradesh, India

There are some 70 million tribal and indigenous people in India. They are commonly known as Adivasis and constitute about 8 per cent of the Indian population. They are one of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society in terms of economic, social and cultural rights. It is mainly the Adivasi population of India that has been falling victim to large-scale displacement as a result of development projects including the construction of dams, mines, industries, and wildlife sanctuaries during the past decades.

For centuries the Adivasis have been living in harmony with the forests and wildlife, whereas most joint projects of the Indian government and the World Bank have had devastating effects on the natural habitats. Wildlife sanctuaries are quite often nothing but a resource for a profitable tourist industry - to the detriment of the indigenous populations, the wildlife and the forests.

The state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, with its Adivasi population of about 15 million, has vast forest tracts rich in wildlife. The state is already covered by a large number of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. At present, there are plans to establish another such project called Semarsot Wildlife Sanctuary in Surguja District bordering Bihar, the neighbouring state in the east. People were notified for the first time in 1986 that land would be acquired for this project. Due to strong local protests the project was not pursued further - until October 1996. On October 28, 1996, a second notification was issued saying that 43,036.16 hectares of land will be acquired for the Semarsot Wildlife Sanctuary. This would directly affect 51 villages and result in the displacement of 35,000 people, 85 per cent of them Adivasis. More than half of the affected population belongs to the Korwa and Korku Adivasi communities who are already struggling for their survival. Other communities living in the area are the Kherwar, the Nagesia and the Cherwa. The proposed wildlife sanctuary violates the right to feed oneself of 5,333 tribal or Adivasi families, who will be dispossessed of their traditional lands and resources without any realistic perspective for proper resettlement, and will therefore face hunger and malnutrition.

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After the second notification in October 1996, people once again organised themselves in protest. They formed a movement called the "Jan Sangharsh Samiti" consisting of numerous local committees, held meetings in different places and submitted a memorandum signed by 7,000 people on 3 December 1996. On 19 December, a massive demonstration of 29,000 people was held at the district town of Ambikapur. On 30 January 1997, representatives of the tribal people met the Chief Minister of the state, without, however, obtaining any tangible result. As a next step, the Samiti organised hunger strikes, demonstrations and ultimately started a non-co- operation movement against the Forest Department. Instead of listening to the people, the government and other vested interests are now trying to suppress the movement. After a mass gathering on 10 June 1997, at Dhorkhana, on their way back from the meeting, a group of twelve leaders of the movement was attacked and badly beaten up by miscreants with support of forest guards. In spite of severe injuries suffered by them, doctors refused to give them medical assistance in the hospital to which they had been taken. In fact, they were kept unattended for 18 hours, and then were taken to the district town, where they had to go through the same experience.

A spontaneous protest gathering against this incident was attended by 3,000 people on 12 June 1997. 67 Adivasi delegates submitted memorandums to the Superintendent of Police, the Collector of Surguja District, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, and to the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi, to demand an investigation of the incident.

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2. The Human Standards

The following chapter introduces the elements for a definition of human rights: From human principles to human standards, and from these standards via the states obligations to human rights eventually enforced by law.

These elements – the principles, standards, obligations, justiciability and legal implementation will all be explained in the course of the next 3 chapters – until the definition of human rights should be clear. The following diagramme may serve as a “road map”:

Freedom as absence of oppression ⇓ Oppression as pushing or keeping people below human standards ⇓ Human rights 1: Human standards ⇓ Human rights 2: States’ obligations to respect, protect, fulfil human standards ⇓ Human rights 3: States’ duty to meet obligations justiciably ⇓ Implementation and Realization ⇓ Freedom

2.1 The three key elements of a human right

A right is a relation that involves duties (or obligations) and benefits. It exists between two entities - a beneficiary and an obligations-holder. The relation is defined by the “normative content” of the right: The claim which the beneficiary has on the obligation-holder and the obligations which the obligation-holder has to carry out in order to meet the beneficiary's claim. Your check on 1000 € drawn on a bank B, for example, can be seen as a right with you as the beneficiary, B as the obligation-holder, 1000 € as the normative content on which you have a claim, and the obligation of B to provide you with 1000 € cash as the obligation-holders obligation.

Rights may exist as inter-personal relations or as relations between the states, between different groups and any other partners. Rights may be embodied in very different moral and legal forms ranging from oral cultural norms to elaborate and codified laws legislated in a parliamentary democracy or enshrined in a state’s constitution or ratified in international law. Rights and law need to be distinguished: Law may give rise to rights and vice versa: Law is a rule established by states legislatures or constitutions. Most types of law carry sanctions in case of breach. Rights may also be moral (and not meant to be legally enforced). Rights can therefore exist prior to the state - not so law.

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The body of norms established by a right was introduced as its normative content. This content consists of two elements: The claim and the obligations of the obligation- holder related to this claim.

A violation of a right is by definition an act or omission by the obligation-holder breaching an obligation implied by this right.

With this general background we can now start defining human rights:

A human right is a relation between the person and the state, or more specifically: between vulnerable persons and groups (as beneficiaries) and the state or community of states (as obligation-holders). This relationship constitutes a right with the following three key elements: The normative content, the primary norms (or behavioural norms) and the secondary norms (or judicial norms).

The normative content describes a certain quality of life, which is the starting point for all further norm-giving. It is normative in the sense that all further norms contained in a human right refer to it and have to be measured against it. The normative content standardizes this quality of life in a way that the primary norms can operate on it. It is therefore also called “the human standard”. Primary norms for human rights are the states obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the quality of life described in the normative content and standardized sufficiently to give some precision to primary norms: While primary norms operate on the normative content, secondary norms operate on primary norms: They describe legal guarantees and procedures for victims to make states meet their (primary) obligations and set judicial standards like rehabilitation and compensation, non-repetition and satisfaction.

In other words, a human right contains as its first element, its normative content, the related “human standard” recognized by the right. For the right to adequate food, access to adequate food is the human standard, and includes definitions about the adequacy of food and the access to it.The human standard (key element 1) will be discussed in the present chapter 2.

The second element of a human right is the states obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the human standard for everybody. These behavioural norms for states are the primary norms emanating from the normative content. This key element 2 will be discussed in chapter 3.

The third key element of a human right ( is the states’ duty to respect, protect and fulfil the human standard justiciably. In a nutshell, justiciability means the secondary norm that the state has to establish means and ways so that people can bring violations before a court and find remedy.This key element 3 will be dealt with in section 4.2.

There are different classes of human rights depending on the sphere of life in which the related human standard is situated. Human rights may, for instance, be classified into political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights etc.. Human Rights are the media for the vulnerable to satisfy their basic needs, for example, their basic needs to food, clothing or housing, or other basic human standards like freedom from slavery or the guarantee of a fair trial.

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FAQ: You have defined human rights in a somewhat formal way. Are there such rights?

Reply: Your question raises the issue of the existence of rights - a philosophical controversy that is perhaps more important for human rights than for any other rights. Human rights are not necessarily legal rights (i.e. rights based on law). For a radical positivist, rights must be overwhelmingly practised before he/she can say they exist. In countries under the rule of law legal rights can then be seen to exist. In others even certain legal rights may not be practised. For example through malfunctioning of judiciary, corruption etc. It is characteristic for human rights, however, that their existence does not depend on a state recognizing them (let alone practising them). This characteristic is immediate from the nature of human rights as supervising minimum standards of states' conduct. Otherwise, each state could evade such supervision by simply denying the existence of human rights in its territory. Sometimes it is said in lax language: "State S deprives group G of its human rights." This is a dangerously incorrect use of the term human rights. Human rights are inalienable - they cannot be taken away by any state. What is meant to be said is that state S (systematically) violates the human rights of group G. This violation need not be a breach of the state's own laws implementing human rights. Such laws may not even exist.

Terms for Review rights, beneficiary, obligation-holder, law, normative content, obligation, violation, definition of human rights

Questions for Discussion

2.1 Give examples of rights that are imposed by law: Legal rights. 2.2* Give examples of moral rights that should not become legal rights. 2.3 Who are the beneficiaries and the obligation-holders in human rights? 2.4 Which are the three key elements of human rights. 2.5* Can a general situation (hunger, disease, political apathy) be called a violation of a human right? What does our definition of violation and of human rights tell us about it?

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2.2 Every human right refers to a related human standard

The human standards describe the different elements of a situation in which a person, both as an individual and as a member of society, lives securely, enjoys his or her identity, and participates in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres of life. The absence of one of these human standards would normally be seen as a severe deficit in the quality of life.

FAQ: Does the word standard mean something “moral” or “ethical”?

Reply: No, it just means a certain quality of life, that is "minimum" in the sense that its absence is seen as severe distress. Those standards of life taken as human standards are therefore something very serious. A deficiency in such a standard implies suffering. This suffering may still be nobody's fault - so no moral or ethical question is involved at this point. It is merely a descriptive term.

At this juncture it may be an important exercise (question 2.6*) to go through the five cases of section 1.2 and write down the human standards involved.

FAQ: I have not heard of the term human standard before. Where does it come from?

Reply: The term human standard is short for human rights standard. Quite often the term human rights is used for the human standard as a matter of convenience, even by some legal experts, who otherwise correctly distinguish between a right and its normative content. For purposes of human rights analysis it helps to keep this distinction in mind.

It may be interesting to note that three human principles are sufficient to formulate most human standards: Security, identity and participation. They have already been mentioned in the first paragraph of this section. In all spheres of life existential insecurity, exclusion from participation and denial of identity give rise to suffering: In such situations human standards are not satisfied.

FAQ: Why do you choose security, identity and participation as basic principles? Why these three? Why not more?

Reply: These three principles are not a "dogma". There may be other sets of principles that do the same job: Generate the basic human standards. Security and participation are often referred to in human rights documents, and identity captures an important aspect of dignity that would otherwise be missing.

What does all of this have to do with human rights? Well, each human right starts with a specific human standard attached to it and recognized by it. Before understanding a human right, we need a clear idea of the related human standard.

The human standard related to a human right is normally quite obvious from the formulation of the human right: It is that situation to which the human right gives people a valid claim: For the right to be free from slavery, the human standard is

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The right to food refers to access to food as its related human standard. In fact, in order to live securely, participate in the different spheres of life, access to food is certainly a very important element. We are therefore dealing not with just any aspects of desirable situations, but with elements that are really basic and indispensable in order to describe a situation that allows - among other things - for security, identity and participation. Freedom from slavery or access to a fair trial are equally indispensable: If any of them was missing, security or identity would be lacking.

Terms for review: human standard, security, identity, participation, human principle

Questions for Discussion

2.6* Go through the case list in section 1.2 and write down the human standards involved in each case.

2.7* Try to relate the human standards found in the reply to question 2.6 to security, identity and participation.

2.8 For the Semarsot Case in section 1.2, describe which sphere/spheres of life (economic, social, cultural, civil and/or political) are involved, and why.

2.9 Consider the following 10 human standards:

i. having access to adequate food and housing ii. earning one's living in dignity iii. having access to social security iv. being healthy v. knowing how to read and write vi. being guaranteed a fair trial vii. building and/or joining associations viii. holding opinions of one's own ix. practicing a religion of one’s own choice x. participating in political life

a) Explain why you agree that these are human standards. If you disagree, please justify your point of view. b) Describe any limitations that you feel are justified or necessary for these standards.

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c) Explain for each of these basic standards, whether and how it is related to some or all of the principles of security, identity and/or participation. d) Indicate for each standard, which of the five spheres of life are involved, and explain which sphere(s) you would consider predominant.

2.3 Indivisibility, Interdependence and Universality of Human Rights

The three basic principles that give rise to the basic human standards, namely, security, identity and participation, are indivisible and interdependent. Indivisibility means that violations of one right usually imply violations of other rights, so that rights cannot be completely divided. Indeed, life in society does not allow for their ultimate separation: Participation often relies on a sense of identity (you cannot relate to others unless you know who you are). Identity will give security. Security promotes participation etc.. Interdependency means that in order for states to meet their obligations under a certain right they may have to meet obligations under other rights as well – as the human standards and the related obligations depend on each other.

It is necessary to describe human standards for a variety of spheres of human life, so that we are protected from the gamut of oppression. Thus, we have human rights for economic, social, cultural, civil and political aspects of human life, while understanding that they are derived from the same underlying principles and used in the same way.

FAQ: You said that "the human rights in the different aspects of life ... be used in the same way." What does that mean?

Reply: One of the obstacles in the development of human rights has been their division into different categories. This pigeon-holing is one of the great problems today altogether: People start losing track: They may be experts in one aspect of life, but don't know how to relate their expertise to other aspects. Missing out on important aspects in a given situation, however, severely limits the problems solving capacity: One's struggle for certain elements of political freedom may be in vain if one does not address economic oppression, for example - and vice versa. This indivisibility and interdependence remains obvious in each step of the three step process generating human rights in the approach used in this textbook.

If one were to isolate the sphere of economic life to see the dynamics of its basic human standards, a certain kind of economic security could be fair working conditions with some guarantee of not being dismissed into permanent unemployment, a type of economic participation could be access to wage employment, and a form of economic identity is embodied in one's choice of an occupation. Similarly, one can see the dynamics of the basic human standards in other spheres of human life.

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It should be obvious that the different spheres of life: the economic, social, cultural, civil and political spheres are themselves indivisible and interdependent.

It must also be mentioned that no aspect of the human standard is primary to the other (or one human right primary over another), just as no sphere of human life is more important than another. If some human standards were to be given preferential treatment, this would lead to the neglect and marginalization of other human standards and, in effect, of other human rights.

The fact that human rights are indivisible and interdependent, follows from the interdependence of their human standard: If the human standards are already indivisible since people’s education, livelihood, employment, social security, political participation etc are all related - how much more so are the states obligations derived for them. Many human rights violations do not affect only one human right, but other civil, political and economic, social and cultural rights at the same time. Often, if an economic human right as the right to food is violated, the right to health, the right to housing, the right to work and other human rights are violated likewise. And very often, persons struggling for the implementation of human rights (whether economic or social, civil or political) have to suffer persecution and related violations of their civil and political rights, for example, because the State denies them the right of peaceful assembly or the right to freedom of opinion. Many trade unionists or human rights activists have been sent to jail or killed because they were demanding economic, social and cultural human rights. This is very clear in the cases 4 and 5 of chapter 1: The struggle of the Brazilian landless peasants in the state of Pará to be resettled in an agrarian reform met with the massacre of Eldorado. The struggle of the Jan Sanghar Samiti to address imminent violations of their land rights and cultural rights met with a violation of their civil rights, when forest guards supported the attack on the indigenous leaders.

Moreover, violations of the right to food as implied in case 2) will badly affect the victims' right to be elected into political office, or even to participate politically or to educate themselves. It does not abolish these rights, but it renders them almost useless for example for the hungry youth - and hence violates them, as starving people are effectively prevented from educating themselves or exercise any more sophisticated political participation.

The indivisibility of human rights has also been recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which contains economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights without any difference made. Moreover, indivisibility has been affirmed by the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as by the Covenant on Political and Civil Rights (1966). Both covenants through their joint preamble recognize that "..the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights as well as his civil and political rights,..."

FAQ: Does interdependence mean that economic and social rights are a prerequisite to civil and political rights?

Reply: Well, this is included in interdependence, but it does not exhaust the meaning of the term, because interdependence always goes both ways: Civil and

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political rights are at the same time a prerequisite for economic and social rights. It must be seen clearly, however, that economic and social rights are not implied by civil and political rights, nor do economic and social rights automatically lead to civil and political rights.

Some people "justify" economic and social rights by claiming that they are a necessary means to achieve civil and political rights. Such an argument, however, sees civil rights absolute and economic rights only relative to them. This view can sometimes be found even in the human rights community, although it contradicts interdependence which is a symmetric concept and implies that every human right is important in itself.

Human Rights are universal rights. This means they apply to every human being regardless of his or her nationality, gender, religion, age, social status, colour, etc. Sometimes it is argued that human rights are European concepts contradicting other cultures, for example in Asia or Africa.

Even if the philosophical concepts of human dignity and their justification vary between different cultures the human standards remain essentially the same. We will return to this issue in section 4.5 in the context of ethics.

The argument of cultural differences is a frequent pretext for governments who feel that human rights are an obstacle for pursuing certain policies of oppression. This can be seen from the fact that most often human rights activists of the same country reject the cultural argument of their governments.

The principles of indivisibility and universality were reaffirmed by the international community of states in the Vienna Declaration of the 1993 Conference on Human Rights :

"All Human Rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in an equal and fair manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis." Vienna Declaration art.5.

Terms for Review:

Indivisibility and interdependence, universality

Questions for Discussion

2.10 Please discuss the possibility of isolating the principles of security, identity and participation. Take the Semarsot case of section 1.2 as a starting point. Describe real life situations where some or all of these three principles are closely related. Describe others, where one or more of these principles are completely absent.

2.11 Give examples and explain: Identity will give security. Security promotes participation.

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2.12* Give two independent reasons for indivisibility and interdependence.

2.13 Use case 5 of section 1.2 to exemplify the indivisibility of human rights.

2.14* Problems in the discussion of universality can be reduced, by recalling that human rights do not introduce any interpersonal ethics, but only certain minimum obligations of states. Why can this be useful?

2.15 If a certain culture required the state to take certain oppressive acts, would you see this as a justification for oppression, or for rethinking human rights?

2.4. Oppression and the human standards

Human standards allow us to define oppression: Oppression is an act or an omission that destroys one or more of a person’s human standards or keeps a person in a situation of being deprived of them. Oppression can range from a state being the oppressor, to one person oppressing another person such as in the exploitative relation between a landlord and a landless peasant. Oppression can take many forms and can continue for extensive periods when the human standard remains unsatisfied. The Indian caste system or the practice of apartheid are, for instance, types of social oppression that spill over into economic, political and other kinds of oppression. Oppression is like a multi-headed monster that cannot be dealt with just by destroying one of its heads. Oppression cannot be eliminated through interventions in just one sphere of human life.

Human rights instruments provide a means to facilitate the elimination of oppression. These instruments attempt to cover all spheres of human life. Indeed, human rights exist for the oppressed to defend or obtain their human standards in situations of oppression.

Questions for Discussion

2.16* Oppression is a Latin word and means "pushing down" or "keeping down". Can you be more specific? What is meant by "down"?

2.17 How are the basic human standards related to oppression?

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2.5 Violations of rights or deprivation of standards?

Violation is perhaps the key term in the field of human rights. The term is often referred to in the news media to describe atrocities of police-forces or the military. The human rights relevant here are the right to freedom of torture or the right to life and personal security. But what about the violations of other human rights that we mentioned? When must we say in general that a human right is violated?

A violation of a human right is by definition a breach of a states' obligation. We have to keep in mind that the State is always the obligation-holder in relation to human rights. This means that the government must be held responsible for every human rights violation which takes place on a territory under the states jurisdiction. As human rights violations are acts (or omissions) of states authorities, we must not speak of a human rights violation simply when the human standard is not enjoyed. Only after pinpointing an act or an omission by the states failing to meet their obligations under human rights can we talk about violations of a human right: That a person in an affluent country is hungry is an indicator that the right to food was violated. We have to find, however, specific states obligations that were breached and thereby deprived the person of food - or otherwise point at obligations that have not been met, which keep this person in a state of deprivation. For example, in countries with a high rate of landlessness and related malnutrition and at the same time a high rate of land concentration in the hands of a few landlords, the non-implementation of an agrarian reform is a breach of the states obligation to fulfil the right of every person under its jurisdiction to food, housing and an adequate standard of living in general.

Moreover a human right is violated when related states obligations have been met in a clearly discriminatory manner: If there are resources available for the primary education of boys, but not for girls, this is a violation of the girl's right to education on the basis of discrimination.

FAQ: Most deprivations are not due to lack of resources but to a failure of society - and ultimately the state - hence a violation. Why then make such distinctions of violation and deprivation ?

Reply: "Human rights have to be treated as norms that are legal in nature. For this matter the obligation-holder's obligations have to be specified precisely enough that they could be judged in court. Calling every deprivation a violation may have some rhetoric appeal, but it ultimately weakens the concept of human rights from a legal to a moral term, and a rather hazy moral term on top of that. Moreover, there still remain many situations (think for example of the human rights standards of health or of physical integrity) where even the best of states cannot prevent any incident of deprivation, and hence should not be blamed for violating the respective human right. States have to be given a fair deal and the impossible must not be asked of them: If we talk about a violation of a human right, we really want to say that the state was in fact in a position to respect, protect or fulfil the human standard in this situation (as the case may be) by taking (or refraining) from a specific action, but failed to do so.

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This also makes much more sense politically, since specific states obligations now come into focus and have to be discussed in order to make a judgement. If we really want to address the situation this will be much more useful than a very general "obligation to prevent deprivation" which does not even look at specific states’ acts or omissions."

Question for Discussion

2.18 Why is it so important to clearly distinguish the absence of the human standard (sometimes called deprivation) from a violation of the related human right? Give three reasons.

2.6 Crimes: Corporations, landlords and other third parties

Violations of human rights were defined as breaches of states obligations. The fact that only states (and their institutions, see section 3.5) carry obligations is a result of the definition of human rights as a relationship between states and vulnerable individuals/groups. There are, of course, other potentially oppressive actors, sometimes even more immediate than the state: My employer, or a transnational corporation trying to get hold of my community’s land, or my husband terrorizing me. All of them severely affect my human standards and therefore my human rights, as the human standard is the first key element of a human right. Employers, corporations, husbands do not carry states obligations and hence cannot violate human rights. What then do they do to my human rights?

For such “third parties”, even though they are strictly speaking outside the relationship between the victim (first party) and the state (second party), certain duties are implied by human rights, for example the duty not to destroy the human standard of others. How can this be understood? Let us recall that the second key element in the definition of human rights was the states obligation to protect the human standard. This obligation - fully implemented in law - requires for example that states prosecute the destruction of human standards under criminal law. Such destructions of human standards by third parties should therefore be called a “crime”, even if the necessary provisions in criminal law are still missing, because so far the state has failed to implement (key element 3) the obligation to protect the human standard. Crimes are sometimes seen as only referring to law. Even if implementing laws fail to exist, however, one can still talk about “crimes against human rights” as much as one can refer to violations of human rights even if the state which committed the violation happens not to be bound by international human rights law.

Atrocities committed by private persons (beating somebody up, killing somebody etc.) are usually termed crimes and not violations of human rights.

It would not be correct to speak of a violation of a human right in the case of an elderly person brutally beaten up in the street by three youngsters or a woman being raped by her husband even though both are contemptuous crimes. Normally such acts are punishable under the criminal code of the land, hence "crime" is the correct word.

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Even if there was no criminal code to make such acts punishable, they would still be crimes - not against the law of the land, but against human rights, as under the rule of human rights law states should have in fact legislated against such acts to make them crimes against the law.

If the same acts happen in a prison and the authors of this violence are policemen on duty, then we would of course call such acts violations of human rights.

Why this difference? It is important because the function of human rights is to operationalize the duties of states authorities against vulnerable persons and groups. Such cases are often very hard to deal with under the normal law of the land, even if legal remedies are available. Moreover states are crucial for addressing crimes and the oppressive features in society - a function that is beyond the scope of third parties.

This unique feature of human rights is lost if the term human rights violation is simply used as a new terminology for appalling crimes. This is both unnecessary and counterproductive, as it makes the term violation of human rights increasingly vague and ultimately useless.

Sometimes crimes against human rights may indicate a related violation of human rights. One can find this out by asking: Have there been state authorities breaching any protection-bound obligations that should have prevented the third party from destroying the human standard in the case at hand. Or have states authorities perhaps actively collaborated in these destructive acts in breach of their respect-bound obligations? If the three youngsters in the example mentioned above had been members of a paramilitary group known to the police and tolerated despite of their avowed plans to terrorize members of the opposition (to which the elderly person belonged) then this act of connivance with the crime is a violation of human rights.

There are borderline cases, however, where the concept of human rights is extended to include entities as obligation-holders that are normally not seen as states - but are state-like in terms of their monopoly of power in a certain area, which cannot be controlled by the state carrying the formal protection-bound obligation. In cases of civil war or insurgency, where the rebel forces can exercise effective control over a certain region, they assume state-like character and therefore carry obligations under human rights. In these situations we can say that such rebel forces, when they for example torture a person or burn down villages and the surrounding fields, violate human rights. A terrorist group doing the same, although they could be held accountable by the state, who is basically in control of the area, is committing crimes (against human rights)

FAQ: For the acts of third parties affecting human standards, I have also heard the term “abuse of human rights”. Is this the same concept as “crime against human rights”?

Reply: Basically yes. People use it to avoid violation terminology when it is not correct. Its use is rather wide-spread, and may sound better for crimes that may be less severe. It misses, however, the legal reasoning behind crime.

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FAQ: The International Criminal Court can also deal with certain cases of state officials violating human rights. Are these crimes at the same time?

Reply: A person destroying (in his/her capacity as a state official) the human standard of a person/group involves the state in a human rights violation, but commits at the same time a crime against human rights: Why? Strictly speaking he/she is not the state nor the authority, but a person acting for the state/the authority, who is - just as everybody else - not supposed to destroy human standards. Hence such a person may be liable before national or international courts. Therefore all officers violating human rights in the sense of breaching states obligations to respect the human standard, commit at the same time a crime against human rights.

Terms for Review right, violation of a right, crime against a human right, abuse

Questions for Discussion

2.19* Please identify, in the cases of chapter 1, the crimes against human rights.

2.20 Some tendencies in the current period of globalization can be interpreted as a rebellion of transnational finance and corporations questioning the effective control of nation states over the economic policies affecting their citizens. It is sometimes contended that through deregulation some transnational corporations have assumed a power defining economic policies that render such areas out of control of nation states that ought to exercise their protection-bound obligations but cannot do so effectively. In the absence of intergovernmental organisations with the regulatory power to exercise protection-bound obligations on behalf of the community of states, would you call acts of transnational finance or corporations that destroy human standards violations of human rights rather than crimes against human rights?

2.21 Describe some basic features of the International Criminal Court and how they relate to human rights.

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2.7 Lax Language - elegance or confusion?

Quite often the words "human right" are used both for the human standard and for the human right related to it. One such phrase is the following, which wants to describe the second key element: "States have the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil human rights." So far we only know what it means to respect, protect or fulfil a human standard. What then does it mean to respect, protect or fulfil a human right? Well, it means to respect, protect and fulfil the related human standard. If the phrase really meant to say human rights instead of human standards, we would no longer be able to use the key element 2 in a definition of human rights: The term to be defined would show up in the defining phrase: "The second element of a human right is the states obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the human right for everybody." This, of course, is nonsense. Unless you know what is to be respected, protected or fulfilled you can impossibly know what a human right is. The human standard has to be clear before you can start identifying a human right and its obligations.

This means one should say the obligation “to respect, protect and fulfil access to food” instead of “to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food”.

From the language point of view it may seem elegant to use the same term. To prove the confusing consequences of such lax language, let us take the phrase that "third parties can violate human rights".

Does it mean to say that "third parties can violate human standards" (in the sense of “hurting” or destroying the standards)? Then this is obvious. Or does the phrase really want to indicate that neighbours, employers, corporations and others do not only carry derived duties under human rights as indicated in section 2.6, but direct obligations. The phrase would in fact call for a redefinition of human rights, something that was probably not intended.

Human rights cannot be advanced by elegant rhetoric and lax language making maximum use of the words “human rights” and “violation”. Misplaced use of these words can lead to confusion and inflation of terminology. Lax language should therefore be avoided and clarity should be the overruling concern.

Question for Discussion

2.22* Which are the pairs of terms that frequently get identified in lax language? Please explain their differences.

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3. Obligations of States and States’ Authorities

3.1 The nature of states' obligations

Human rights and states obligations are two sides of the same coin.

The beneficiaries of human rights are individuals and groups vulnerable to oppression. This includes all of us in one way or the other, and therefore human rights benefit all of us. Human rights are a relation between individuals/groups and states, codifying what states have to do (their obligations) in response to the right. These "states" are not necessarily the nation states, but as much the community of states and its authorities (like intergovernmental organisations - IGOs). We will treat obligations of the community of states and of IGOs together with the question of external and international state obligations towards the end of this chapter. a) Positive and negative states' obligations

Obligations can require states to take specific action. Such an obligation is called “positive”, because the state takes action. Or obligations ask states to refrain from a certain action – a negative obligation in the sense that there has to be absence of action. In order to guarantee a human standard (be it personal security or economic participation) obligation-holders must first of all never destroy the human standard where it exists. This is the negative obligation under human rights, as it asks states to respect a human standard and not to take a certain (destructive) action.

On the other hand, of course, there are "positive" obligations, asking states to become active instead of just standing by: States must do their best to protect the human standard against destruction by others (your neighbour, your employer). And states must do their best to fulfil the human standard wherever it does not exist. For persons deprived of their human rights standards, providing these standards is seen as an act of fulfilment of their aspirations. The related state activity is usually called “fulfilling the human standard”. b) The three types of states’ obligations

More important than the negative/positive classification of obligations is the “threefold typology”: the obligations to respect, to protect and to fulfil the human standard. These three types of obligations are the second key element of a human right (section 2.1).

Depending on the type of obligation we can also talk about obligation to respect, an obligation to protect or an obligation to fulfil (or a respect-bound obligation, protection-bound obligation, fulfilment-bound obligation) depending on what they are bound to achieve: Respecting, protecting or fulfilling the human standard. These three obligations can be found in some greater or lesser extent in every human right. We will soon deal with them in some detail.

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We saw that "states must do their best" to protect or fulfil the human rights standard. What does this mean? States quite often try to defend themselves against allegations of breaching a certain positive obligation by claiming that the respective act of fulfilment or protection was not undertaken due to lack of resources.

Human rights (and the related obligations) can be seen as the fundamental framework of states in the service of their people and humanity - democratic states in the true sense of the word. For this matter, human rights deserve the highest priority in all considerations of states' activities: States obligations-to-protect and -to-fulfil therefore have to be met to the maximum of available resources.

While it is recognized that the implementation of positive obligations may require some time and hence can only be achieved progressively, the maximum use of available resources implies that such obligations must be met as quickly as possible. This means in particular that obligatory measures that can be taken immediately must in fact be taken immediately.

Respect-bound obligations, of course, can be met immediately, as states simply have to refrain from a certain action - and this is always possible: Respect-bound obligations, therefore, hold unconditionally.

For obligations-to-protect and - in particular - obligations-to-fulfil the provision of deploying maximum resources as quickly as possible does in fact provide an instrument to determine in most cases whether such obligations are met or not. Such a judgement requires an analysis of the resources available. The availability of resources refers to the resources of society and not only the resources within the current budget. It is true for most states that the executive is bound to the budget cleared by the legislature. But it is equally true that the legislature as much as the executive is part of the state (separation of powers) and therefore duty-bound to human rights obligations and the maximum resources provision. If a legislature denies a government the budget necessary to meet the state's obligations, although these resources are available in society, this has to be considered a violation of human rights by the parliament.

What does this mean in a concrete situation? How can we determine whether states act as quickly as possible using maximum resources available? Basically this has to be approached from the negative and on a case to case basis: Determining the situations when the conditions of expeditious implementation have certainly not been met is very often quite obvious.

If national resources are insufficient to meet positive obligations states are required to turn to the other states’ parties (and their assistance and co-operation). What happens if the necessary co-operation is denied by other states parties? In what sense is such co-operation obligatory? These “extraterritorial” human rights obligations of the other states parties will be dealt with in sections 3.6 and 3.7.

FAQ: The resources available to a society depend for example on its economic gross national product. Does this not imply an obligation to economic growth?

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Reply: No, obligations always work with available resources. Human rights do not call for growth. Economic growth will not in itself make resources available for the implementation of obligations under human rights. For most practical purposes, however, nowadays human rights can be implemented on the basis of existing resources, and therefore have to be undertaken immediately.

Questions for Discussion

3.1* Which types of states obligations under a human right apply if the related human standard is enjoyed (attained). Which type, if it does not exist?

3.2* Can you think of situations, where the ultimate monopoly of power in a territory is not with a nation state? Who will then carry the obligations under human rights.

3.3* In recent years some states have contracted their budgetary (as percentage of resources available in society) and then pleaded inability to meet certain obligations-to-fulfil. Can this plea be accepted?

3.2 Obligation to respect

An obligation to respect requires states not to destroy an existing and already enjoyed human standard of vulnerable individuals or groups. This means that states have to refrain from all acts which would destroy individuals’ or groups’ human standards recognized in the International Bill of Human Rights. The obligation refers to the activities of all states' authorities, may they be part of the executive, the legislative or the judiciary, may they be national authorities or international authorities like intergovernmental organisations.

Police forces torturing detainees or forcibly evicting persons who have no place to go would be examples for the executive aspects. An example for the legislative aspect would be a law appropriating the territory of an indigenous group for a military shooting range without securing the group's economic, social and cultural survival. Another example is a law making a wife's work outside the home dependent on the consent of the husband thereby destroying her possibility to freely choose work.

In a number of projects related to colonialism, development or globalization, states (both nationally and internationally) have been dispossessing and marginalizing groups in order to pave the way for the interests of dominant elites. Here we may think of the massive displacements during colonialism or more recently related to huge dam projects - or to the dismantling of social security provisions, basic health care or education programmes under structural adjustment programmes “adjusting” Southern states to the interests of global business promoted by the World Bank and the IMF.

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We may also think of the active co-operation of police, military or secret service with paramilitary groups or private armies destroying people's personal security or physical integrity as a breach of respect-bound obligations under the human rights in question.

Even if the ultimate destruction is carried out by private entities (legally speaking - by third parties), like settlers, oil companies or private armies, the active co-operation in such destructive acts including the introduction of legislation allowing for the destruction of people's human standards amounts to a breach of respect-bound legislation as it has an active role in the destruction of the basic human standards recognized by human rights.

Questions for Discussion

3.4 Go through the cases in section 1.2 and pinpoint as exactly as you can the states authorities with a states' obligation under a human right.

3.5 Consider the 5 cases of section 1.2. Identify obligations-to-respect that were breached in these cases.

3.6 Full rehabilitation is a states' activity restoring a human standard after its destruction: Full rehabilitation therefore means the transfer from one way of attaining a human standard to another situation where the human rights standard is satisfied but in a different manner. Do you think that in a situation of full rehabilitation the respect-bound obligation has been breached? Do you think that a displacement and resettlement in case 5 of section 1.2 could lead to full rehabilitation?

3.3 Obligation to protect

Human rights are a relation between vulnerable individuals/groups (first party) and the states (second party). Protection-bound obligations are all obligations bound to protect the human standards of vulnerable individuals and groups against destruction by third parties. So far we have dealt with respect-bound obligations and found that these include the obligations not to destroy the human standard through the exclusive action of the states' executive authorities - but also not to actively participate or facilitate the destruction by third parties. The obligation to protect the human standards means something different, of course, than simply not participating or facilitating in a destruction. Protection means the active prevention of such destruction.

For the victims it does not make too much of a difference whether they have been victimized by a state authority or by some third party. Consider a person beaten up by a policemen or by his/her neighbours. Whether their human standard (like personal security) has been destroyed by a state authority or by their neighbour, may only differ in the degree of complication to get remedy. Indirectly, human rights do not only affect the states (states and vulnerable individuals/groups being the two parties involved in human rights) but also third parties - that is fellow citizens, employers

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Part I – The Basic Concepts of Human Rights etc.. States are under a duty to protect people from destruction of their human standard by a third party - for example through legislating to this effect: Beating up a neighbour breaches national law almost everywhere: It is a crime. If a state did not legislate to this effect, it could not be seen as a breach of a state's criminal law, but still as a crime against human rights, since human rights - through their obligation to protect - give states the duty to make such acts a crime. Through the obligation to protect (human standards), human rights establish the destruction of another person's or group's human standard as a crime to be persecuted and possibly prevented, by states. This obligation to protect obviously strongly affects third parties.

The right to equitable conditions of work or the right to strike (Art. 7 and 8 of CESCR) for example would be largely devoid of content if the state would only be obliged to deal with it only as far as its own employees were concerned. The human standards of persons working in the private market sector could be ignored without any state responsibility being touched. Similarly the right to freedom from slavery is not meant only to prevent states from taking slaves but also to prevent others from doing so. The states' protection-bound obligation follows from the generality of the human standard and the rights formulated, and is in particular implied by the text of the covenants where these rights are clearly declared to pertain to "everyone".

Due to the respect-bound obligations under the human right to personal security, police must not beat up or kill persons. Now, protection-bound obligations under the same human rights make it a duty for the police to protect individuals against being beaten up or killed by others. The police simply standing by in situations of persons being maltreated or robbed would violate the right to personal security.

In these times of globalisation of markets and trade this obligation becomes particularly important at an international level for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. Globalisation of markets implies an increasingly open access for transnational corporations to national resources, lands, markets and labour force. The states are therefore faced with new obligations to prevent the destruction of people's access to work, to equitable working conditions, to land and other productive resources to feed themselves.

This implies both legislative measures and executive procedures of various kinds, like legislation to protect consumers against harmful food products. Let us recall the case of breast-milk substitutes and their impact on babies' access to adequate food under conditions of poverty and lack of hygiene, let us think of the need to protect labour rights or womens’ rights etc.. The same applies to the protection of vulnerable groups like the landless, to maintain their access to food or food producing resources. Laws and executive procedures for protection of land rights of indigenous populations are relevant here as well as legislation to prevent local fishing or hunting grounds from being taken away.

Questions for Discussion

3.7 Consider the five cases of section 1.2. Identify obligations-to-protect that were breached in these cases.

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3.8 If a man is beaten up by policemen this is a violation of a human right. If the man is beaten up by some private persons, this is not a violation of human rights, but a crime - or a crime against human rights. Explain.

3.4 Obligation to fulfil

The obligations to respect and protect the human standard deal with situations where the beneficiaries do currently enjoy this human standard, but where it is under a threat to be destroyed. The states' obligation to fulfil the human right standard refers to persons who are deprived of this standard (for example by not having a fair trial, or by lacking access to health care). These states' obligations are bound to fulfil the human standard in the sense of taking appropriate measures to make sure that the human standard is attained: States have to provide remedies to address a faulty trial. States have to guarantee adequate health care for those who currently don't have access to it. This does not mean that states have to provide these services necessarily themselves. Health care need not to be provided by state nurses or state hospitals. States, however, have to make the resources available if necessary and have to give a legal guarantee for those groups otherwise deprived of a fair trial or health care or other human standards recognized by human rights. Therefore states ultimately have to be the providers of last resort (as far as the human standards are concerned) and have to maintain a corresponding infrastructure.

FAQ: Why is this type of obligations not called obligation to provide (the human standard), as this is what states ultimately have to do.

Reply: The reason is for the term fulfil instead of provide is to avoid the misunderstanding that general states’ provisions are always called for. The obligation refers to deprived persons only: Access to food, for example, must only be provided by the state to those who lack this access. There is no states obligation to provide food to everybody, including those who already enjoy the access to food. There may be good reasons for general provisions (such as public education, public health care, basic income and other programmes). Such general provisions must be shown to be a better (or even the only) type of programmes that guarantees the human standard of the deprived.

FAQ: Sometimes a difference is made between the obligation to fulfil(facilitate) and the obligation to fulfil(provide). Are you missing fulfil(facilitate)?

Reply: Subdividing the obligation to fulfil unnecessarily complicates matters: To facilitate means “to make things easier”. If the state’s facilitation guarantees that the human standard is attained, then the state essentially provides fulfilment, and no new category is necessary. If the state’s facilitation, however, only increases the chances for deprived persons to enjoy their human standard, then there is no guarantee for their human standard and we cannot talk any longer about a human right. Fulfil(facilitate) can be seen as pointing to the fact that deprived people normally have to take action to make the state enforce its guarantees. This,

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however, is true for the other categories of states obligations, as well. It will be considered in detail in chapter 4.

One example is the situation of the landless in many parts of the world, persons both without access to land and to sufficient work and therefore deprived of adequate food, housing etc.: If individuals or groups in agriculture do not have access to land or to work, and are not able to feed themselves, the State has the human rights obligation to provide access to productive resources (like land) or to jobs., for example by implementing an agrarian reform (art. 11 of CESCR: right to food, Art.6: right to work), so that landless people can earn their living (and thereby also enjoy adequate food). Fulfilling access to work will automatically secure an adequate standard of living for those who realize their right to work.

This example shows one important aspect of positive states obligations and in particular for fulfilment-bound obligations: States enjoy a certain level of discretion in choosing how to secure the human standard. If states can secure alternative employment outside agriculture and the landless are willing to accept this work, the state has met its fulfilment-bound obligation. Peasants, however landless, often want to remain peasants. Under art.6 (work can be freely chosen) states have to take this into account when designing their agricultural policies. Other landless people may want to move to the cities to find a job there.

In urban contexts, especially of highly industrialized countries, special minimum income programmes are necessary for many persons to secure an adequate standard of living - in particular in a situation of rising unemployment.

In some situations there is a certain flexibility of being able to choose different sets of policy or programme measures to address a situation of deprivation. This, however, must never be misused for the purpose of not taking any measures at all or to delay the measures.

Similar fulfilment-bound obligations have to be met with respect to civil and political rights: When an individual doesn't have the means to pay an advocate in court, the State has the obligation to pay such an advocate in order to secure a fair trial.

Terms for Review obligations to respect, protect, fulfil

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Questions for Discussion

3.9 Describe an obligation to fulfil under the right to education. (Think of alphabetization). What about the question of resources? How will you determine if a state meets its obligation to fulfil?

3.10*Describe an obligation to fulfil under the right to political participation. (Think of women's right to vote).

3.11 Consider the five cases of section 1.2. Identify obligations-to-fulfil that were breached in these cases.

3.12* You will have noted that we use the term breach for a failure to meet an obligation under a human right - something equivalent to a violation of this right - without asking whether this act or omission occurred intentionally or not. Do you think this is fair? Why?

3.5 Obligations of authorities and institutions

The State or the Community of States are highly abstract entities (“systems of governance”, see section 1.1): For most practical purposes, when dealing with “States” a vulnerable person deals with states’ authorities – organisations led by states at different levels (several states together, a single nation state, federal states of a nation state, or one of its municipalities). States exercise their obligations by way of such authorities, and states do not lose their obligations while operating through authorities. Such authorities could be governments, local police offices, high courts, or intergovernmental organisations.

A. Violations by authorities

So far we have said that only states can violate human rights, as only states carry obligations under human rights. An authority may be part of a state, but it is not the state. An act or omission of an authority (states’ agent or organ) is usually immediately carried over to the governing state or states through the following principle: An act or omission of authorities are violations of human rights, if the state or states would have violated the right, by ordering, decreeing or passing a law on which the authorities’ activities were based. Whether or not such a law, decree or order actually exists is of secondary importance for attributing a violation to an authority.

This definition allows human rights workers to call an act/omission of a states’ authority of violation of a human right (by the states’ authority), even if it may not be clear yet, whether states ordered this act or omission or whether the authority acted on its own. States therefore have to exercise due diligence to prevent such acts or omissions.

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B. National and international obligations

Over the past fifty years the importance of organisations of states (such as the EU) or intergovernmental organisations (such as the IMF) has increased to such an extent, that measures formerly taken exclusively through national authorities have increasingly been delegated to international authorities – thereby turning some “national obligations” (obligations exercised through national authorities) into “international obligations” (obligations exercised through international authorities).

The old paradigm of the world as a set of nation states with some limited interaction between authorities/firms/citizens has been changing into a new paradigm, where international institutions (often with a surprizing lack of democratic legitimacy and accountability) have gained considerable influence due to the growing power of transnational corporations and globalised business, and the global nature of problems such as sustainability and peace.

States have an impact upon persons/groups through their own national authorities or (increasingly) through international authorities (this being true both for persons at home and abroad). States do not lose their human rights obligations when acting (through national authorities or) through international authorities such as intergovernmental organisations. This is obvious in the case of national authorities. It tends to be forgotten, however, in the case of intergovernmental institutions.

Whereas there are institutional mechanisms to deal with violations of human rights by national authorities, there is very little to this effect when it comes to international authorities. Given the increasing importance of international authorities, this poses a threat to the implementation of human rights altogether. In fact, human rights run a risk of getting marginalized in intergovernmental organisations. Many acts/omissions of intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) impact directly or indirectly (through effecting states possibilities to meet their obligations) on the human rights of victimized groups. World Bank and IMF instigated states via structural adjustment programmes to violate human rights through retrogressive social measures. Many weaker individual states have difficulties to enforce human rights against destructive activities of TNCs. These tendencies have increased through globalization. The focus of debate therefore is operational as much as it is legal: How can states in community find ways to exercise their human rights obligations through international authorities? This question will be dealt with in section 3.7.

C. Obligations towards persons abroad

An increasingly important issue is the question of states obligations towards persons outside a state’s territory. They are sometimes called “extraterritorial obligations” and will be dealt with in sections 3.6 and 3.7. Such obligations can be exercised through national or international authorities. This gives rise to another threefold typology of states obligations (besides respect-protect-fulfil): Internal, external and international obligations.

• Internal obligations are exercised through national authorities towards persons inside the state’s territory – no matter whether they are nationals or not

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• External obligations are exercised through national authorities towards persons outside the state’s territory.

• International obligations are exercised through international authorities such as states acting on the board of the World Bank.

A state exercises an external protect-bound obligation, if it introduces sanctions against sex-tourists abusing children abroad. A state exercises an international respect-bound obligation, if it tries to prevent (through its directors on the board of the World Bank) a dam project which will displace people without proper rehabilitation and compensation.

FAQ: Do international authorities carry international obligations?

Reply: By definition international obligations are carried by states individually and through international co-operation. A violation by an international authority is an act or omission, which would involve the leading states in breaches of their international obligations. As this must be avoided, international authorities must be seen as carrying obligations. It may be confusing to refer to these obligations as “international obligations”. They can simply be referred to as the institutional obligations of the respective authority.

Terms for Review

Violations by authorities, national and international obligations, internal and external obligations, institutional obligations

Questions for Discussion

3.13 What is meant by an authority in the current context?

3.14 When can one talk about an authority violating a human right? What is an institutional obligation?

3.15 Describe: National and international obligations, internal and external obligations.

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3.6 External obligations

A. External respect-bound obligations

What are the options of a victim seeking remedy against a breach of an external respect-bound obligation? This question is not sufficiently answered by pointing to the victim state’s national obligation to protect. Yes, the victim’s states may also have breached its obligation in this context. The victim should expect from her state to become active and provide remedy as it failed in its protect-bound obligation. In a second step the domestic state may then approach the destructive foreign state for compensation. For a number of reasons, this will be rather unlikely. The need, therefore, remains for ways and means of the victim to approach the foreign state directly (in court or otherwise), in particular, if her own state fails to provide remedy and compensation.

Situations in which these obligations are relevant include active support by a foreign state agency for the destruction of livelihoods of vulnerable groups, trans-border water issues such as dams withholding water from flowing into neighbouring countries. For development co-operation this means first of all that projects must not destroy the human standards of persons abroad. And if so, the victims should eventually be in a position to sue the donor country.

An example is provided by the Canadian development agency CIDA in the case of the Barabaig in Tanzania. In the period from 1970 to the mid-1990’s the Tanzanian National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) carried out a wheat project on 46.000 ha of land of the nomadic Barabaig people, against their expressed will and interest. This particular stretch of land was crucial for the survival of the nomadic tribe. The tribe was deprived of its traditional land rights. CIDA was actively supporting this wheat project failing to respect the Barabaigs’ access to food and food producing resources.

B. External obligations to protect and to co-operate in protection

What about a person’s human standard abroad being destroyed by a third party. There are basically two situations depending on the nature of that third party:

If the destructive third party is a states authority, the destructive act is a breach of respect-bound obligations and hence a violation of human rights. Can a foreign state be expected to protect the victim for example by preventing a breach by the victim’s state or another foreign state? For most practical purposes this goes beyond what a state can do, as it means direct and adverse interference with acts of foreign or international states authorities. Canada, for example, would have had problems to protect welfare mothers in the USA against being deprived of their unconditional right to food in the US welfare reform.

If the destructive agent is a private party, adversarial action towards other states is not required. Protective action may be obligatory, at least in those cases where the destructive private party is a citizen or corporation of the foreign country. A European country may have to exercise its external obligation to protect children’s rights in an

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Asian country, by prosecuting sex-tourists through “extraterritorial application” of the respective European law. If a trans-national corporation with seat in state A destroys access to food in a country B (for example by forced evictions), this crime against human rights is to be considered punishable under the legal systems of A even if the state B does not intervene. If dumping is practised in international trade by an industry of A against a vulnerable group in country B and this group would lose its access to food as a consequence, this crime against the right to food is to be considered punishable in A even if country B does not intervene. In the case of transnational corporations or international trade, experience shows that sometimes neither the corporation’s home state nor the victim’s state meet their obligations to protect.

A case in point are the activities of transnational oil corporations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where they destroy the indigenous peoples’ territories and ecological resources on which these communities depend to feed themselves. In the past the Ecuadorian government has been unwilling – and partially perhaps also unable – to meet its internal obligation to protect the indigenous peoples’ economic, social and cultural rights in the Amazon. The home states of TNCs sometimes claim that such social questions are to be regulated by the state of the victims.

State A could claim that its intervention against “its” transnational corporation is an insufficient and futile measure to protect the victim because the same project could and would otherwise be carried out by another corporation from a different state (perhaps a non-state party to the covenant). In such situations A’s obligation to internationally co-operate in the protection of persons outside its territory requires that joint action be taken with other states parties in the context of an international authority which would have the capacity to regulate at least the transnational corporations of states parties and perhaps even the others as well. Hence in some of these situations there is an international obligation to protect, as external obligations to protect would not be sufficient to meet A’s protect-bound obligations under the Covenant, because it can perhaps directly constrain its own TNC’s operations in a foreign country, but not the operation of TNCs from other countries. This problem needs a multilateral solution through international institutions. Each state can be seen under an international obligation to create such multilateral protective procedures and institutions.

Another issue is the question of a foreign state’s obligation to co-operate with the victims’ state in protecting the victim. In most cases there may be some kind of protective effort by this state to protect the victim against a destructive private party. Any act of a foreign state which would undermine or inhibit such activities of the victims’ state is a breach of the external obligation to protect and to co-operate in protection.

C. External obligations to fulfil and co-operate in fulfilment

Fulfil-bound obligations make demands on the deployment of resources – domestic and others. States can be seen under an external obligation to contribute to the maximum of their available resources. Would this generate a legal claim of a person in a low-income state B to international transfers from a high income state A? Such an approach is not a promising concept in the context of fulfil-bound obligations - at least

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Part I – The Basic Concepts of Human Rights when the result should be justiciable: A deprived person will find it difficult to claim fulfilment as an obligation from - say Germany, but not from the UK, or vice versa - even if both states had the resources to do so: Such obligations need to be basically the same for all states. This holds true for the obligation to co-operate in fulfilment as well. Why should Sweden be duty-bound to assist in fulfilment, whereas Canada is not? Therefore such fulfil-bound obligations have to be mainly dealt with as international obligations.

3.7 International obligations

International Obligations are states obligations exercised through international authorities. Accordingly there are three types of international obligations.

A. International respect-bound obligations

What is left to do for somebody victimised by a breach of an international respect- bound obligation? There is a growing number of complaints to this effect against – for example – the international financial institutions. One of the most prominent one’s was the Narmada dam project, where massive displacement without proper rehabilitation was co-financed by the World Bank. The Bank, in response to an internal report (the Morse report) validating the claims, introduced an “inspection panel”. The related procedures, however, are both insufficient and outside the human rights structure.

Another example is the dumping of EU beef on the markets of vulnerable nomadic producers in Burkina Faso in 1993. The Burkina beef markets are essential for the vulnerable nomadic producers’ right to feed themselves. In 1993 highly subsidised beef from the EU surpluses was dumped on these markets depriving the Sahel nomads from their means to trade their main product (beef) against essentials from the Southern regions. The EU through its subsidies was actively involved in this destructive process leading to hunger and malnutrition. International pressure made the EU abandon the dumping of beef in this region.

International organisations are jointly governed by states according to certain rules of weighed voting. If a complaint is made about the organisation destroying a person’s/group’s human standard, the issue could be voted on by the governing body and decided jointly – just as a complaint in a domestic case is revised by the leading national authority – the government. If the complaint is valid, a state on the governing board of the international authority has to take a corrective vote, just as if the authority had been a national authority – simply because the state remains under the human rights obligation to respect - even in the context of international organisations. If such a joint corrective vote fails because some states voted against corrective action, these states violated the respective human right. This, however, cannot be presumed as states have to act in good faith, for this matter, international organisations can be seen “duty-bound” under human rights, just as national organisations are.

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States must be held accountable for their breaches of international obligations. If the destructive act was based on a vote in the governing body – those states who voted in favour are jointly and separately responsible, and the victim should be able to approach them individually and jointly. If the destructive act was not based on a vote, a victim must have some means to approach the governing community of state’s in order to find redress, as those are expected to prevent such destructive acts. This implies the need for some collective human rights mechanisms in the governing bodies of international authorities which allows them to act jointly in providing remedy upon being approached by victims or courts.

N agencies involve member states in breaches of international obligations (and thereby violate human rights), if they are involved in large scale evictions and other ill-conceived and counter-productive development projects. Similarly, international financial institutions promoting measures of structural adjustment which compromise the enjoyment of social rights involve states in breaches of international respect- bound obligations.

B. International protect-bound obligations and the obligation to co-operate in protection

Confronted with globalisation, states may find out that they are unable to meet their external (and even sometimes their internal) obligations and that the need for effective duty-bound international authorities arises – which can be controlled to meet states’ international obligations. One case in point is the international debt crisis and the related international protect-bound obligations. International measures to deal with the debt crisis should take full account of the need to protect economic, social and cultural standards against being dismantled by the state under the guidance of international authorities.

The nature of co-operation and the delineation of responsibilities between different national and international authorities to protect remains unclear. One would certainly expect that all authorities involved will act in good faith and would even try to implement their obligation to protect if they are faced with failures to do so by other authorities. This, however, may not help the victims, who need more clarity as to how much protection of economic, social and cultural human standards is incumbent on national authorities, and how to deal with different national, foreign and international authorities possibly blaming each other. The best way to deal with this lack of clarity is to establish international human rights complaints procedure and adjudication which involves international obligations.

C. International Fulfil-Bound Obligations

Fulfil-bound obligations are often trapped between the nation state and the international community. And it is the victims of related breaches who suffer in this trap: Who will pay how much for the obligatory programmes? Where does the international obligation end – and where does the internal obligation start – or vice- versa? The result is a situation where the available resources are not deployed - neither internationally nor nationally, with a convenient excuse to blame the other side.

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An example from Zambia to illustrate the case in point: In Zambia more than 70% of the population live below the poverty line of 1 international dollar per day. Perhaps 25% of the population live with an income less than 30 international cents. A programme to provide for the most needy and incapacitated 10% of the population food (equivalent to some 30 international cent a day) would amount to 16 million USD – roughly 0,5 percent of Zambia's GNP. A programme to provide this transfer to all those living below the 30 cents line would then cost 1,25 per cent of the GNP. There will, however, be persons above the 30 cents line who are nevertheless constantly threatened to fall below the 30 cents line. In order to really guarantee access to adequate food for all, one might have to cover 50% of the population with this programme – at a cost of 2,5% of the GNP.

According to the UN, programmes providing food or income must exist for all those who cannot access sufficient food otherwise: This, however, is certainly the case if a person cannot rely on 30 international cents a day. Each of these persons can be seen to have a valid claim against the Zambian state and/or the international community of states parties.

The obligation to fulfil implies therefore an obligatory programme to provide the food needs for the persons and groups mentioned. Zambia runs a Public Welfare Assistance Scheme (PWAS) which is the only programme which could qualify in this context. Can Zambia be expected to involve 2,5% of its GNP in such a programme? If not, how much can be expected from Zambia and how much would then fall on the international community, who is duty-bound to address the valid claims of the victims through „international assistance and co-operation“ (ICESCR 2.1)?

A comparable programme in Northern welfare states (like „Sozialhilfe“ in Germany) amounts to 1% of its GNP. Zambia, however, has budgeted just 3 million USD to PWAS – some 0.09% of its GNP. Zambia is duty-bound to deploy the maximum of available resources. Can one expect that Zambia should reach 1% of its GNP – or more? And how about the 2,5%? Is this beyond the maximum of available resources? Are there budgetary demands which may be legitimately competing with these 2,5%? The foreign debt of Zambia is 181% of its GNP, incoming ODA is 11,4%. Is ODA to be used to co-finance such programmes? Faced with concurrent demands on its budget Zambia might argue that if international co-operation does not supply for social transfers, why should Zambia? The individual states in the international community, however, tend to see this as Zambia’s task: Why should the EU pay for such programmes, if the USA does not – and vice versa. This situation of impasse will probably only be overcome though intergovernmental organisations and the related international obligations as a general framework for international social transfers.

Some of the reluctance of OECD countries towards victims’ legal claims under external fulfil-bound obligation could be related to the arbitrariness involved when dealing with fulfilment-bound obligations on a bilateral level ? (see section 3.6.C). The second reason, perhaps, is the OECD countries’ reluctance to support non- existing or failing domestic fulfilment systems in foreign countries by transferring funds to the respective states without proper control over the use made. The third reason, of course, is lack of clarity about cost.

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Each of these points could be taken care of by international authorities. The question of possible international or national misuse of funds can be addressed by full and transparent co-operation of international authorities and national authorities in the implementation of the respective fulfilment-bound programmes – and, in particular, by introducing remedy procedures, including legal ones, for victims of failing or missing fulfilment programmes. Even for the third point (sharing of cost between international and national authorities) there are proposals for fair settlements which could be used for standard setting to operationalize international as well as internal fulfil-bound obligations.

Questions of Discussion

3.16 Most of the human rights work so far has dealt with internal obligations. Do you believe that international authorities can be made democratic and transparent enough so that they can take over the functions outlined in this section? What would you suggest?

3.17* How could a fair settlement for international financial co-operation in fulfilment programmes look like?

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4. Towards the Full Realisation of Human Rights

4.1 Implementation and enforcement

A. Implementation

The great vision of the human rights movement is the full realisation of human rights. In order to understand realisation we have to understand implementation, justiciability and enforcement of human rights as well.

The implementation of a human right is something done by states - even if such action is normally not taken without being pushed for by civil society: By “implementation” states provide the implements (instruments, tools) to exercise their obligations - to respect, protect and to fulfil. Examples for such instruments are laws to defend the human standard against third parties - or against the state itself. Implementation can mean carrying out specific programmes for sharing income and resources and securing an adequate standard of living for those who are deprived - or implementation can mean a prison reform. All these programmes are essentially to be used by the beneficiaries. Without such implementation, states cannot meet their obligations. Therefore, missing implementation or irregularities in implementation, which make states fail in an obligation, are violations of human rights.

Parts of the human rights community use implementation sometimes in a slightly different sense: The state is said to “implement a human right” when it stops its violations of this right. Since implementation in our sense addresses states’ failures so far to meet certain positive obligations which need specific programme measures (and hence stop the corresponding violations), this second notion of implementation includes ours. In addition, however, this second notion refers to states activities which immediately (on the basis of existing laws, orders and programmes) address threats of deprivation - activities that we would rather call “enforcement of a human right”.

In any event - implementation and enforcement are activities of states. Nevertheless, civil society often has to work hard to move states towards implementation and to make sure that these “implements” are also enforced.

B. Enforcement

The enforcement of a human right has two different meanings: The enforcement of human standards and the enforcement of human rights law:

The enforcement of a human standard is the states' act of meeting its obligation to respect, protect and fulfil it in a concrete case at hand: In obligations-to-protect and obligations-to-fulfil this may include the use of coercive measures by the state (like deploying the police or collecting taxes).

The enforcement of human rights law means that states do actually enforce their laws, rules and programmes that implement the human right in question. Human rights law must not remain on paper: It has to be carried out by the states' executive power

FIAN International 49 g32e The Road to Freedom correcting the authority who violates the human right law in question. In some states even the rulings of the courts on human rights cases are not always executed if the ruling is against states authorities or vested interests.

It is true that implementation is an important prerequisite for the enforcement of human standards - at least in a state under the rule of law. On the other hand, without enforcement of human rights law the implementation of a human right will not be very helpful for its realisation, as the "implements" may be ineffective.

4.2 Justiciability

Do you recall the third key element of human rights from section 2.1 - states’ duty to respect, protect and fulfill the human standard justiciably?

Justiciability is a rather tricky concept. What do states have to do to meet their obligations justiciably? In the full sense it means, that states provide court procedures which allow all victims to address violations (breaches of states obligations) and find remedy. If states do, the case is fully justiciable, if not, it is not. Hence justiciability of a case is first of all a matter of the state and how it operates - much more so than a matter of the right in question.

A specific violation of a human right is “justiciable”, if it can be dealt with in court, and the court usually provides effective remedy. An obligation can be called justiciable, if all breaches of this obligation are justiciable - and a human right is justiciable, if all violations of this right are justiciable.

Whether or not a violation of a right is justiciable depends largely on the degree of legal implementation - and hence on the legal system of a state - but also on its judges and whether or not they apply human rights law where it exists.

Moreover some people consider varying degrees of justiciability of a case, of an obligation or a right - depending on the type of judicial or even quasi-judicial procedures (ombudsmen, right to petition etc.).

Justiciability has been one of the ideological battle-fields in the history of economic, social and cultural rights, as some people held that those rights failed by their very nature to be justiciable - as if there was a law of nature which made it impossible to effectively adjudicate economic and social human rights. This claim was often made using the simplistic understanding of justiciability mentioned above: Instead of saying that there are cases linked to these rights, which cannot be settled in court on the mere basis of these rights” - which is correct and in fact true for most other rights as well, the claim tries to pretend that this is a specific deficit of economic and social rights and excludes them from the realm of “real rights”.

One can, of course, look at this issue from a “positivist” point of view: Rights are what the state practices. And since states operate for the short-sighted interests of the rich there are no justiciable economic and social rights - hence they are not really rights. Such a position, of course, is contrary to the very concept of human rights,

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For those, who take human rights seriously, the issue is somewhat more complicated. These conceptual problems, however, have been solved during the past decades - largely by understanding that the issues at hand are not really issues of a specific type of rights, but of specific types of obligations. These obligations are inherent to all types of human rights and it can be analysed, how their justiciability is dealt with in well-tested fields such as civil or political rights. This understanding helped to return from ideological debate to legal discussion and strengthened the indivisibility of human rights.

The contested issue is usually not refering to the “right” itself, but to its fulfilment- bound obligations. As soon as one gets into issues of “fulfilment” one is faced by a resource problem which may, of course, prevent the court from providing effective remedy in such cases and hence making the cases at hand not immediately justiciable - no matter whether one deals with a social right, like the right to food, or a right that is traditionally seen as a civil right such as freedom from torture. Even in the case of a fair trial there may be a resource problem hindering fulfilment: If the court system and judiciary would have to be totally overhauled to provide fair trials, this would cost quite a bit.

Problems in justiciability of obligations-to-fulfil do not arrise with properly budgeted fulfilment programmes, but with cases where such programmes are missing. For such cases the court may decide that the state is in breach and direct the state to introduce such types of programmes as soon as possible. This is all the remedy that a court may provide – but nothing more can be expected from the court in cases of obligations-to- fulfil: Justiciability of those obligations does not require the court to end deprivation, but to end violation – in our our case breaches of obligations-to-fulfil. The violation of the right to food of a hungry person, for example, is not the fact that she his hungry, but that the states (and/or the international community) failed to introduce the respective fulfilment programmes. The remedy of the court would therefore not consist in providing food for the hungry claimant, but in making the states introduce such programmes as quickly as possible and to the maximum of available resources. Whether or not the executive and legislative powers will follow the court’s ruling will determine whether the claimant obtains effective remedy (and the violation was justiciable). This, however, is not different from court rulings in general.

FAQ: Why did you call (in key element 3) justiciability just a duty and not an obligation?

Reply: The reason is to distinguish between substantial and formal duties: The obligation to respect is a substantial duty (sometimes called “primary norm”) as it directly deals with the human standard. Justiciability is a formal duty (sometimes called “secondary norm”) because it deals not with human standards, but with obligations and breaches. If justiciability was seen itself as an obligation, then a lack of justiciability for breaches of certain obligations to respect, protect or fulfil, would be seen as violations of the related human right (as all other breaches of obligations under a human right). The approach taken here is to reserve the term violation (and hence obligation) to substantial

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matters rather than procedural one’s. This is for reasons of clarity, and not to deny the great importance of justiciability.

4.3 Realisation

The realisation of a human right is the act of a beneficiary, who makes a state or the community of states meet their obligations under this right. If you feel that you lack a fair trial, or adequate social security, you can take certain measures (ultimately perhaps going to court) to make sure that the states fulfils a fair trial or social security. So the active part here is first of all the beneficiary.

In this process the human standard of the beneficiary may be respected, protected or fulfilled as the case may be so that the result of this process is the enjoyment of this human standard by the beneficiary. The term "realisation" should not be used for "somehow" securing one's human standard, but should be used precisely for obtaining this result by using the instruments available to make states meet their obligations. The provision of such instruments by the states is called "implementation".

Take for example the right to social security. If you are unable to sustain yourself but someone in your extended family offers you a pension and you accept, then you have secured your human standard, but you have not realized your right to social security. In order to realize your right to social security you would have to make use of a state's mechanism (programme, procedure) providing you with guaranteed social security payments.

FAQ: What difference does it make whether a human standard has been attained by charity or by programmes with state-guarantee? What counts is the result.

Reply: In order to safeguard human rights, we have to avoid the inflationary misuse of human rights language: The realisation of a human right is in fact different from the satisfaction of one's human standard: A woman eating three square meals a day is not "realizing her human right to food". She is simply eating enough, that's all. And while having access to food, it does not make a much of a difference how the food was obtained. The human standard, however is only part of the story of human rights - it is only one of the three key elements.

The most important term is full realisation. Full realisation describes the aim of human rights: Human rights are meant to be fully realised. The full realisation of a human right is achieved if three prerequisites are met:

1. The justiciable implementation of the right, i.e. the availability of legal and other procedures ready for use by the beneficiary to realize this right for himself or herself; 2. The accessibility of such procedures to everybody whose right is threatened. Everybody is encouraged and enabled to use these procedures; 3. The enjoyment of the corresponding human standard is attained for everyone who wants to.

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Point 3 is immediate: If the right to freedom from hunger is “fully realized”, then nobody must go hungry (except perhaps those who are on a fast, who are ascetics or masochists). Nevertheless, this is not sufficient: Just as much as “eating food” may satisfy the human standard, but does not refer to any relationship to others, let alone the state, and hence has little to do with realising the human right to food. Without the first two points (which describe the situation of "full implementation"), however, the aspect of the human right as a true right would be lost.

Why is point 1 important? Imagine a country where the respective human standard (say: freedom from torture) is enjoyed by everyone: Everybody who is not a masochist enjoys freedom from torture. What will happen if somebody (states or third parties) want to torture a certain person or group? Are there any secure procedures to prevent this from happening (or at least provide quick remedy) and make the state respect, protect and fulfil the right to freedom of torture? This can be a matter of life and death and has to be secured, if we want to talk about the full realisation of a human right.

How about point 2? Implementation procedures can only be of use, if they are known and accessible to people and if people don't feel deterred to use them. Many citizens may suffer deprivation despite the laws, because they do not know how to make use of the provisions of the law and the respective procedures. Therefore, the states must inform and educate the citizens about their rights.

Quite often procedures do exist, but are used only by a few: If the cost of litigation are very high and thereby exclude potential beneficiaries, you cannot talk about the full realisation of a right even if the legislation exists. Moreover, if a society entertains the prejudice that recipients of social security are "undeserving failures", "lazy-bones" etc., or if beneficiaries are treated in a disrespectful way by the competent authorities, deprived persons may be deterred from realizing their right to an adequate standard of living. In this situation we cannot talk about the full realisation of the right, even if - by some lucky coincidence - nobody needs social security for the moment. This shows the importance of point 2.

Questions for Discussion

4.1 Who implements human rights, who realises them and who enforces them? Explain the role of the different actors (beneficiaries, states, civil society) in realisation, implementation and enforcement.

4.2* Explain the term full implementation. Is the full implementation of a state obligation under a human right something that has to be done by the beneficiary or by the state?

4.3 What is the role of civil society in the implementation of a human right.

4.4 Which are the three conditions for the full realisation of a human right? How is the full realisation related to full implementation?

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4.5 If a state met its obligations-to-respect, -protect, or -fulfil due to its supreme moral qualities without any intervention by beneficiaries, would you call this a full realization of human rights?

4.6 In what sense do implementation and realization determine the nature of human rights as rights - as opposed to human rights as mere rhetorical reinforcement of legitimate demands?

4.4 Non-discrimination and sustainability

Obligations tell states and the community of states what to do. Principles of obligations tell them how they have to do it. The most important human rights principle is non-discrimination.

A. Non-discrimination

The principle of non-discrimination in the implementation and enforcement of human rights emphasises the fact that everybody is entitled to the enjoyment of human standards irrespective of his or her colour, gender, religion, their ethnic, social or national origin, political or other opinion, property, birth or other status. The principle of non-discrimination prohibits distinctions, exclusions, restrictions and limitations in the execution of states obligations that are not based on the nature of the obligation.

Sometimes there are obvious distinctions in terms of target groups: They are easily identified as they are embodied in the respective human rights itself: Minority rights are for minorities. The protection of mothers is not for men. This is not to establish privileges but to overcome disadvantages.

States are requested to a) eliminate discrimination in implementation by abolishing without delay any discriminatory laws or regulations b) eliminate discrimination in enforcement by refraining from actually discriminatory practices in executing the generic obligation and the implementing laws and regulations.

Examples are instances of discriminatory legislation and/or practices that impede access to employment for certain groups like women, disabled, members of minority groups simply on the basis of their gender or other status, not by lack of capacity to perform the job.

The non-discrimination principle for women is emphasised in article 3 of the ICESCR to ensure the equality of women and men in the enjoyment of human rights. Although it somehow repeats the statement of article 2 which prohibits "discrimination of any kind as to race, colour or sex..." the presence of this article reflects the great concern of the United Nations with the question of gender equality.

B. Sustainability

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Many activities in the economic, social, cultural, civil or political fields obviously affect the human standards of future generations. Future generations are discriminated against: Their basic human standards are not respected or protected now, simply because they are still young or even unborn.

Examples for this type of discrimination would be decisions to introduce torture or to withdraw social security in 10 or 20 years of time. The implementation of human rights must be sustained now and also in future. Distinctions that will lead for example to the destruction of people's standards in the future are a violation of the respective human rights now - as much as those destroying the human standards almost immediately.

Policy measures and practices destroying the natural resources on which future generations' livelihoods depend are increasingly discussed, but continue not to be taken as for what they are: The present generation, and in particular its global leadership and global ruling class, marginalize future generations and jeopardize the lives of hundreds of millions of young or unborn human beings. Their human standards are not taken into consideration in today's states obligations for the simple reason that they are people of the future. This must be seen as a case of discrimination on the basis of generation - something prohibited under the human rights principle of non-discrimination.

There is a growing discussion about the responsibilities of present generations towards future generations concerning the preservation of natural resources - under the heading of sustainability. For this matter the general principle not to discriminate on the basis of generations could be called the human rights principle of sustainability. The sustainability principle is particularly important in the field of economic rights. If present agricultural policy measures destroy (or don't protect) the top soil and other food producing resources by promoting unsustainable agricultural practices, by allowing loss or pollution of fertile land and water resources, future generations may find themselves deprived of food producing resources.

The World Conference for Human Rights in Vienna 1993 has stated this principle implicitly in paragraph 11 of the Vienna Declaration as follows: "The right to development should be fulfilled so as to meet equitably the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations".

There has to be equity between present and future generations: This is another way to formulate the principle of sustainability - a consequence of the principle of non- discrimination. A judgement of the Supreme Court of the Philippines shows an application in law: A group of minors represented by the Philippine Ecological Network filed a suit to the Supreme Court of the Philippines against the pollution and destruction of the environment which constitutes their future means of subsistence. The court accepted their claim as legitimate and justified.

4.5 Ethics and human rights

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Human rights are sometimes mistaken as defining a system of ethics establishing interpersonal moral duties. This approach is mistaken on two accounts: First of all, human rights are not rights between persons, but of persons/groups against the state. Secondly, human rights are not defining a system of ethics but a system of states obligations to be implemented in law.

The first point has been touched upon several times before. In section 2.6 we found that we have to talk about crimes against human rights (and not about human rights violations) when a third party destroys a human standard, as a human right is not a relation between individuals: Whereas interpersonal ethics establishes moral duties for individuals, human rights put obligations on states and the community of states (or in borderline cases on state-like entities). The effect that human rights have on individuals' duties is through the states obligations, which are implemented in law, in particular through the obligation to protect: This obligation gives rise to legislation protecting other people's human standards against their fellow human beings, and makes it a crime to destroy human standards. This is why such destructive acts of third parties are called crimes against human rights, even if the respective law implementing the protection-bound states obligations does not yet exist.

Obviously the states' obligation to protect can only be effective if respect for the human standard (a standard to be protected by the state against destruction through third parties) is morally acceptable. The destruction of my neighbour's human standards should be prohibited in interpersonal ethics. Only then can it be forced on me and others by the states' obligation to protect this standard. Nevertheless the ethics of human rights are political ethics dealing with the nature and duties of states - and not interpersonal ethics. Political ethics and interpersonal ethics are clearly correlated, but must not be confused.

Seeing human rights as establishing interpersonal ethics is not a harmless error, but counter-productive to human rights for a number of reasons:

First: It takes the attention away from the accountability of states. Introducing this accountability has been a key function of human rights.

Second: The duties of third parties generated by human rights are not a system of ethics, but a system to be (legally) enforced by states.

Third: Taking the duties of third parties implied by human rights as a system of "global ethics" could invite the competition (and not the co-operation) of other systems of ethics. Human rights promote cultural and spiritual diversity instead of the imperialism of a super-ethics.

Fourth: A system of interpersonal ethics that derives duties from rights (as human rights do), instead of rights from duties (as is done by almost all philosophical or religious ethics), destroys the social fabric by being extremely individualistic and self- centred. Only for the relationship between individual and state, deriving (states) duties from (human) rights (and not the other way around) has been necessary to assure the accountability of the state in its unique regulatory role.

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Some systems of ethics have elements that are incompatible with human rights. In such a moral environment, human rights will have difficulties, unless these elements can be reformed. While insisting on a clear distinction between ethics and human rights, we underline the enormous role of political and interpersonal ethics for human rights: Political ethics is the horse that pulls the cart of human rights, and interpersonal ethics is the grain that feeds the horse. There are many different horses that can pull the cart - and there are many systems of political ethics compatible to human rights.

What makes a system of ethics compatible to human rights?

A system of interpersonal ethics is compatible to human rights, if it contains as moral duties - the duty to respect the human standards of other persons; and - the duty to try to protect and perhaps fulfil the human standards of other persons

A system of political ethics is compatible with human rights if it contains the moral duty to use the state and the community of states in order to provide the legal protection and fulfilment of the human standards of vulnerable groups and persons and if the state itself has to respect these standards in the process.

Questions for Discussion

4.7* Describe the difference between human rights and interpersonal or political ethics. Are ethical systems always meant to be implemented in law?

4.8 Discuss the four reasons given why the confusion of human rights and interpersonal ethics is counterproductive.

4.9 Does humanity need "world ethics"? Could human rights be a foundation of such ethics?

4.10 Discuss what makes a system of ethics compatible to human rights.

4.11 Is there something like Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Moslem political ethics? Can you describe for each of these faiths different schools of religious political ethics that are compatible to human rights?

4. 12. Which are the two notions that frequently get identified in lax language? Explain their difference.

4. 13 Describe some of the consequences of lax language? What are the risks in using lax language?

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Part II

The 16 Groups of Human Rights

All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.

Vienna Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights 1993

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Part II - The 16 Groups of Human Rights

After introducing the basic concepts of human rights we will now take a closer look at the rights codified in the International Bill of Human Rights. The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The twin covenants came into force in international law in 1976. They provide the foundations of international human rights law. We will take a closer look at international human rights law below in chapter 12 of part IV. In part II we will take the Bill of Human Rights just as a point of departure to study the full range of human rights.

This book clusters the rights in the International Bill of Human Rights in 16 groups according to the field of life in which the related human standards appear most relevant. Each group consists of several human rights. How many these are, depends on the degree of specification of the group in the Covenants. We will always indicate which article of the Bill of Rights relates to the right described.

We will classify the 16 groups and their rights as economic, social and cultural, civil and political rights according to the classes mentioned in the Bill of Rights itself.

Human Rights deal with the wellbeing of vulnerable individuals and communities in society - in this wide sense, all human rights are social rights. Human rights tradition specifies those rights that deal with the economic sphere as "economic rights", and those referring primarily to the cultural sphere as "cultural rights". Social rights - in the narrow sense of the traditional classification - describe central norms of what it implies to be part of society - in particular in terms of the standard of living. Human rights tradition uses the term "political rights" for those human rights that deal directly with the participation in political power and the formation of political power itself (people's opinions and their expression, organisation, demonstration). Civil rights deal with the well-being of persons confronted with the judiciary and penal-systems.

These five classes are traditional and somewhat arbitrary. They are sometimes overlapping and may not be exhaustive. For all of these reasons the classification of some rights can be debated. Nevertheless we find the traditional classes a useful ordering principle for the 16 groups of human rights. We will go through the different groups one by one describing the human standard recognized by the right and indicating some of the states' obligations. A systematic study of states obligations is beyond the scope of this textbook. The views expressed incorporate views of the UN human rights systems on these substantive rights. These can be studied in the General Comments of the Treaty Bodies (see chapter 12). In general, however (and in particular where views of the UN human rights system are lacking or insufficient) the ideas expressed are my own. They do not make a claim of being human rights law or of representing any organisation’s position..

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The 16 Groups of Human Rights – an overview

With reference to the respective articles of the International Bill of Human Rights (ICESCR and ICCPR)

Economic Rights

Group 1: The right to work - The right to work to earn one's living (ICESCR 6) - The right to freely choose or accept work (ICESCR 6)

Group 2: The right to just conditions of work - The right to just and favourable conditions of work (ICESCR 7) - The right to a decent remuneration (ICESCR 7a) - The right to freedom from slavery (ICCPR 8) - The right to form and join trade unions (ICESCR 8, ICCPR 22.1) - The right to strike (ICESCR 8.1d)

Social Rights

Group 3: The rights to an adequate standard of living and to social security - The right to an adequate standard of living (ICESCR 11.1) - The right to adequate food (ICESCR 11.1) - The right to freedom from hunger (ICESCR 11.2) - The right to adequate housing (ICESCR 11.1) - The right to social security (ICESCR 9)

Group 4: Right to health - The right to health (ICESCR 12)

Group 5: The rights of families, mothers and children - The rights of families (ICESCR 10.1) - The rights of mothers (ICESCR 10.2) - The rights of children (ICESCR 10.3)

Cultural Rights

Group 6: The right to participation in cultural life - The right to participate in one's own culture (ICESCR 15a). - The right to participate in the arts and sciences (ICESCR 15b)

Group 7: The right to education - The right to education (ICESCR 13) - The right to compulsory primary education (ICESCR 14)

Group 8: Minority rights - The right of minorities to enjoy their own culture (ICCPR 27) - The right of minorities to practise their own religion (ICCPR 27)

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- The right of minorities to use their own language (ICCPR 27)

Civil Rights

Group 9: The right to life and personal security - The Right to Life (ICCPR 6) - The Right to Personal Security, and Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest (ICCPR 9)

Group 10: The right to a fair trial - The Right to Recognition as a Person Before the Law (ICCPR 16) - The Right to Equality Before the Law (ICCPR 26) - The Right to a Fair Trial and Hearing (ICCPR 14) - The right to non-retroactivity of law (ICCPR 15)

Group 11: The rights of prisoners - The rights related to capital punishment - The right not to be imprisoned for failing to fulfil a contractual obligation (ICCPR 11) - The Right to freedom from torture (ICCPR 7) - The right to separate treatment (ICCPR 10)

Political Rights

Group 12: The right to participation in political life - The Right to Participation in Political Life (ICCPR 25)

Group 13: The right to freedom of opinion - The right to privacy (ICCPR 17) - The right to freedom of religion (ICCPR 18) - The Right to Freedom of Expression (ICCPR 19,20)

Group 14: The right to freedom of association - The Right to Freedom of Association (ICCPR 22)

Group 15. The right to freedom of peaceful assembly - The right to peaceful assembly (ICCPR 21)

Group 16. The right to liberty of movement - The right to liberty of movement and residence (ICCPR 12) - The rights of foreigners in case of expulsion (ICCPR 13)

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5. Economic Rights

The economic sphere is the sphere of human beings working, producing and servicing in order to sustain human life and human society. The human rights related to this sphere are called economic rights. Economic rights consist of the right to work (group 1) and the right to just working conditions (group 2). Work does not only mean labouring for wages (although this is a common form of work). Work means in general all activities that permit persons to earn their living. Work is something that provides goods and services for oneself and others. In this sense a hunter in the Amazon forest works when he is hunting, a nomadic girl works when she looks after the family goats, a peasant woman works when she is weeding her field, and a trader works when he arranges the flow of goods to different markets.

5.1 The right to work

The right to work means the right to participate in the producing and servicing activities of human society and the right to participate in the benefits accrued through these joint activities to an extent that guarantees a decent standard of living. The right to work makes sure that nobody is excluded from the economic sphere.

This first group contains the right to work to earn one's living, and the right to freely choose or accept work.

What is work? Work is a strenuous effort over a period of time useful for others and for society. “Useful for others” excludes all activities I do for myself: A single preparing his/her meal, going shopping etc is not working, a mother doing the same for her children is working. “Useful for society” excludes criminal efforts which may still be useful for fellow criminals. Work can be wage labour, but must not be identified with wage labour.

The right to work to earn one's living (ICESCR 6)

The right to work includes the right to earn a decent living through work. Hence there is a right to such work (as defined above) which gives a decent living in return in cash or kind (for example through self-employment as a hunter, peasant, trader or through wage employment) which allows for a decent standard of living. We will return to the notion of standard of living in Group 3. At this point we just observe that the right to work includes the right to a decent standard of living conditional on work, where the decent standard is higher than the adequate standard of living referred to in Group 3 (see also Group 2).

The right to freely choose or accept work (ICESCR 6)

There must be an opportunity to earn such a decent standard of living through work which is freely chosen or accepted. Freely chosen activities in a market or through self-employment may carry the risk of not rendering sufficient return for a decent living. The right to freely chosen work opportunities nevertheless obliges the state to

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Some choices of work may not be marketable in the labour market sector. If a person’s choices cannot be realized to earn a decent living, states must offer (as a core obligation under the right to work) work at a minimum wage in the common sector:

If there is widespread agreement that the work chosen is important enough for others and society to deserve at least a minimum wage, the state should guarantee such employment. This does not necessarily mean that the state itself is the employer. This sector outside the labour market could be called the common sector keeping in mind that work here is for the common good. Needless to say here that not any activity chosen by a person seeking work can be declared “work”. On the other hand the process determining whether an activity qualifies as work should be participatory and transparent. It may happen, however, however, that the activities chosen are not work and the work offered in the common sector is not chosen or accepted. Such a situation does not contradict the right to freely chosen and accepted work.

It should be noted, that the right to work does not call for economic growth. The right to work is not a question of creating new volumes of paid activities through investments, but of distributing existing work or of recognizing hitherto unpaid productive or servicing activities.

In spite of its great importance the right to work is relatively little specified in international law. There are only a few international standards to this effect - like the ILO Employment Policy convention of 1964 (no.122).

Questions for Discussion

5.0 What is the International Bill of Human Rights and why is the survey of rights, preceding this chapter, based on it?

5.1 Civil rights are sometimes used to describe the human rights of citizens. Describe the definition given above, and relate both uses of the term.

5.3 In section 2.3 we stressed the indivisibility of the different realms of life. Is this a contradiction to the definition given above for the different classes of human rights?

5.4 Explain the two human rights belonging to Group 1.

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5.5 Discuss the notion of work used in Group 1. Why is access to such work a human standard?

5.6 Why can the right to work not be implemented in a mere market economy? Discuss the basic feature of the sector that has to complement the market sector. Does the state have to be the employer? Which existing measures in your country implement the right to work

5.7 (a) in the market sector or (b) outside the market sector.

5.7 Discuss the relation between economic growth and the right to work.

5.8 What is the difference between work chosen and work accepted? How is this related to self-employment respectively wage employment?

5.9 The right to work is not fully implemented. Where would you see the most pressing needs in terms of implementation?

5.10 Does the right to freely chosen work mean to do whatever you feel like, demand a state salary for it and call it work? Specify by using the definition of work.

5.2 The right to just conditions of work

Group 2 includes those rights that regulate the quality of work to assure both that people can earn a decent living through work and that human dignity is respected in the economic sphere. This pertains to all sorts of work, not just wage-labour. Nevertheless the aspects of these rights referring to wage labour are particularly specified. This implementation of the right to just conditions of work is called labour rights.

The development of labour rights has benefited from the standard setting of the International Labour Office (ILO). The ILO conventions constitute important implementing instruments for the protection of these rights.

The rights in group 2 include the right to just and favourable working conditions, right to a decent remuneration, the right to freedom from slavery, the right to form and join trade unions and the right to strike.

The right to just and favourable conditions of work, ICESCR 7

This right provides for just and favourable conditions of work and is an essential complement to the right to work.

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With respect to equal pay the right to just and favourable conditions of work provides for "...equal remuneration for work of equal value... " and reiterates the basic principle of non-discrimination with respect to the work sphere. It prohibits explicitly any distinction between men and women concerning working conditions, remuneration and promotion.

The right specifies that working conditions have to be safe and healthy. Furthermore, it provides for reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. Many more details can be found in the respective ILO Conventions.

The right to a decent remuneration (ICESCR 7)

A decent remuneration means a remuneration providing a decent living. The aspect of earning one's living is already part of the right to work (group 1). The right to a remuneration providing a decent living just adds to it the term "decent". A decent living must therefore be seen as something more than just "a living". On the other hand, since many people depend for their living completely on work, work must not provide less than an adequate standard of living as defined in group 3. This gives rise to the state obligation to ensure minimum wages providing more than an adequate standard of living.

The right to freedom from slavery (ICCPR 8)

Forms of slavery existing in ancient times can still be found in some countries, notably in Africa. There are other practices of slavery in our times that are more widespread. These invariably affect the most vulnerable and deprived sections of society, and are sometimes difficult to identify.

Slavery exists in the form of debt bondage, serfdom, traffic in persons, exploitation by for ced prostitution, exploitation of children through their prostitution or pornography, bonded or forced labour: Persons are kept under complete control and treated as a commodity. Conditions of poverty, ignorance and tradition make it difficult to eliminate slavery. A specific element of slavery in addition to its unjust conditions of work and life is the great difficulty for the slave to terminate the master-slave relationship.

Slavery, slave trade, servitude and forced labour are prohibited by law. The Slavery Convention of 1953 (successor of the Slavery Convention of 1926 by the League of Nations), the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 1949, the Supplementary Convention on Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery in 1956 and a number of relevant conventions adopted and supervised by the ILO, are attempts to counter contemporary slavery in its clandestine forms. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) are other implementing instruments.

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The right to form and join trade unions (ICESCR 8, ICCPR 22.1)

Everyone has the right to form trade unions and to join trade unions of their choice for the protection of his or her economic and social interests. This right includes the right of trade unions to join national confederations and international trade union organisations. ICESCR 8 allows for limitations on the free functioning of trade unions, namely limitations "prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interest of national security or public order or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others;...". Specific lawful restrictions can be put in place for members of the armed forces, police or administration of the State. It is clear that such restrictions must be reasonable in the sense of not acting against the intention of the right recognized.

The right to form and join trade unions can be seen to specify the more general political right to freedom of association (group 15). Carrying a specific human right for trade unions under the rights at work is justified, however, as trade unions are necessary instruments for implementing economic, social and cultural rights. Therefore their protection is an essential condition for the guarantee of economic rights in general.

The right to strike (ICESCR 8.1d)

The free functioning of trade unions includes their right to strike. A strike is sometimes the workers' or employees' only means to defend themselves against violations of their social and economic rights, in particular their right to just and favourable working conditions.

ILO conventions related to economic human rights, identified by the Governing Body of the ILO as fundamental human rights conventions:

ILO 29 - Forced Labour Convention, 1930 ILO 100 - Equal Remuneration Convention 1951 ILO 105 - Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 ILO 111 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958

Questions for Discussion

5.11*How can the terms decent living, adequate standard of living be operationalized?

5.12 Don't minimum wages contribute to unemployment?

5.13 Can the principle "Equal pay for equal work" be employed in a globalized economy or only within the local setting?

5.14 Can you explain the difference between bad working conditions and slavery?

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5.15 How is slavery related to the right to freely choose or accept work?

5.16 Some observers propose to call any working relation that is remunerated with less than the minimum wage "slavery", as no free person (enjoying in particular the human right to work or the human right to an adequate standard of living) would accept such conditions. What do you think about this argument?

5.17 Are labour unions pressure groups for workers' interests or human rights organisations?

5.18 Why is the right to strike an important human right?

5.19 Do you see limitations to the right to strike?

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6. Social Rights

Social human rights have to do with the standard of living and quality of life, but are not immediately linked to the economic sphere. They are applicable to persons in general, and in particular to those not participating in economic activities, like jobless, the elderly, the aged, the mothers, the children and the sick.

Social rights consist of three groups: The rights to an adequate standard of living and to social security (group 3), the rights of families, mothers and children (group 4) and the right to health (group 5).

6.1 The rights to an adequate standard of living and to social security

This group contains the right to an adequate standard of living, including the rights to adequate food, housing, clothing, the right to freedom from hunger and the right to social security.

An important feature is the unconditional nature of the right to an adequate standard of living: Its realization is not linked to work but applies equally outside the economic sphere and is therefore a social right. The right to an adequate standard of living includes a right to adequate food and housing, and in particular the fundamental right to freedom from hunger.

The right to social security prevents the collapse of standards of living for persons unable to participate in the economic life for reasons beyond their control. Contrary to the right to an adequate standard of living the standard of living secured by the right to social security may be more than adequate, as it is usually influenced by the previous standard of living of the affected person.

The right to an adequate standard of living (ICESCR 11.1)

Important indicators for a standard of living are income and wealth.

Income is a flow in cash or kind for consumption or investment. In economics, income is what people could consume without touching their assets (or wealth). Without consumption (and hence income) life is impossible. The right to a minimum income is therefore already implied by the human right to life - and hence to livelihood.

Wealth consists basically of productive resources, which can help generate a flow of income. There are also non-productive forms of wealth, such as art, jewellery etc.. Productive resources are either primary (natural, physical, psychic or spiritual) or secondary (derived from primary resources by applying work), such as tools, skills, equipment, capital. The fruits of production are usually shared between the workers (including management) and those who have control over the productive resources. Primary resources are a gift of nature, and hence there is no justification for exclusive control over such resources. This implies a similar view on secondary resources and

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This justice of sharing is done by way of the right to an adequate standard of living It should be noted that the right to an adequate standard of living is unconditional - in particular it is not conditional on work (unlike the right to a decent standard of living mentioned in section 5.1). The sharing would require both the sharing of income and the sharing of wealth in a way that results in an adequate standard of living.

By just looking at the income and wealth component of the right to an adequate standard of living, one might ask, when is a person’s or family’s wealth adequate?

Income is certainly inadequate if it falls below a certain minimum income which is necessary to provide the basic needs. In general, however, adequacy is a relative concept: People simply consider incomes below a certain level as “poor”. This level is usually described by a certain percentage of the mean or median income in the area, say by 50% of the median (EU norm), which corresponds in the EU to 45% of the mean. Poverty provides a serious obstacle to the enjoyment of human standards, including in particular the participation in political life.

The right to an adequate standard of living would therefore imply a minimum income at all times - secured, if necessary, by income transfers. A reasonable minimum wealth throughout life cannot be guaranteed for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, as wealth is an important component of the standard of living, there should be some transfer of a standard amount of capital to all (what some propose as a “basic capital”) early in life (at adolescence, for example).

Most people will consider their standards of living inadequate, when comparing them to the very rich. Standards for living are set by the top consumers and cascade down through society. These standards are unsustainable both locally and (even more so) globally. Moreover, exorbitant wealth and income carry disproportionate political weight - which can lead de facto to the exclusion of any meaningful political participation by the people at large. For both reasons, it has been suggested that the right to an adequate standard of living implies a provision on maximum wealth/income.

Accordingly the right to an adequate standard of living would then imply income transfers (necessary to guarantee a minimum income), and a one-time transfer of basic capital. Moreover, extreme wealth and income would need to be taxed away to make adequacy for average living standards a viable concept and to break unsustainable cascades of consumption.

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The right to adequate food (ICESCR 11.1)

The right to adequate food is part of what ICESCR 11.1 calls the right to an adequate standard of living including food ... An adequate standard of living is thereby seen to include the satisfaction of basic needs. The human right to adequate food recognizes for each human being a human rights standard, containing the following elements: a) The food is adequate in terms of nutritional quantity and quality, safe from adverse alien substances, and culturally acceptable in the context of the prevailing food patterns. b) There is both economic and physical access to food without conflicting with the satisfaction of other material and non-material basic needs. c) Access to food is sustainable over time. d) Access to food is possible in human dignity.

The states' obligations under the right to adequate food coincide largely with those under the right to an adequate standard of living. They include in particular those obligations that are specified under what can be considered the essential minimum of the right to adequate food - and its priority concern for fulfilment (sometimes called: core content): The right to freedom from hunger.

The right to freedom from hunger (ICESCR 11.2)

The right to freedom from hunger is termed by ICESCR 11.2 "a fundamental right". Therefore it received special emphasis. Governments are requested to take "appropriate steps" to ensure this right. According to the Covenant, states have to improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food including specific programmes like developing or reforming agrarian systems. Problems of food importing and exporting countries have to be taken into account. Hunger and malnutrition are nowadays not a problem of lacking production or knowledge, but a result of poverty. The states obligations would therefore focus on the respect for (and protection of) vulnerable people's access to food and the introduction of fulfilment systems that give people threatened by hunger and malnutrition access to productive resources (like land) and/or work.

The right to adequate housing (ICESCR 11.1)

The right to adequate housing is part of what ICESCR 11.1 calls "the right to an adequate standard of living including ... housing ..." Like food, adequate housing is of paramount importance. At least at a minimum level it is a question of survival. It is mentioned in a large number of international instruments.

The related human rights standard includes access to housing that is healthy, culturally adequate and sustainable. An important state obligation under the right to housing relates to forced evictions. They are prima facie seen as gross violations of human rights.

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The right to social security (ICESCR 9)

The right of everyone to social security includes first of all "the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.", as formulated in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, art.25. It is meant to maintain in essence the standard of living reached prior to these circumstances. Transfers under the right to an adequate standard of living on the other hand do not require any further eligibility other than need and do not provide anything more than adequacy, the minimum requirement.

The right to social security is seen as a means to prevent a breakdown of a person’s living standards. Without social security, events like old age, sickness or unemployment would bring income down to the poverty line. At least this line is safeguarded by the human right to an adequate standard of living under all circumstances. Still - this is a drastic change for most people, something to be feared. Social security is meant to avoid such stress: Its human rights standard is the freedom from fearing such a breakdown of living standards. Specific circumstances like old age, sickness, unemployment etc. will continue to heavily intervene our economic activities and related income generating capacity. But the right to social security puts states under an obligation to provide for social insurance or other measures that will guarantee at least part of our previous income in such situations, for example 60%. If such social security payments are insufficient for an adequate standard of living, the right to an adequate standard of living will complement them. Normally, however, social security payments will provide more than a standard of living at the relative poverty line: The social security standard is at least vaguely related to the previous standard of living.

The right to social security includes social insurance as one of the means to attain this security. Social security, however, must not be identified with welfare state measures. Social security is a universal concept going far beyond social insurance, which is just one of the attempts to implement the right to social security. In many societies social security is provided through the extended family or other means.

Questions for Discussion

6.1 Describe the three groups of social rights. Which rights are contained in the first group?

6.2 Discuss the similarities and differences between the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to social security.

6.3 Does the right to an adequate standard of living require that states provide this standard of living for everybody?

6.4 How are the rights to food and to housing related to the right to an adequate standard of living?

6.5 Describe some elements of the human rights standards under the rights to food and to housing.

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6.6* Take the example of the right to food to describe the “core content of a human right”.

6.2 Right to health

This group only consists of one human right, the right to health.

The right to health (ICESCR 12)

The right to health is the right to the highest attainable standard of (physical and mental) health. Its human rights standard builds on the notion of "standard of health". This standard of health means more than the absence of diseases or injuries. It means the relationship between the (physical and mental functions of an) individual and its environment, in so far as this relationship is conducive to the proper functioning of the individual's faculties. The environment here goes beyond the natural environment or work environment to include knowledge systems and hygienic practices and the quality of human relations affecting the proper functioning both in short and long terms.

This seems to be a rather far-reaching human rights standard, in particular if one has to determine for a given situation "the highest attainable" such standard of health. Contrary to most other human rights - like for example that right to an adequate standard of living - at a universal achievement of certain minimum standards. Instead it is aiming at "the highest standard". Nevertheless the right to health is not as unwieldy as it may look like, since the requirement of non-discrimination implies a fairly clear structure of states obligations - and this is what counts in the end.

The obligations to respect and to protect the highest attainable standard of living rules out the destruction or erosion of existing health standards (by a state or third parties): Injuring persons or inflicting a disease on a person constitute a violation of human rights or a crime against human rights, as the case may be. The same thing is true for example for the dismantling of environmental or occupational standards and technologies, hygienic practices or knowledge systems and of the access to preventive and curative techniques in so far as they affect the proper physical and mental functioning of a person.

It is mainly the fulfilment-bound obligation that seems open-ended, as the standard of health can always be raised for each and every person, for example by introducing ever more elaborate curative and preventive techniques, reducing the level of occupational stress, and improving environmental hygiene.

The limited health budget, however, will be a severe constraint. The fact that it has to be applied without discrimination as to the beneficiaries implies that priority must be put on those measures that give a maximum effect: According to the law of decreasing returns this maximum effect will be reached by prioritizing the most vulnerable parts of the population. Life expectancy is one of the main indicators here. Therefore,

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Moreover, the right to health is closely linked to other human rights which deal with basic needs as the right to an adequate standard of living, and the rights to food and housing (Art.11).

6.3 The rights of families, mothers and children

This group (together with group 8 - minority rights) does not aim at introducing new human rights standards, but rather implementing existing standards for particularly vulnerable groups without discrimination. The rights implemented are for example the right to education (of the family), labour rights and the right to social security (of mothers) or the right to health (of children). Another group of particular importance in this context are the disabled and the elderly.

Traditionally the group consists of three rights: The rights of families, mothers and children.

The rights of families (ICESCR 10.1)

These rights deal with the protection of the family. A special concern is put with the family as the basis and "fundamental group" of society. Therefore it emphasises the protection of the family "...while it is responsible for the care and education of dependent children." The establishment of the family as well as the free choice of the spouse are mentioned.

The rights of mothers (ICESCR 10.2)

The rights of mothers to special protection before and after childbirth are recognised with special regard to working mothers who should receive "...paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits." (This provision is underpinned by article 3 which provides for equality of women and is elaborated by the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW/1979).)

The rights of children (ICESCR 10.3)

These rights spell out the right of children and young people to protection and assistance. Again non-discrimination with respect to the equality of all children is required.

It puts a special emphasis on the protection of these persons from exploitation, may this be of economic or social character, and specifies this by requesting age limits for children in wage labour and by prohibiting work employment of children which is

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(The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) is an important instrument for the implementation of this right.)

Questions for Discussion

6.7 Why is the right to health related to human rights like the right to food and housing. Name other rights that are closely related to the right to health.

6.8 Discuss the difference between the right to health and the right to health care. Sometimes the right to health care is used as an alternative term for the right to health. Do you think this is correct?

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7. Cultural Rights

The human rights dealing primarily with the cultural sphere of life are called cultural human rights or just cultural rights. Culture here has two aspects: It can mean a specific way of life (like ethnic culture, subcultures). Culture can also mean the arts and sciences.

Cultural rights consist of three groups: The first and foremost right here is the right to cultural participation (group 6) in both aspects: Participation in a specific culture as a way of life and participation in the progress of science and the enjoyment of the arts. The other two groups can be seen as implementing these two aspects of participation: the right to education (group 7), and minority rights (group 8). Without education participation in the arts and sciences is impossible. Minority rights on the other hand focus on groups that are particularly vulnerable in terms of participating in their own cultures and receiving education in their own cultures.

7.1 The right to participation in cultural life

This group consists of two human rights, the right to participate in one's own culture, and the right to participate in the arts and sciences.

The right to participate in one's own culture (ICESCR 15a).

The right to participation in cultural life recognises the right of everyone to take part in cultural life. Cultural life has two aspects that complement each other. A global aspect (arts and sciences) and more local aspect ( the every day culture which includes sub-cultures and ethnic cultures).

Considering the first meaning of culture it is important that individuals have the possibility to participate in their own culture or the culture they choose. Participation in culture is needed for forming one's identity.

States have not only to respect, but also to protect and fulfil people's participation in the culture of their choice. This implies active promotional measures by the state and the community of states if requested by people alienated from their own cultures to regain access to it and participate in it.

The right to participate in the arts and sciences (ICESCR 15b)

Culture in the sense of arts and sciences is the second aspect for which there is a right to participation. Among the respect-bound obligations we mention the freedom for scientific research and creative activity. Important among the obligations to protect is the protection of the rights of the author. A key obligation to fulfil implies the guarantee to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress for those who are still excluded from them.

7.2 The right to education

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This group consists of two human rights, the right to education and the right to compulsory primary education.

The right to education (ICESCR 13)

The right to education makes sure that every person has the right to have the possibility to participate in educational activities. The right to education contains two main aims: Education in order to allow people’s full participation in the political, economic, social and cultural activities of society. This includes the development the human personality and its dignity. And education in order to achieve technical and vocational skills.

In the first respect, the quality of education to contribute to the maintenance of peace between nations and peoples is emphasised. To this end it is requested that education should "...strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms...", "... promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and racial, ethnic or religious groups...".

In order to achieve full realisation of the right to education governments are requested to make primary education compulsory and to deliver it free to all. For all persons who did not receive or complete primary education fundamental education must be encouraged or intensified. Concerning secondary and higher education states are requested to make it "...generally available and accessible to all by appropriate means..." and to progressively introduce free education also on this level.

In order to avoid that the State alienates children from their parents by education the liberty of parents or legal guardians to choose schools for their children is guaranteed as well as the moral or religious education in conformity with their own convictions. The only limitation in this free choice of schools are those minimum educational standards laid down by the State.

The right to compulsory primary education (ICESCR 14)

This article refers to State Parties who have not been able to secure compulsory primary education at the time of ratifying the covenant. These States are obliged to work out an action plan for the progressive implementation of the right to compulsory free education for all within two years and to implement it within a reasonable number of years.

7.3 The rights of minorities

Minority rights deal with the rights of persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. This group consists of three human rights: The right of minorities to enjoy their own culture, their right to practise their own religion, and their right to use their own language.

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The right of minorities to enjoy their own culture (ICCPR 27)

This right is implied by the right to enjoy one's own culture using the principle of non- discrimination which is guaranteed at several other points of international human rights law, notably in article 2 of both covenants. In the past there was some discussion whether such a right is also a "collective right", entitling the minority group as a group and not only an "individual right" of its members. It should be noted that ICCPR 27 considers both the individual aspect of minority rights on one hand ("...persons belonging to minorities...") and the collective aspect of minority rights "...in community with other members of their group...".

The right of minorities to practise their own religion (ICCPR 27)

This human right is a consequence of the right of minorities to enjoy their own culture, as practising a religion is quite often a part of a culture. It can also be seen as implementing the human right to freedom of religion, which belongs to the freedom of opinion (group 13 below). Wide spread discrimination of minorities made it necessary to reformulate this right particularly for minorities.

The right of minorities to use their own language (ICCPR 27)

As culture is largely codified in language the right to use one's own language is necessary to realize the right to enjoy one's culture. This right has important consequences for the education of minorities and for their political participation. In the name of "national integration" minorities have often been forced to accept the exclusive use of the dominant culture's language in public life and educational institutions.

Questions for Discussion

7.1 Discuss the two different meanings of culture.

7.2 How are the three groups of cultural rights related to each other?

7.3 As an indicator for "participation in cultural life" somebody once suggested to take the number of museums per capita. What do you think?

7.4 Can the free choice of school lead to elitist schools? Would you see this as discriminatory in the implementation of the right to education? What if the quality of public education suffers?

7.5 Who is the beneficiary of the right to compulsory primary education? Against whom shall compulsion be used? How can it be invoked? Do you agree with compulsion here? What would be your qualifications of such compulsory primary education in view of other human rights?

7.6 Which minorities can you identify in your country? Do they enjoy the human rights standards of the three minority rights?

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7.7 Formulate a few criteria for the right to education that you think are implied by the right to cultural participation and by minority rights.

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8. Civil Rights

An important feature of a democratic state is the rule of law. Laws exist in many forms (and in different degrees of formalisation and strength) in written or unwritten constitutions, bills, codes, penal codes, protocols, conventions, charters, etc. The dynamic of laws involves its making (the legislature or the parliament), administration (the executive or the bureaucracy), and upholding and implementation (the judiciary or the courts). Human rights depend on an efficient discharge of these processes, and those rights that centre around the judiciary and the penal system are known as civil rights. Civil rights deal with standards of the judiciary. The judiciary is expected to be fair and independent of political, economic, religious and other domains, in its structure and function. Civil rights include the Right to Life and Personal Security (group 9), Right to a Fair Trial (group 10), and the Rights of Prisoners (group 11).

8.1 The right to life and personal security

This group consists of two human rights, the right to life and the right to personal security, in particular in terms of procedures to prevent arbitrary arrest.

The right to life (ICCPR 6)

Every person has the inherent right to life. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. Two observations should be made on the right to life as it is formulated in these two sentences from ICCPR 6:

The first observation concerns the contradiction between the right to life and capital punishment: Under the right to life nobody must be deprived of his or her life. It does not matter whether the killing is arbitrary or not. The second sentence therefore seems to limit the right to life and make it dependent on the question of "arbitrariness". This limitation contradicts the logic of the right to life of the first sentence. It was put in to make the Covenant acceptable for states who continue to practise capital punishment. In terms of human rights any such limitation of the right to life must be rejected. In Group 11 (Prisoners' Rights) the contradiction between the right to life and the continuation of death penalty is further discussed.

The second observation concerns the fact that the human right to life is one of the key human rights and a foundation of the rule of law and the whole legal system of a country: The rule of law much be such that nobody is deprived of his or her life. This means first of all that murder is a crime against human rights. The destruction of lives, however, can also be a consequence of other acts or omissions for example in the economic field. A person dying as a consequence of unsafe working conditions, destruction of his or her means of subsistence, denial of an adequate standard of living etc. must be considered a case under the human right to life. There is therefore a close link between the right to life and economic and social human rights.

The right to personal security, and freedom from arbitrary arrest (ICCPR 9)

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The right deals with some legal safeguards that every legal system ought to offer against arbitrary arrest: No person should be subject to arrest or detention randomly, or when there is no likelihood of the person having committed an offence. Everyone has the right to know the reasons of his or her arrest or detention at the time of the arrest. Those arrested should be entitled to be brought promptly before a judge, be on trial within a reasonable time or be released.

These safeguards allow for the use of "habeas corpus" - a writ commanding a law officer to bring a party before a court or judge. The purpose is to release someone from unlawful imprisonment. Arbitrary arrests often seem to be followed by the detainee being exposed to torture or ill treatment.The right also provides for compensation in the event of an unlawful arrest or detention.

8.2 The right to a fair trial

This group of rights dwells on the freedoms of those charged with or convicted of an offence vis-à-vis courts and tribunals. No discrimination must be fostered in the application of law: The protection of law exists for every individual and minority group, and everyone is able to participate in the legal proceedings of the state. The group therefore contains the right to recognition as a person before the law and the right to equality before the law so that courts or tribunals ought to treat every person equally while dealing with them. The group includes, among other rights, the right to a fair and public hearing, the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, the right to certain minimum guarantees, the right to be compensated in the event of a reversal of a court decision or pardon, or miscarriage of justice, and to be free from re- trials or being punished again for a crime, of which a person has been convicted or acquitted.

The right to recognition as a person before the law (ICCPR 16)

This right is about the legal standard of persons residing in a state. No one should be excluded from the legal protection provided by law. For instance, the state is expected to recognise the right of all persons to enter into agreements or contracts. The courts are required to uphold and enforce such agreements in order that everyone's contractual rights are fulfilled. No distinction may be made by a state between any of its residents that would include citizens, foreigners or stateless persons (e.g., refugees) in the enforcement of all the rights which a person before the law possesses.

The right to equality before the law (ICCPR 26)

The Right stipulates that all human beings are equal in the court of law. Equal does not mean identical with respect to mental or physical capacities or characteristics, rather it suggests that the differences among human beings, such as skin colour, gender, language, religion, caste, ethnic background, social or national origins, and wealth or poverty, do not in any way lead to unequal treatment in the legal system. To

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The right to a fair trial and hearing (ICCPR 14)

The fundamental right to a fair trial guarantees to persons appearing before a court a fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. Every person must have a fair chance to state his or her case.

The right to a fair trial implies that those charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law, which implies that anyone charged with an offence ought not be treated as being guilty until guilt has actually been proven in the court of law. In some countries, this is the basis of having bail, when the accused retains his or her liberty pending trial.

Moreover, in the determination of any criminal charge everyone shall be entitled to minimum guarantees and these are spelled out by the right. The word guarantee stipulates the obligation of a state to ensure that the accused person is informed promptly of the nature and cause of the charge against him or her; provide adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the (accused person's) defence and to communicate with his or her counsel; bring the accused to trial without undue delay and see that the accused is present at the trial; provide the accused with legal assistance, should he or she be without it; respect his or her right to call witnesses as well as examine witnesses against him or her; provide for free assistance of an interpreter, should it be necessary; and refrain from compelling the accused to testify against himself or herself, or to confess guilt.

Furthermore, the convict has a right to his sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal, should he or she be unsatisfied with the sentence. The right, also, ensures compensation in case of a reversal of a court decision or pardon or miscarriage of justice. Moreover, there is the right that allows one not to be tried or punished again for the same offence for which he or she has been convicted or acquitted before.

The right to non-retroactivity of law (ICCPR 15)

The non-retroactivity of law stipulates that a person shall not be punished for those actions which were legal when they were carried out (but may no longer be legal). It also means that, if an act was punishable in a specific way when committed, no later change in the law may negatively affect the punishment given. Thus, a heavier penalty shall not be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time when the offence was committed. However, should changes in the law subsequent to the offence allow for a lighter penalty for the same offence, then the offender shall benefit from it.

The right not to be imprisoned for failing to fulfil a contractual obligation (ICCPR 11) No one shall be imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation. In particular, nobody can be jailed for debts incurred.

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8.3 The rights of prisoners

This group of rights stipulates how penal systems are to be sensitive to the inherent dignity of prisoners. It consists of the rights related to capital punishment, freedom of torture, and the rights to separate treatment in prison.

The rights related to capital punishment (ICCPR 6)

The right to life rules out capital punishment as mentioned in Group 9. The Covenant itself does not abolish death penalty, but sets certain restrictive standards for capital punishment that must be granted by the (decreasing) number of countries still practising death penalty.

Those sentenced to death have the right to seek amnesty, pardon or commutation of their sentence. Further, the death sentence is inapplicable to persons below the age of eighteen years and pregnant women. Moreover, summary executions are in violation of human rights.

The death penalty has increasingly been opposed on a number of grounds. First, the death penalty contributes as much to make a society more brutal as it deters potential private killers. Second, court judgements cannot be corrected after execution of death penalty. Third, the death penalty is associated with repressive regimes as the ultimate instrument of oppression. There is a general move to progressively restrict the number of offences for the death penalty as well as restrict the pronouncement of the death penalty for capital crimes with a view to abolish capital punishment altogether.

The right to freedom from torture (ICCPR 7)

This right is about the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners or other detained persons. Torture is "... any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity." This is quoted from art.1 of The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 10th of December 1984.

Torture is prevalent across the globe and may be caused by occasional lapses of legal restraints or by the preference of the highest officials of a state to destroy the legal restraints that would inhibit the excesses of that power. Governments as well as insurgency movements have used torture as a means of gaining information, of forcing confessions and terrorising communities or large populations. However, torture can be justified neither morally nor legally. International law as well as most national legal systems condemn and forbid torture.

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Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment includes such practices as corporal punishment, close confinement, solitary confinement, forced-feeding, internment in dark cells, reduction in diet, restraint by means of pain causing devices, interrogation under duress, castration of sexual offenders, flogging, use of chemicals and drugs, and the conduction of biomedical experiments.

The right to separate treatment (ICCPR 10)

This right defines reformation and social rehabilitation as the aims of the penitentiary system and describes some of the consequences in terms of standards. It emphasises that prisoners be treated with humanity and respect for the dignity of the person. The different categories of persons such as convicted or accused, juveniles or adults shall be separated, and treated in accordance with their status. The right stipulates that the juveniles shall be segregated from adults and brought to adjudication as speedily as possible.

Questions for Discussion

8.1 Why do you think did the covenants not outlaw capital punishment?

8.2 What is generally meant by the rule of law?

8.3 Does the Right to Life imply a right to livelihood, in particular the right to food and the right to health?

8.4 Explain habeas corpus. What safeguards do exist against arbitrary arrest?

8.5 Make a list of all elements of a fair trial.

8.6 What is meant by the non-retroactivity of law? Should persons who committed crimes under a dictatorship that were not punishable at that time be brought to court later on - think of the Nürnberg tribunal against Nazi criminals, or other tribunals after the breakdown of a dictatorship?

8.7 Make a list of the main elements by which human rights defend the dignity of prisoners.

8.8 What are the aims of the penitentiary system according to human rights?

8.9 What does the right to separate treatment have to do with the aims of the penitentiary system?

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9. Political Rights

All human rights have a direct bearing on the use and regulation of political power. Political rights, however, are those human rights that deal with certain specific components of the political system such as freedom of opinion and organizing, which are in fact conditions for the participation in political power. Political rights include the rights to participation in political life (group 12), freedom of opinion (group 13), freedom of association (14), freedom of peaceful assembly (group 15), and liberty of movement (group 16).

9.1 The right to participation in political life

This group considers the right of every person to participate in the political process of his or her country. The forms of participation include serving in state authorities, casting votes in elections or being elected oneself to be a political representative. There is only one right in this group, the right to participate in political life. Important aspects of the following groups, however, are closely related to political participation.

The right to the participation in political life (ICCPR 25)

The right implies that every citizen shall have the opportunity to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives; to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and secret ballot. Moreover it includes the opportunity of having access to public service.

It is important to note that this right does not only prohibit state's to exclude somebody from political participation. States also have the duty to actively provide access to political life for those persons and groups who are for whatever reason alienated from political participation. This may include a wide range of promotional activities besides the removal of obstacles to participation, such as poverty or the concentration of wealth or media power.

The right to political participation puts tight limitations on the concentration of political power. It requires that decisions be taken largely by the communities whose lives are affected by them - and not by highly abstract systems of “representation” through distant decision makers. Participation does not just mean “to be heard” to perhaps slightly modify what has basically been a state’s or corporation’s decision already taken, but to jointly decide with other affected persons.

An important point here is the question of discrimination, in particular gender discrimination. Women must not only have the right to vote but also the right to be elected into office. In countries where only a few women can be found in political offices, the state is duty-bound to take promotional measures to remedy this situation. The same is true for classes of common people who have been virtually absent in political office. 9.2 The right to freedom of opinion

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This group of rights is about freedom to air one's opinion, choose one's belief, profess and practise one's religion, express one's ideas, and have one's privacy without undue interference.

This group of rights includes the right to privacy, the right to freedom of religion; the right to freedom of expression, as well as the limits to these three rights, when they infringe upon public safety, health, or morals or other people's human rights standards.

All of these rights have to do with the freedom of opinion: Opinion is not free, if it cannot be expressed, religious ideas are not free, if they cannot be practised, and opinions cannot be developed freely, if there are no private spaces to do so. For this matter the group is called right to freedom of opinion.

The right to privacy (ICCPR 17)

The right provides the protection of law against attacks on privacy, family, home or correspondence, honour and reputation. The legal interpretation of this right varies according to governments and their national and local laws. Privacy, family, home, honour, and reputation have a bearing on tradition and culture, and, therefore, have multiple definitions and interpretations. Further, controversies plague this right as a result of the proliferation and use of electronic devices in obtaining information, such as through wire-tapping to listen to telephone conversations, accessing data from computers, video taping of private events, etc..

The right to freedom of religion (ICCPR 18)

The right states that everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion either individually or in community in public or private. He or she may manifest them through worship, observance, practice and teaching. Further, it stipulates that no one shall be subject to coercion which would impair a person's freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of his or her choice.

States differ from each other in their position on religion. Some have an official religion, others are secular (i.e., not favouring any particular religion) or even discouraging any religious belief and encouraging atheism. The right to freedom of religion grants the right to a person to think, choose and change his or her faith and belief. Some states have problems to recognize a change of one's religion as part of religious freedom.

The reasons of public safety, order, health, morals, fundamental rights or the freedom of others, have been cited by states to combat the manifestation of beliefs or religion. The United Nations have attempted to secure the consent of some of the states neglecting the right by adopting a Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief in 1981.

The right also puts obligations on states to have respect for the liberty of parents and legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.

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The right to freedom of expression (ICCPR 19,20)

The right states that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression and the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his or her choice. However, this right may be subject to certain restrictions when necessary for respect of the rights or reputations of others and the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals.

Some of the ways in which this right is violated are the banning of books, journals, newspapers, films, etc., censorship and prohibition of publications, control of the media and the persecution of writers, artists or media persons. These actions are carried out by states under their respective national laws and justified by reasons ranging from irresponsibility to treason. Repressive regimes or states under emergency are known to undertake such activities in order to safeguard their particular political system from the threats of alternative views that could undermine it. Nevertheless, this right is a fundamental right in many national constitutions, binding such states to respect, protect and fulfil the freedom of expression.

On the other hand the exercise of the right to the freedom of opinion and expression is not absolute. The right prohibits any propaganda for war or any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.

9.3 The right to freedom of association

Associations are essential for the participation in political life at all levels. Associations are equally important not only in terms of the functioning of the state, but also in terms of the articulation and defence of interests in society. In both cases, some associations may trigger oppression the state authorities. This makes this group, which consists of just one human right, the right to freedom of associations, an important prerequisite for the realisation of other human rights.

The right to freedom of association (ICCPR 22)

The right declares that everyone shall be free to form or join associations with others. This includes the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests. This right has restrictions similar to the right to peaceful assembly (see below), but goes beyond it to state that the right shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on members of the armed forces and of the police in their exercise of this right.

Freedom of association is the way in which people can collectively declare their aims or objectives, exercise pressure as a group, safeguard the interests of the individual, and assert their individual and collective identities. This is also a way to remind states of their obligations towards the welfare of their residents.

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9.4 The right to freedom of peaceful assembly

Peaceful assembly is one of the ways in which persons participate in social, religious, economic and political life. It is an arena for the expression and exchange of culture, art, music, ideas and interests. It is also an expression of political will and a vehicle for making political demands visible and impressive. The group consists of just one human right: the right to peaceful assembly.

The right to peaceful assembly (ICCPR 21)

The right introduces the states obligation to respect, protect and fulfil that everyone can call for or join a peaceful assembly. This implies in particular that police must not break up a peaceful demonstration or allow that such manifestations be disturbed by third parties. The fulfilment-bound obligation could even go as far as asking states authorities to facilitate peaceful assemblies for those otherwise unable to hold one.

It must be noted, however, that the right to peaceful assembly may be suspended in certain circumstances in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of rights and freedom of others.

If such limitations are misused as fake arguments to suppress peaceful assemblies which are disliked by a government or state authorities, such acts of misuse violate the right to peaceful assembly.

9.5 The right to liberty of movement

This group of rights is about the freedom of movement of persons and includes the rights of citizens of a country concerning their movements within the territorial limits of their country and outside it, as well as the rights of foreigners in case of expulsion.

The right to liberty of movement and residence (ICCPR 12)

Every person has the right to move freely within the territory of his or her state of residence or citizenship as well as choose his or her residence. Further, everyone has the right to leave ones country. The only restrictions which may be put on this right are restrictions provided by law, which are crucial to protect national security, public order, public health or morals or the rights and freedom of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognised in the Covenant. Certain derogation may be made from this right in time of public emergency. These exceptions are temporary and depend on the circumstances. They are based on the need to protect the safety of others. International or civil war, or a widespread epidemic or disaster may necessitate restrictions on this right. Restrictions may be imposed in order to prevent a person charged under the laws of a country from leaving it. Restrictions may also be valid in the case of a person in prison who would have to complete his or her sentence before being free to leave that country.

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The rights of foreigners in case of expulsion (ICCPR 13)

This right is about safeguards to foreigners against unlawful expulsion from the state where they are lawfully resident. It includes in particular the right to be heard in advance by the competent authority. This right can, however, be restricted or waived should a question of national security be involved.

Questions for Discussion

9.1 Identify groups the carry a high risk of being alienated from or marginalized in political life.

9.2 Try to identify some states obligations to provide the groups alienated from political participation with access to political life.

9.3 Make a human rights analysis of the cases in chapter 1: Find out which civil and political, economic, social or cultural rights are violated in each case.

9.4 Which of the rights considered in the five classes could be seen as basically implementing other human rights by turning a state obligation under another right into a new human right. Example: The right to political participation requires states to respect people's right to freedom of association, as it is normally through associations that people participate politically. Can you identify for each group or perhaps even for each class (like economic human rights) some basic human rights so that the implied states obligations give rise to more specific human rights also mentioned in the same group or class? Can you draw a picture ordering the human rights mentioned in the 16 groups in terms of such relationships? Evaluate your result.

9.5* Consider the following matrix. It contains 15 fields. Each field stands for some human rights principle that gives rise to certain human rights in a specific realm of life. You can easily identify them by combining the principle in the first column with the realm of life in the first row. So you get the principle of political participation (combining the principle of participation with the political realm) in the lower right corner, or the principle of cultural identity in the centre field. Your task is to following: You are asked to try to distribute each of the sixteen groups of human rights above in one of these 15 fields of principles. Group 12 is at home the lower right corner: This is obvious. In the matrix field on the principle of social security you would place Group 3: the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living and Social Security. You may find it necessary to distribute two or three aspects of a group into different fields - or two different groups resp. their aspects in one field. Try to keep these "hybrid" allocations at a minimum. One possible solution can be found in the back of the book.

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economic social cultural civil/judicial political Security 3.Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, Identity 8.Rights of Minorities to their cul- ture, langua- ge, religion Participation 12.Right to Participation in Political Life

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The individual having duties to other individuals and to the community to which he belongs, is under a responsibility to strive for the promotion and observance of the rights recognized in the present Covenant.

From the Preamble to the International Covenants on Human Rights

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10. Empowering Victims and Their Support Groups

The full and coherent use of economic, social and cultural, civil and political human rights is the best hope to put an end to today’s most pressing problems:

1. the destruction of nature’s fabric of life and of future generations' resources 2. the marginalization and oppression of vulnerable groups 3. the loss of sovereignty of the people at large.

Human rights provide both a social vision and standards for minimum political requirements. They can be seen as a modern Magna Carta or People's Manifesto. This vision is increasingly embraced by civil society in all parts of the world and developed into a new understanding of its role.

Human rights are increasingly implemented as binding international and national law, although much still needs to be done.

What is the significance of these developments for a group trying to defend (itself or vulnerable people) against oppression? When a group wants to defend vulnerable people, what is the use of human rights and how can they be used? These questions will be addressed in the four sections below and in chapter 11.

The vision of human rights looks ahead towards full implementation. In situations where human rights are sufficiently implemented in domestic law, groups and movements can use courts and states' programmes to realize human rights and defend vulnerable groups and individuals. But even where this implementation is lacking human rights are very useful tools. A movement should take recourse to human rights even in the absence of full implementation, because this will help the struggle for full realization and because human rights even without the force of law, assist movements to put up a successful defence.

In order to be able to put up a successful defence - the group has to be motivated to defend itself and/or others - the group has to act with determination and, if necessary, under sacrifice - the group has to be able to find allies and act together with them.

The use of human rights facilitates all three of these aspects, as it empowers people in specific ways and helps them to find allies. Human rights as “the People’s Manifesto” of global civil society create a strong “we-feeling” accross motivations and cultures. Empowerment of movements and networking/alliance-building are the two key answers to the questions posed in the introduction to this chapter. The four main reasons why human rights empower victims and movements are their abstraction from self-interest, their identification of oppression, their vision of freedom and democracy and their denial of compromise.

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10.1 Human rights don't struggle for self-interest but for justice

There is something wrong with self-interest. For a movement to gain strength it must understand its issue in a broader societal context. This is true even for a movement of victims – let alone for support groups. They must, however, not lose track of the essentials either: Internal quarrel over interesting questions without practical relevance will not strengthen but weaken the movement. The issue of human rights which is both practical and sufficiently broad – is oppression.

One of the main problems for the persistence of oppression is the fact that oppressive situations are not recognized as such neither by the society surrounding the victims nor by the victims themselves. Society produces a "justification" for such situations, which is largely accepted by the victims themselves: Even if they see that oppressive situations or acts are against their own interests, they go along with them by internalizing the justification given by the society or state. This makes it difficult both for the victims to defend their interests and for supporters in society to practice solidarity.

Movements use human rights to make vulnerable groups and their supporters understand that their struggle is more than a struggle to defend the victims' self- interest and that the related conflicts are not a mere conflicts of interests, but a struggle for justice in the world.

10.2 Human rights identify and challenge oppression

Human rights operationalize the concept of oppression and of justice which puts the groups using them in a position to identify oppressive situations or even challenge the legitimacy of a state.

For all three purposes many if not most groups tend to refer to some sort of "justice" giving their case more strength than mere reference to the self interest of the vulnerable group. They hope that this reference will generate more interest in this case by others, whose self interest may not be immediately visible, but who are made to recognize their ultimate self interest to uphold the standards of "justice" in the community. Even beyond ultimate (informed) self interest, appeal to justice can generate support for aesthetic or moral reasons of serving the standard per se. But what is justice, when it comes to vulnerable groups suffering oppression? It means for the state (and others) to understand and accept states obligations as a basis for their behaviour and, if necessary, also as a basis for third party judgement. Unless states don't see themselves obliged in a specific way, they will not even understand the concept of oppression, and justice will be an empty concept of merely rhetoric value. Hence oppression has to be defined through states obligations, if the concept of justice is to be made operational. But where do these state obligations come from?

States define themselves both through their monopoly of power and through justice: State power is there to do justice. Hence justice is the source of state power. Every group that can convincingly challenge states on the basis of justice challenges their legitimacy. And this is a very powerful ideological challenge.

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10.3 Human rights struggle for democracy

Human rights are the cornerstone of democracy. Movements relying on human rights promote democracy, which brings them into a stronger position.

The fact, that state power has to be justified, is a basic tenet for almost all states. If such justification is missing, we call such a state an "absolutist state". In an absolutist state the source of state power is the state itself: As the French absolutist king Louis XIV said: "The state - that's me", he identified his own will and the will of the state without any need for further justification.

Almost as bad - and sometimes worse - than absolute states are totalitarian states: They are based on something that could be called totalitarian justice: Their justification is "total" as it is a comprehensive and all encompassing value system (ideology) giving definite answers to the ultimate questions of human existence and perhaps even cosmic purpose. Totalitarian states can turn absolutist once the power of deciding ideological questions has passed completely into the hands of the state. Totalitarianism persists even if such a state justifies its existence with "serving the people".

One of the important distinguishing elements of a totalitarian state and a democratic state is that the justification of the democratic state does not include any last answers to last questions. They remain open spaces in an "open society". Moreover, democratic states take on far-reaching procedural obligations of control by the citizens. The claim of "serving the people", for example is made operational in a variety of state obligations that are seen as emanating from citizens' rights or human rights (if these citizens' rights also pertain to non-citizens), which can be enforced against the state. Citizens' Rights and Human Rights make no claim to answer last questions or be all-comprehensive and are therefore a non-ideological justifications of the state: Democratic states are non-totalitarian.

10.4 Human rights are not negotiable

Human rights are not negotiable. Being based on human rights, movements have a clear position that cannot be side-tracked by political manoeuvring or discussion of ethics and values.

A rather practical point in favour of referring to human rights is the fact that human rights have already been accepted as important principles by almost all countries. In many countries they have been enshrined in the constitution or have been implemented in legislation and programmes.

In the situation of full realization, the question of defending vulnerable people would then mean nothing more than making use of an existing programme or going to court. Even if implementation has not yet progressed so far, referring to human rights vis-à- vis authorities of states who recognized human rights would at least mean that no

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In most countries reference to human rights greatly strengthens the bargaining position of the group defending vulnerable people, because

- it avoids controversial discussions on values, ideologies and the justification of interests, and other distracting preliminaries; - it puts the burden of proof on the state who has to show that it meets its obligations.

Questions for Discussion

14.1 What is necessary for a group to establish a successful defence against a situation of oppression?

14.2 Explain the four modes of empowerment by human rights for groups struggling to address a situation of oppression.

14.3 Why is the burden of proof on the state? What advantage can a movement take of this situation.

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11. Building Alliances

Working with human rights helps you to find allies and to act together with them. This needs further explanation. We consider three aspects of alliance building:

11.1 The first aspect of alliance building: Human rights unite the diversity of involved groups on a joint platform.

- Each oppressive situation has many aspects to it. Persons and groups entering a struggle against an oppressive situations come from different angles focusing on different aspects. These different aspects relate to different human rights violated in the same situation, including the human rights principles of non- discrimination and sustainability. This is another example of the indivisibility and interdependence of different human rights, one of the main observations discussed in part I.

- This combination of universality and diversity lends is able to unite different groups and movements on the platform of human rights. Two steps have to be taken to this effect:

- 1st step: The different groups and movements taking up a certain situation of oppression have to understand their work as human rights work. They have to identify the mandate of their own group in relation to the implementation and realization of a specific human right or human rights principle: Women’s groups working for non-discrimination, environmental groups working for sustainability, civil rights groups working for the victims of persecution in this matter, and social action groups understanding their work as realizing economic and social human rights.

- 2nd step: These different human rights movements start to relate to each other on the basis of the indivisibility of human rights. They understand that they complement each other in their work, and gain a joint political weight that can bring about a solution to the oppressive situation and a further strengthening both of their individual causes and of human rights altogether.

11.2 The second aspect of alliance building: The strength of value abstinence

Movements based on human rights have little scope for divisive ideological discussions. They can concentrate on practical political questions with a gain in determination and strength.

Is it not possible for the group to have the same or even better results in defending the vulnerable group by referring to fundamental value systems (like religious or philosophical ethics) underlying justice rather than just operationalizing justice through human rights?

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Human rights cannot qualify as a fundamental value system as they refrain from giving answers to fundamental questions in terms of philosophy or politics. The answers to these fundamental questions usually give rise to political or individual ethics. Philosophical self-limitation is at the same time a shortcoming and a strength of human rights.

It is a shortcoming, because it is questionable whether the commitment to human rights alone, as abstract and limited as these necessarily have to be, is sufficient as the sole motivational force to defend vulnerable groups. Do human beings have to have a position on last questions in order to develop the strength to defend vulnerable people?

Some may conclude that human rights would then have to be promoted as a fundamental value system itself. This does not look very promising given the rather formal and abstract nature of these rights. More important, however, if it succeeded, it would terminate the very non-ideological nature of human rights. Human rights would turn into (perhaps a number of different) ideologies competing with one another and with existing fundamental value systems, religions and philosophies.

Instead, if additional motivation in the struggle for human rights is seen necessary, then human rights can be promoted through compatible (or almost compatible) fundamental value systems. In order to act jointly, the people in our group don't have to agree on their fundamental value systems, but only on the resulting human rights principles that are pertinent to the specific situation at hand. This may seem a mere point of pragmatism in favour for human rights. It may, however, be vital to secure the efficiency of people's action.

This strength of the value abstinence of human rights does not come out of disrespect for last questions, but - on the contrary - out of respect for fundamental value systems. In particular, human rights do not imply any positivism which would dismiss last questions as useless.

It must never be forgotten that the purpose of human rights is not to provide a basis for ethics but to be a source of states obligations: Human rights are at the same time a justification of state power (and of the states' use of force) and a means to regulate this power. The value abstinence of human rights to refrain from last questions and answers leaves the fundamental value systems outside the states' sphere and hence provides their freedom from the state. This is a safe-guard against totalitarianism. It protects last answers in philosophy or religion being used and also misused by the state, and hence being taken captive by the interests of the state. Only if states are not built on such fundamental value systems can these value systems flourish freely. This freedom has to be secured by the state at least as long as these fundamental systems do not threaten human rights.

Human rights is therefore a very useful platform for movements to defend vulnerable people against oppression, because

- they shift emphasis from the discussion of fundamental values to the implementation and realisation of the human standard (pragmatism);

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- they provide space in the movement for people with different value systems (strategic effectiveness); - it liberates and safeguards the spiritual freedom of fundamental value systems vis-à-vis the State (anti-totalitarianism).

11.3 The third aspect of alliance building: International networking

The reasons given in favour of human rights as a joint platform to gain allies and to master strength in a pluralistic society with different value systems are even more valid once the important actors ar the international civil society and the community of states. International relations and transnational actors and institutions have an increasing impact on the situation of vulnerable groups. What used to be domestic problems in the past have gained important international components. Given the importance of international relations, international allies can be an important asset for groups defending domestic vulnerable people. In this area human rights are almost the only universal point of reference. Moreover, human rights are well established in international law.

Reference to human rights is the only international platform allowing a group to address obligations of foreign states and the international community relating to the oppression of a vulnerable group. The group can make use of the implementation so far in international human rights law (see next chapter).

Reference to human rights as joint standards for many states allows the group to find international allies in its struggles even in states or among people with very different cultural backgrounds.

These two issues are important in a world where international relations are more important than ever before.

Questions for Discussion

11.1 Name the three aspects of alliance-building that can be seen as a strength of human rights. Explain each of them by applying their potential to a case from you own experience and to a case from section 1.2.

11.2 Why are the two issues of international platform and international obligations more important then ever before? Explain.

11.3 Why is philosophical self-limitation at the same time a shortcoming and a strength of human rights.

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12. Using the Instruments of International Human Rights Law

If the most important aspect of human rights is their universal validity for each and every person prior to states' consent, the second most important aspect of human rights is their legal aspect: Human rights are the source of human rights law - both international and national (domestic) human rights law. Human rights law is meant to implement human rights with legal force. In this sense human rights law is part of (national or international) public law: It provides legal mechanisms to make the public powers accountable: The breaches of state obligations under human rights by the respective governmental authorities are opened up to judicial review and remedy.

Before going into details on this second most important aspect of human rights, let us not forget the most important aspect of human rights: The fact that human rights are inalienable rights of each person independent of the legal environment - whether or not governments do in fact provide legal implementation.

It must not be forgotten that laws are made, interpreted and enforced by states. Human rights, however, are prior to states. Whether or not something is a human right is not in the powers of states, their judicial experts or intergovernmental bodies to decide: Human rights are beyond the state: Human rights law shows how much or how little a state (democratic or not) appreciates human rights and legally implements and enforces them. This (and not a state's human rights rhetoric) is the sole measuring stick for a state's human rights record - and in fact for the states' legitimacy.

After these words of caution we can turn to human rights law.

Questions for Discussion

12.1*Human rights law expects the state to control the state. How can this work? Can you give examples? (Hint: Consider the separation of powers.

12.2 The text talks about the most important and the second most important aspect of human rights. Please refer to these aspects to explain the difference of human rights and human rights law.

12.3 Why was the legal aspect of human rights not given highest importance?

12.4*Overlooking the difference between human rights and human rights law puts human rights altogether at risk. Why?

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12.1 The international bill of human rights

Before 1945, human rights law was exclusively a matter of constitutional or domestic law in a number of states. Although many legal systems had contained elements of human rights, the first explicit use of this term and concept were made in the constitutions of the United States of America 1776 and France 1789. Many other states followed.

After World War II became a central aim of the newly founded United Nations: In article 1 of the UN Charter human rights were introduced into international law when a central purpose of the UN was formulated as "promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion..."

Human rights as a central aim of the United Nations gave rise to an action programme to establish detailed human rights jurisprudence in international law. A UN Commission on Human Rights was formed. On December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, passed by the General Assembly.

A declaration or resolution is not binding in international law. Its norms are just "soft law". The violation of an internationally binding provision (hard law) can have adverse consequences and can lead to sanctions and retaliation, whereas disregard for soft law may be politically damaging, but would not justify sanctions or retaliation. For human rights to become hard law, the Universal Declaration had to be followed up by a convention or treaty ratified by a certain number of states in their legal systems. Most of today's international law was generated by treaties (international treaty law).

The norms of international law may not onl come about explicitly by conventions, but also implicitly by international practise (international common law). It is sometimes hard to determine. International common law plays a minor role nowadays, even though its norms are as "hard" as treaty law. Some provisions of the Universal Declaration are meanwhile considered international common law, for example the right to freedom of torture.

The Universal Declaration was meant as a first step towards a "covenant" binding in international law. The Covenant (2nd step) was intended to lay the foundation for an international system of human rights protection (3rd step).

This three steps action programme on human rights protection suffered severely from the political repercussions of the Cold War. The Universal Declaration had still given economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights a coherent presentation. At step 2, however, when the International Covenant was discussed, some western countries - most notably the USA, U.K. and France - wanted the economic, social and cultural rights to be treated in a separate covenant. Even though the "indivisibility" of human rights was officially upheld, human rights were divided into two covenants: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Civil Covenant) and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Social Covenant) - a surgical operation of

FIAN International 99 g32e The Road to Freedom which international human rights law did not recover until today: Economic, social and cultural rights were marginalized in international human rights law.

An important practical tool for this marginalization was the denial of the right to petition under the Social Covenant. The Covenants themselves allow only for a procedure of periodic states' reports. These reports are by nature fairly general and not case oriented. They don't provide victims or other individuals or groups with the right to complain about violations of the Covenants before a UN body and entail no duty for the states' parties to respond to such petitioning. The Civil Covenant was endowed, however, from the very beginning, with an Optional Protocol giving states, who had ratified the Civil Covenant the option to submit themselves to complaints procedures by ratifying the Optional Protocol as well. For the Social Covenant, similar optional protocol allowing for the right to petition has not been opened up for ratification even today.

This discriminatory deficit prevented the development of international jurisprudence around the Social Covenant. Consequently (and contrary to the Social Covenant) economic, social and cultural rights (if referred to at all) were largely treated as mere programmatic statements for social or developmental policies and not as justiciable individual rights, i.e. rights that can be dealt with in courts of law. Human rights were largely identified with civil and political rights. The supervisory body of the Civil Covenant is still misnamed "Human Rights Committee", whereas the monitoring body for the Social Covenant is the "Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights".

Questions for Discussion

12.5 Do you know about states obligations in your country's legal system before the 18th century, which could be seen as corresponding to human rights? Were there ways for a citizen to realize these state obligations in court?

12.6 Discuss the difference between soft law (UN declarations, resolutions, codes of conduct) and hard law (conventions, treaties): Is soft law useless?

12.7 Explain the difference between international treaty law and international common law.

12.8 What is meant by "justiciable rights"? Does every right have to be justiciable?

12.9 What is the right to petition? What is the content of the Optional Protocol to the Civil Covenant?

12.10 Why does the denial of a right to petition under a certain groups of rights deprive them of the chance to prove their justiciability? Some people say that social rights are per se not justiciable and therefore a right to petition is useless. Can you describe this as a vicious circle for social rights?

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12.11 Can you suggest a better name for the Human Rights Committee?

12.2 UN-bodies concerned with the promotion of human rights and the monitoring

The UN established two different systems for the protection of human rights: The Charter based system and the treaty-based system. The Charter-based system works on the basis of human rights provisions embodied in the Charter of the United Nations. The convention based system is generated by specific human rights conventions.

A. The Charter-based system

The Charter asks for the promotion and protection of human rights as tasks for the UN in Art.1 and 54. Its aim is "promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion..." (art 1 para 3). The relevant provisions are legally binding for all members of the UN.

The General Assembly of the UN where all the members its entitled to vote, is responsible also for the promotion of human rights as a primary aim of the UN under the UN Charter. This task has been mainly delegated to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The ECOSOC and the Security Council are the two main UN fora after the General Assembly. The ECOSOC in turn establishes the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). The General Assembly regularly reviews the recommendations of the ECOSOC.

The ECOSOC is comprised of 54 governmental representatives and meets in late May in New York and in late June alternating in Geneva and New York. The ECOSOC decides all measures which involve funds and most of the measures taken by the CHR in order to make them effective. In general it approves the recommendations of the Commission.

The main bodies of the charter-based system are: The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (Sub-Commission). In spite of its very special and lengthy name, the Sub- Commission can in fact be seen as the general think tank of the Commission.

The Commission on Human Rights

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is the main political organ of the UN dealing with Human Rights. It plays a fundamental role in promoting human rights. Many international declarations and conventions in the field of human rights have been adopted by the Commission, its Sub-Commission and the working groups established by the CHR, before being approved by the ECOSOC and the General Assembly.

The Commission meets annually in spring in the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

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The 54 member states of the Commission send delegates - corresponding to regional proportions - to the CHR. These have the task to represent their governments interests.

The CHR also appointed a number of Special Rapporteurs, Working Groups, and Independent Experts to report on country situations or on specific human rights topics and the implementation of human rights norms. They are referred to as Special Procedures of the Commission.

NGO's access is restricted to NGOs with ECOSOC consultative status. NGOs may submit oral or written statements to the Commission and also lobby on proposed resolutions. Information can be obtained from the Service for Human Rights in Geneva (see below).

There have been special rapporteurs for extreme poverty, the right to food, religious intolerance, torture, the rights of the child and many more. Information on urgent human rights problems falling into the mandate of a special rapporteur may be submitted to him or her.

The Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

The Sub-Commission meets every August in the Palais des Nations in Geneva. It is a sub-commission to the Commission on Human Rights. It proposes standards, considers country situations and conducts studies on human rights issues. The results of these studies are reported back to the CHR. At this point NGOs have the possibility to influence the studies and reports by forwarding information on violations of human rights to the Sub-Commission. It is open to NGOs with consultative status with ECOSOC to submit oral or written statements. Its members are independent experts nominated by governments.

The Sub-Commission has working groups meeting in Geneva in the weeks before the annual sessions of the Sub-Commission. The following working groups are open to NGOs with consultative status with the ECOSOC to submit oral or written statements:

Working Group on Indigenous Populations Working Group on Minorities Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery

B. The convention-based system

The international law generated by this systems is binding only for the states parties to the international human rights conventions. The Human Rights Covenants have some 148 states parties (in July 2003). Besides the two covenants there are four major other international human rights conventions at UN-level, each of them containing reporting obligations for states parties. Supervisory bodies are established to receive these states reports and monitor the implementation of the covenants and conventions. These committees consist of independent experts. The members of the Committees are chosen by the States parties of each covenant/treaty/convention. They are supposed to be independent of their government's political interests.

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The following supervisory bodies monitor the key human rights treaties (and are therefore also called "treaty bodies"):

* Treaty: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) Entry into force: 3 January 1976 Number of states parties (2003): 147 Supervisory body: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

* Treaty: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR); Entry into force: 23 March 1976 Number of states parties (2003): 149 Supervisory body: Human Rights Committee (HRC),

* Treaty: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Entry into force: 4 January 1969 Number of states parties (2003): 173 Supervisory body: Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

* Treaty: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Entry into force: 3 September 1981 Number of states parties (2003): 173 Supervisory body: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

* Treaty: Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) Entry into force: 26 Juni 1987 Number of states parties (2003): 133 Supervisory body: The Committee against Torture (CAT),

* Treaty: Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Entry into force: Number of states parties (2003): 192 Supervisory body: Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Details resolutions, decisions and documents of these treaty bodies, the Human Rights Commission and Sub-Commission as well on the current special rapporteurs and working groups are published by the International Service for Human Rights (see below) under the title "HR Documentation" and "Human Rights Monitor" . A lot of information and many texts produced by the UN Human Rights Bodies are available in the internet with the website of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: www.unhchr.ch

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Questions for Discussion

12.12 Describe the main bodies of the charter-based system.

12.13 Describe the main bodies of the convention-based system.

12.14 How are special rapporteurs put to work and what is their task?

12.15 Which working groups are open for NGO participation?

12.3 How can NGOs participate in the UN human rights system

At the UN every treaty-based body has its own supervisory mechanism, with own procedural rules and pursuing its own policy. For this reason it is necessary to find out how to address the respective body and which procedures exist. Some procedures have special questionnaires and guidelines to be followed.

NGO's with consultative status with ECOSOC may submit information falling within the mandates and agendas of the different bodies. The information should be directed to the Secretary of the respective Committee. The Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights supports NGO's who wish to forward information on violations of the respective human rights treaties to one of the relevant treaty-bodies.

A. Reporting-procedures and parallel reports

States who have ratified a treaty are obliged to submit periodically a state report wherein they have to describe which measures they have taken to implement the provisions in the conventions or covenants. These states reports must be submitted to the respective treaty-bodies in Geneva. (Only the CEDAW does not meet in Geneva, but in New York). Some of the treaty-bodies have elaborated reporting guidelines for the State report (e.g. the CESCR). Most of the treaty bodies have also appointed country rapporteurs charged with preparing country reports.

After having scrutinized the states' reports the treaty bodies inform the government of the state of their findings. Most committees issue "concluding observations" which may contain quite explicit remarks on weak points of the reports and recommendations for follow-up. They are available after the meetings of the committees and become official once they are approved by the ECOSOC. These "concluding observations" can be very useful for NGOs both at international and national levels to address the respective government by referring to the conclusions of the Committee in the national press or even by publishing them.

Many states are reluctant in their states reports to include information on violations of the respective covenant. Reports tend to be glossy. In order to find out the weak spots in a country's implementation of the respective covenant or convention, supervisory committees have to actively research for alternative or additional information which can then be used in questioning the official report with the state representatives

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Human rights organisations have therefore introduced a practice of providing alternative information parallel to a state report, sometimes called parallel reports or shadow reports. If the respective NGO has a good standing most Committees will be open to introduce this parallel information into the discussion of the state report.

FIAN has developed "Guidelines for parallel reporting on the right to feed onself". These guidelines may be ordered at the International FIAN secretariat by NGO`s who want to submit a parallel report on specific cases of violation of the right to feed oneself and the right to food.

The possibilities of the reporting system are usually underestimated by NGOs. International human rights law will only advance if NGOs increasingly use the instruments available and press for new ones, for example for complaint procedures.

B. Complaint procedures and the right to petition

Individuals and NGOs may submit complaints on human rights violations if the accused state has declared that it accepts certain procedures linked to such petitions. Complaints procedures are not part of the respective covenant or convention, but optional and additional to the obligatory reporting procedure. This option can be realized by the state party either through declaration as in the CAT (Art. 22) and the CERD (Art.14), or by an Optional Protocol to the treaty, as for the Civil Covenant.

Complaints are usually received by the respective supervisory body to the convention or covenant: The Committee on Civil and Political Rights looks into complaints under the Civil Covenant, the CAT into complaints under the Convention against Torture etc.. Before filing an international complaint under these procedures available domestic remedies must have been exhausted. This means that cases have been filed with the relevant national courts, if available. Refusal of courts to deal with such alleged violations or undue length of domestic procedures are normally seen as an exhaustion of remedies.

Complaints procedures have proved an important instrument to address individual cases and create a body of international jurisprudence around certain human rights.

Optional protocols for individual complaint procedures exist for the ICCPR and for CEDAW. A complaint procedure for the ICESCR is currently discussed in a working group. States are reluctant in particular concerning the right to petition under the Social Covenant. This new instrument therefore needs the full and vigorous support of human rights activists in all parts of the world. There are optional protocols such to the ICCPR and CRC, with which state parties can undertake additional obligations, without, however, allowing for a complaint procedure.

C. Other means to contribute to the work of the UN Human Rights System

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Besides parallel information and petitions there are many other ways for NGOs to support the work of the UN human rights system. NGO input is welcome not only in questions of factual information, but also in questions of human rights policy. Both types of "consultancy" can find their way into the UN decision making process.

For these consultative services the UN has introduced three types of consultative status:

Category I marks organisations which are broadly representative of major sections of population in a large number of countries, have considerable membership, are closely involved with the economic and social life of the people of the areas they represent, and are concerned with most of the activities of ECOSOC. Only a rather restricted group of very big organisations qualifies for category I.

Most NGOs with consultative status are in category II or on the "roster". Category II NGOs have a special competence, work in only a few of the fields of ECOSOC, but are known internationally. NGOs on the roster are will be asked for occasional consultative services.

NGOs in category I can ask items to be put on the agenda of ECOSOC. Categories I and II can send representatives to any meeting of ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies whereas organisations on the roster can only send representatives to meetings within their field of competence.

Written statements can be submitted on matters in the fields of competence of the NGOs. Category I statements can have 2000 words, category II can have 1500 words. Roster organisations can only submit written statements upon invitation. Category I and II may be heard upon their own request. Roster organisations may be heard upon request of the respective committee and recommendation by the Secretary General.

These are some of the formal points. In real political life at the UN, being in category II or on the roster still allows for most of the activities that human rights NGOs want to carry out - at least as long the respective body is receptive to a contribution from NGOs. NGOs with a good standing are invited to submit statements on the work of special rapporteurs or working groups. They can lobby to bring about specific new instruments or resolutions. They can bring about changes in the drafts suggested by governmental bodies. All of this, however, requires a fairly good inside knowledge and, if possible, a permanent presence of the organisation in Geneva. One way to address this difficulty is to co-operate with NGOs in Geneva, for example the International Service for Human Rights (see below). D. How to receive orientation on practical questions

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR, formerly: Centre for Human Rights) in Geneva is the UN administrative facility for the human rights system. It supports the treaty bodies and related institutions and the states in their contacts with the Commissions, Sub-Commission and committees of the UN. For NGO`s it is sometimes difficult to receive information from the understaffed Centre.

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There are a number of CSOs which provide information on practical questions concerning participation in Geneva. Here is one of them:

The International Service for Human Rights

An NGO which has specialised in supporting NGO's in their endeavours to bring information on human rights violations to the UN human rights system is the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva. It gives information how to contact the respective bodies and how to forward information to them. The Service provides in country work-shops for NGOs as well as training courses in Geneva at the time of the sessions of the CHR (March) and Sub-Commission (August). Besides regular publications like the "Human Rights Monitor" and the "Human Rights Documentation" the service publizes an "Orientation Manual" and an "Info-Pack" containing information on UN human rights procedures and a lot of relevant addresses. They are updated every year.

Publications can be ordered from the Service for Human Rights:

International Service for Human Rights P.O.Box 16 1, rue de Varembé CH-1211 Geneva 20 cic Switzerland Tel: +41-22-733 51 23 Fax: +41-22-733 08 26

International human rights organisations can be approached when it comes to questions of parallel reporting or complaints on violations of a human right in their mandate. For the right to adequate food and the right to feed oneself and parallel reporting on economic, social and cultural rights, FIAN provides specific guidelines and co-operates with other NGOs, who want to link into the UN system:

FIAN International P.O. Box 10 22 43 D-69012 Heidelberg Tel: +49-6221-830620 Fax: +49-6221-830545 Email: [email protected] Website: www.fian.org

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13. Using Mechanisms of Domestic Human Rights Law

13.1 Relating domestic law to human rights

In many countries states' obligations under human rights have already been legally implemented to a considerable degree: There is a lot of social legislation, labour codes, criminal law, public law etc., that is closely linked to the implementation of specific human rights like the right to social security, the right to just working conditions or the right to personal security. This link was perhaps not explicitly made when passing the legislation. Nevertheless the legislation serves the purpose of human rights. Hence many violations of human rights can in fact be addressed in national courts by invoking existing legislation.

Whether it makes sense to do so, will depend on a number of circumstances: First of all, victims and their support groups must know about the specific piece of legislation that implements a certain human right that is violated in their case. What is needed is more than legal literacy: People have to be able to relate domestic legislation to human rights and to identify breaches of these laws as violations of human rights. Human rights education with a specific target group must therefore include a study of domestic legislation pertinent to those violations of human rights that confront the target group. Lack of knowledge is the first reason for the fact that domestic law implementing human rights is currently underused by human rights activists and by the victims.

The second reason for this under-use can be a malfunctioning of the domestic legal system: We have to be aware that human rights related cases deal with oppression and are therefore touchy issues. It takes courageous judges and advocates to do a good job. The latter have to be prepared to earn rather little money from the victims of violations, who often have to rely on state legal aid - as they would otherwise be unable to go to court at all.

A third problem is the time factor: Victims need quick redress and therefore a judgement after a reasonable period of time. Delaying a stay order or judgement is tantamount to denying the protection of the law to those whose livelihoods and well- being depend on an expeditious and determined court action - even against powerful interests and state authorities: Justice delayed is justice denied. This is a sad truth in many human rights cases, which leaves the poor with the impression that the courts are against them, even without a court's outright corruption or connivance with vested interests. Many victims would therefore rather seek extra-judicial remedies, even if the relevant domestic law is available. Human rights activists have to boldly expose such cases of judicial malfunctioning that threaten the very rule of law in the country.

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13.2 Determining failures in enforcement

Even if a judgement was passed in favour of the victims - it is not always clear that it will also be enforced: Executive authorities sometimes simply ignore judgements. If such authorities are influenced by powerful political or business interests, courts will sometimes have difficulties to see their judgements enforced. All this, of course, is by itself a violation of (civil) human rights, and has to be exposed in order to make existing law a tool for the realisation of all human rights. In many cases such public pressure (national and/or international) has moved reluctant authorities to enforce a judgement.

Law enforcement is not only important, when it comes to judgements. It is also important as it informs the attitude of the law enforcement authorities and public administration. They have to understand their duties and carry them out without being told to do so by court order. Here human rights training of law enforcement staff has a great importance.

13.3 Addressing gaps in implementation

Legislation and programmes that don't exist cannot be used to realise human rights. When the human rights movement wants to see specific legislation and programmes introduced, it has to address not only the judiciary, but also the legislators. In their argument activists may be able to refer to international or constitutional law and it may be possible to obtain a court order requesting the legislature to advance such legislation.

The lack of implementation opens a lot of venues for action. Human rights education should encourage victims and support groups to identify the most important lacunae and build alliances to put them on the agenda of the legislature.

13.4 Applying international human rights law in domestic courts

Many countries are duty-bound to human rights under international law. This holds in particular for the states parties to the International Covenants. What does this mean for the position of human rights in the domestic law of such a state? Can a judge base a judgement merely on human rights that bind the state under international law? Norms in international law that refer to domestic situations (like human rights) are called "self-executing", if they can be directly invoked by a domestic court without any further domestic legislation to build on or to interpret. So far judges have hesitated to do this - at least in the case of economic, social and cultural rights.

There is nothing, however, in theory that would prevent human rights norms of the Covenants from being considered self-executing. What is lacking is rather the awareness and the commitment of the judges. In fact, human rights education (especially with the judiciary) should encourage such direct application of human rights norms from international law. There is also an indirect way of applying international norms in domestic courts: The interpretation of relevant domestic law in

FIAN International 109 g32e The Road to Freedom the light of the norms of international human rights law. Sometimes courts see a need to interpret existing legislation in a specific case. Those who hesitate to base a judgement directly on international human rights law can still make interpretative use of it. In fact, judges must assume that domestic law is not only coherent with human rights norms, but that the domestic legislative bodies had the intent to implement international human rights law through national legislation. Hence an interpretation in this sense is called for.

In practise, however, courts are both hesitant to make indirect or direct use of the Covenants' terms in the case of economic, social and cultural rights. This is only partially due to the misconceptions weakening economic and social rights as human rights. It has more of a practical than a theoretical reason: Judges don't know the Covenants and the jurisprudence developed around them and they don't know that they can access these norms directly: International law referring to individuals still seems to be something unusual to most judges. There is a large field to be explored by domestic judges in order to allow for the realization of human rights recognized in international law. This makes the education of the national judiciary a worthwhile effort for human rights activists.

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The individual having duties to other individuals and to the community to which he belongs, is under a responsibility to strive for the promotion and observance of the rights recognized in the present Covenant.

From the preamble to the International Convenants on Human Rights

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14. Glossary of Human Rights Terms and Concepts

This is a directory of definitions on basic terms and concepts in human rights. It is meant as a point of reference while studying and as a means of checking one's understanding. Words in refer to another term in this glossary that could further clarify the concept at hand.

Accountability Accountability is a mechanism that makes a private or public authority take its responsibilities serious, respond to grievances, provide remedies in case of malfunctioning and accept personal consequences for those responsible for its malfunctioning.

Breach A failure to meet an obligation is called a breach of the obligation. A breach of an obligation under a human right is called a violation of this human right.

Charter based system Human rights mechanisms and bodies of the UN that are based on articles of the UN Charter (rather than on international human rights treaties) are called "charter based". Charter-based is for example the (established by ECOSOC) or the 1503 procedure.

Civil rights All human rights that have to do with the proper functioning of the judicial system and the standards of penal systems, like the right to a fair trial or prisoners' rights.

Classes of human rights The five classes of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights refer to human rights in different spheres of life (the economic sphere, social sphere, cultural sphere, the judicial sphere, and political sphere). As these spheres are difficult to separate, so is it difficult to clearly allocate all rights in all situations to one specific class ().

Common sector (programmes) Programmes under economic human rights that provide guaranteed jobs (for the common good and mostly on the community level) at for all persons who want to work for the common good.

Compatible ethics A system of ethics is compatible with human rights, if it contains as moral duties a) to pay absolute respect to the basic human standards of other persons b) to try to protect and perhaps fulfil the basic human standards of other persons b) to use the state or the community of states to provide the legal protection and fulfilment of the basic standards of vulnerable communities and persons. Different ethics can be compatible with human rights.

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Convention-based system A system of UN human rights organs and procedures based on international treaties (like the covenants, conventions etc.). Compare to .

Crime (against human rights) Any act of a third party destroying the human standards of a vulnerable person or community. In general: every act or omission breaching a legislation, which implements human rights, or failing to meet the moral duties arising as a consequence of human rights. Crimes against human rights are sometimes just called human rights . This is a lax use of language as human rights can only be violated by states.

Deprivation A person is in a state of deprivation under a certain human right, if the related is not attained. Example: A person deprived of food suffers deprivation under the right to food. If the deprivation is due to a breach of states' obligations under this right (and not beyond the control and resources of states), then this breach is a violation of human rights. Sometimes in lax language deprivation (a quality of life) and violation (an act or omission of a state) are simply identified.

Deprived person A deprived person is a person living in deprivation. In lax language we sometimes hear something like "The person is deprived of her human right to food.". Strictly speaking, this is impossible, as human rights can be violated but cannot be taken away. The correct expression would be to say that the person is deprived of her basic standard - or concretely: The person is deprived of food.

Discrimination In the human rights context discrimination would be any act by a state authority that gives persons a disadvantage in the protection or fulfilment of their basic standard - on the basis of race, creed, gender, nationality, or social origin. Human rights have to observe the principle of .

Domestic obligation A state’s obligation towards persons in the state’s territory ().

Economic Rights Human rights that deal with the economic sphere, in particular the right to work, and the rights at work including labour rights.

Economic Security Policies Policy measures that regulate the market economy in order to secure or provide possibilities for economic participation to everybody seeking such participation. Together with the economic security policies fully implement the obligation to fulfil under economic human rights.

Employment (Guarantee) Programmes

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Programmes that offer work of public interest to all persons seeking such work, see .

Enforcement Enforcement of a human right is the state's act of meeting its generic obligation under this right. In or such acts may require the use of coercive measures by the state (like police force). Enforcement of human rights law means that states enforce laws, rules and regulations, which the respective human right.

External Obligation An extraterritorial obligation of a state exercised through national authorities. ().

Extraterritorial Obligation A state’s obligation towards a person abroad.

Freedom In human rights, freedom is the absence of .

Full realization of a human right X This is the result of the process of undertaken by the vulnerable persons or communities or their support groups on the basis of a far reaching of the right, which allows the human standard to be attained in this process.

Fulfilment System A fulfilment system under the human right X is a system of legislation, orders, programmes and procedures which meets the obligation to fulfil under the right X for everybody. The fulfilment system under the right to food for example includes .

Human rights A human right is a relationship between (vulnerable) individuals or communities and states resp. the community of states. Human rights exist before they are recognized by states. The basic nature of this relationship is to protect people from by third parties and by the states themselves. A human right is a source of the generic states obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the related basic human status. A human right must not be seen as a vague "legimate need", but as the source of clear states obligations.

Human standard A human standard recognized by human right X is a certain minimum quality of life manifest in certain situations (like access to food, political participation etc.) that people normally aspire and whose absence would be seen as a form of deprivation. A basic human standard recognized by a human rights is called its . In lax language a basic human standard is sometimes identified with the human right by which it is recognized. The concepts of and then get mixed up.

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Identity One of the fundamental principles in basic human standards, as cultural identity, religious identity, national identity etc.

Implementation The implementation of a human right X is the process of creating tools (implements) for vulnerable people under human right X to make the state or community of states meet their obligations under human right X. (see , )

Indivisibility The indivisibility of human rights describes the fact that human rights from different (and even within classes) cannot be separated from one another: If one right X is threatened, so is right Y (and vice versa). Indivisibility of human rights arises from the indivisibility of classes and the indivisibility of fundamental principles like security, identity and participation. Indivisibility and also describe that different human rights are in principle of equal importance.

Interdependence Interdependence of human rights describes the fact that the implementation and realization of various human rights depend upon each other (like right to political participation and right to education etc.); closely linked to .

Intergovernmental organisations International organisations run by the community of states or a group of states.

Internal obligations Domestic obligations that states exercise through national authorities (cf. ).

International Obligations States’ Obligations exercised through international authorities, such as intergovernmental organisations .

Justiciability Justiciability of a violation is the possibility to bring a violation to court and find remedy. Justiciability of a human right is a state of legal implementation where all violations of this right are justiciable.

Minimum wage A wage level which will provide (under the normal working week) a decent standard of living. An employment relation that ignores minimum wages does not fulfil the human standard of just working conditions.

Non-discrimination A human rights principle establishing that states must not - in meeting their obligations - distinguish between persons according to specific properties that have no relevance for the basic human standard in question. .

Normative content

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Cf. human standard

Oppression Oppression is directed against people. People are oppressed, if they suffer acts or omissions of oppression. An act of oppression is an act (or omission) of a state or a third party pushing people below the of their or keeping them in a situation, where they are deprived of their .

Obligation to fulfil (the human standard X) The states' obligation to use the maximum of its available resources to establish the human standard of a vulnerable person or community deprived of it.

Obligation to protect (the human standard X) The states' obligation to use the maximum of its available resources to prevent third parties from destroying the human standard of a vulnerable person or community.

Obligation to respect (under human right X) The states' obligation not to destroy people's human standard (recognized by the related human right).

Participation One of the fundamental principles in basic human standards, as political participation, economic participation, etc.

Realization (of human right X). Realization is the process of victims and/or their support communities using procedures in order to make a state (or the community of states) keep their obligations under human right X in a specific situation. In realization the people are the actors, in implementation the state. (See and ). is the result of the result of realization process, once the basic standard is attained and can always be re- established by realization.

Resource Program A programme in the of a human right that consists in the transfer of productive resources (land, capital, tools) rather than goods for consumption. Example: Agrarian reform.

Security principle One of the fundamental principles in basic human standards, as social security, personal security etc.

Self-employment Programme These programmes are part of the under the right to feed oneself and the right to work. They provide access to resources and tools to integrate people into the market sector managing their own "business" as a peasant, fisherfolk, trader, artisan etc..

Social Rights

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Human rights that deal with the social sphere in the narrow sense, i.e. with situations where persons do not participate in economic activities: the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to social security, rights of mothers, children and the family, the right to health.

States reports Periodic reports of states parties to international human rights treaties about the state of implementation and realization of the norms enshrined in these treaties.

Sustainability A way of meeting obligations-to-fulfil and obligations-to-protect that does not jeopardize the basic human standard of future generations.

Threshold The level of human standards (access to food, to political participation, fair trial etc.) that is just acceptable under human rights. Threshold is sometimes used to describe the point where the deprivation of the sets in.

Transition The change from an unsustainable or discriminatory economic or social system to a system that is in line with the human rights principles of sustainability and non- discrimination.

Treaty body A supervisory committee of experts for a human rights treaty. Example: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Universality of human rights The fact that human rights apply to all human beings independent of their specific cultural, historical or other backgrounds.

Violations of human rights A violation of a human right is either - A breach of a state's obligation under this human right, or - A discriminatory or unsustainable way of fulfiling or protecting the related human standard.

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15. Curricula for Workshops and Training Courses

The following suggestions for curricula divide the subject matters of this textbook into 12 units.

Each unit is meant to be covered in two 90 minutes sessions. This requires rather disciplined work with some preparation from the side of the students. Students and teachers should feel free to take double as much time as the case may be. Most units already consist of two parts. When designing a course, it should be kept in mind that ample time be provided for discussion, for repetition and for the quizzes in chapter 16.

15.1 Units for basic human rights education

The following list of units describes the content and the aims of each unit. It refers to the chapters and sections of this book.

Unit 1: Human rights as safeguards against oppression i) Human standards (2.1, 2.2) Aim: - Understand that the purpose of Human Rights is to defend vulnerable individuals and groups against oppression of all sorts (economic, social, cultural, civil or political oppression). ii) Oppression and Deprivation (2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7) Aims: - Understand the concept of basic human standard (or human rights standard) as a quality of life enjoying in different situations security, identity and participation - Understand deprivation as the absence of human rights standard. - Understand oppression as an act leading to (or maintaining) deprivation. - Understand human rights as safeguards against such acts.

Unit 2: The 16 Groups of Human Rights (Table of 16 Groups, Introduction to Part II)

Aims - Know the 5 classes of human rights - Know the 16 groups of human rights - Have a first idea about the two Covenants and where to find each of the rights in these Covenants.

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Unit 3: Human Rights as Sources of States Obligations i) Human Rights as Sources of States Obligations (2.1, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1) Aims: - Understand that rights and obligations are two sides of a formalized relationship between the obligations-holder and the beneficiary under a right. - Understand that the obligations-holder under a human right is the State / Community of States. - Understand the concept of "human rights violation" as States' breaching an obligation. ii) The Spectrum of States Obligations (3.2, 3.3, 3.4) Aim: - Understand the concepts of respect-bound, protection-bound and fulfilment-bound obligations as something existing for each human right in the 5 different classes of human rights iii) International Obligations and External Obligations (3.5,3.6,3.7) Aims: - Understand the importance of human rights to safeguard human beings in a time of globalization and some basic concepts to operationalize global obligations - Understand the relation between states and national as well as international authorities. - Know to distinguish national and international, internal and external as well as domestic and extra-territorial obligations

Unit 4: Indivisibility, Non-discrimination i) Indivisibility and Universality (2.3) Aim: - Understand these concepts ii) Non-Discrimination and Sustainability Provision (4.4) Aim: - Understand the concept of non-discrimination in human rights and sustainability as an extension of the non-discrimination provision.

Unit 5: Realization and Justiciability i) Implementation and Realization of Human Rights (4.1, 4.3) Aims: - Understand the concept of implementation as something basically done by states: - Providing "implements" (tools, mechanisms, procedures) so that human rights can be used against oppression.

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- Understand the concept of realization as something the victims and their supporters do: Having such "implements" available and successfully using them. - Understand the concept of enforcement ii) Justiciability (4.2) Aim: - Understand the meaning and importance of justiciability.

Unit 6: Human Rights, Ethics and Lax Language (2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 4.5)

Aims: - Being able to properly distinguish human rights from ethics and understand their relationship - Understand that it is important to avoid lax language

Unit: 7: Economic Rights (5)

Aim: - Understand the definition of economic rights - Understand the two groups of economic rights and know how to distinguish the right to work from labour rights - Be able to counter the misconception that only fulfilment-bound obligations are important in economic human rights (and only respect-bound and protection-bound obligations in political rights)

Unit 8: Social Rights (6)

Aim: - Understand the definition of social rights - Understand the 3 different groups of social rights

Unit 9: Cultural Rights, Political Rights (7, 9)

Aims: - Understand the definition of cultural and political rights - Understand the 3 different groups of cultural rights and their internal relationship - Understand the 5 different groups of political rights and their internal relationship

Unit 10: Civil Rights (8)

Aims: - Understand the definition of civil rights - Understand the 3 groups of civil rights

Unit 11: Empowering victims and building alliances (10, 11)

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Aims: - Understand how human rights empower the victims - Understand how human rights help in building alliances

Unit 12: Using human rights law (12)

Aims: - Understand the sources of international law. - Understand the recognition of human rights in international law. - Know the main features of the UN-Charter-based and convention- based human rights mechanisms. - Know the basic instruments in international human rights law - Know the intergovernmental bodies promoting and monitoring human rights - Know how to participate in the UN human rights system - Know how to strengthen and use domestic human rights law.

15.2 Suggestions for human rights education and training

Educators can use one of the following types of education depending on the respective circumstances, the time available etc.. Basically we can distinguish between talks, evening classes, one-day-workshop, weekend workshop, courses in schools, colleges and universities.

This textbook can give little more than the substance matter. Different interesting forms of learning, and the use of lots of examples of current interest, are strongly recommended to the instructor. Use should be made of different methods of visualization, such as overhead slides, projectors, pin-boards, wall-papers etc. as the case may be. Material for Visualization material is available from human rights organisations, or example from FIAN (www.fian.org).

A. Talks and lectures

Talks should not last much longer than 30 minutes. Most audiences get sleepy already after a shorter period. All you can get across well in a talk is one or two aims out of any of the units above. Concentrate completely on one aim that you want to reach in a talk (depending on the audience).

B. Evening classes

Evening classes may give you the opportunity to work through one unit.

C. Short workshops (One-day seminars)

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One-day workshops may allow you to cover 3 units (two in the morning, one in the afternoon). Suggested seminars are

- "Crash course" (Units 1,2,3) - Political and legal use of human rights (Units 1,11,12) - Sustainability and non-discrimination (Units 1, 3, 4) - Realisation, implementation, justiciability (Units 2, 5, 12) - Ethics and human rights (Units 1, 5(i), 6)

D. Long workshops (weekend seminars)

Weekend seminars may go from Saturday morning to Sunday noon and contain up to 5 units. Some of the suggestions for short workshops can be dealt with in long workshops, if you want to take a little more time. Topics specifically suggested for such long workshops are:

- ABC of human rights (Units 1,2,3,5,11) - Conceptual details of human rights (Units 1,3,4,5,6) - The 16 groups of human rights (Units 7,8,9,10)

E. Courses

Courses can be taught as a series of evening classes or workshops, or as a semester course in a school, college or university.

The course "Basic human rights concepts" could contain units 1 to 6, 11, 12.. The course "The 16 Groups of Human Rights" could contain units 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 The "Complete Course" would contain all 12 units

If possible a sequence of such evening classes would arrange this material in a series of evenings. This type of instruction permits a rather careful educational experience of the basic concepts one after the other. Such instruction should include ample time for consideration of the questions for discussion and the quizzes.

Secondary schools, journalists' colleges, professional training of school teachers could also be taken into consideration for course work. The units mentioned above can be integrated at school into instruction units of subjects such as civics, ethics, philosophy, social sciences, economics.

Courses in teachers' colleges or in journalists' colleges are important as they deal with multipliers. Via teachers and journalists the full message of human rights can be rooted in the young generation and the media.

Economic and social human rights are not at all well established in terms of university courses or teaching. Open minded universities can promote the discussion of these important concepts by offering a platform for discussion and debate among the students. Resource persons can be invited both from NGOs, the UN or those universities that have already started work on the full range of human rights.

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16. Quizzes on Human Rights

The text so far contains many points for discussion as well as FAQs, which the trainer can use to build tests and quizzes for the students. The following two quizzes A and B deal with fundamental questions of human rights in a cursory manner and could be used for example as a final test for crash courses. Each quiz consists of several parts that could be used separately with the different training units outlined in chapter 15.

The complete version of these quizzes is given with suggested answers. It can be used by the student at home to test his or her understanding of the subject in terms of a self evaluation and to prepare for quizzes in the course.

Note to the student: The Quizzes are fairly demanding and careful preparation and memorizing is necessary in order to reach a good result. For this matter we give answers to all questions of the quizzes in order to facilitate you checking your knowledge of the respective chapters or units. Obviously, studying these answers is also a good way of avoiding unpleasant surprizes when the quizzes come up in the course.

QUIZ A: The Basic Concepts of Human Rights

A.I. Rights in General

1. What is a right? A right is a relationship between two sides - a beneficiary and an obligations- holder. The relationship is described by the content of the right, that is by a claim which the beneficiary has on the duty-holder and by the corresponding obligations of the duty-holder.

2. What is necessary in order to describe a right? It is necessary to describe the beneficiary, the obligations-holder and the content of the right.

A.II. Human standard

3. What is the human standard? The human standard is a quality in economic, social, cultural, civil and political life to which every human being is entitled and which must not be destroyed by others, and which states should guarantee. 4. Can you name three basic principles from which the human standards can be derived? Security, identity, participation. 5. Why are these three basic principles of human standards indivisible and interdependent? Security cannot be guaranteed without keeping one's identity and without participation.

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Identity cannot be maintained without security. A full identity cannot develop in isolation but only in participation. The courage for participation has to be built on security. A true contribution in participation needs identity. 6. Can you use these three basic principles of human standards in order to derive details about the human standard in the economic, social, cultural, civil or political realms of life? Give details for two out of these five. Economic security: protection against unemployment Economic identity: preference for professions and working conditions allowing for some self-determination in dignity Economic participation: access to work as self-employment or wage employment. Political security: personal security against political persecution Political identity: freedom of opinion Political participation: freedom to form or join political parties, to run for an office, to vote etc. 7. How can the human standard be defined in the economic, social, cultural, civil and political fields? It comes about by applying the three principles to the economic, social, cultural, civil or political field. 8. What does it mean to respect somebody's human standard? It means not to destroy the human standard where it is satisfied. 9. What does it mean for a state to protect somebody's human standard? It means to prevent destruction of somebody's human standard by a third party. 10. What does it mean to fulfil somebody’s human standard? It means in a situation where the human standard is not satisfied to make sure that the basic standard be satisfied.

A.III. Freedom and Oppression

11. Can you use the human standard to describe oppression? Yes. Oppression is every act or omission destroying a person's human standard where it is satisfied or keeping a person in a situation where her human standard is not satisfied. 12. How are freedom and oppression related? Freedom is the absence of oppression.

A.IV. Definition of Human Rights

13. What is a human right? As with every other right we have to describe beneficiary, obligations-holder and content. The beneficiaries are human beings or groups. The obligations- holder is the state of the community of states. The content of the right includes a human standard, which is the first key elements of a human right. Key element 2 and 3 for a human right are the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human standard, and the duty to legally implement these obligations justiciably and expeditiously.

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14. Can you name the five classes of human rights and describe the pattern how they are defined? Economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. The content of economic human rights is the economic human standard derived by applying the three basic principles to the economic field of life. The content of social human rights is the social human standard derived by applying the three basic principles to the social field of life. etc. 15. Can you name two reasons why different human rights are indivisible and interdependent? They are independent because the three basic principles that generate the human standard are indivisible and interdependent and because the economic, social, cultural, civil and political realms of life are indivisible and interdependent. 16. Are human rights a foundation for interpersonal ethics? No. In interpersonal ethics beneficiaries and obligation-holders are persons, whereas in human rights the obligations-holders are the states and the community of states. 17. Are rights derived from obligations or obligations from rights? What would be the difference? Both is possible. In the first case, the emphasis is on obligations and the obligation-holder and the beneficiary is more in the background, the second case strengthens the position of the beneficiary versus the obligation-holder. 18. Are interpersonal ethics built on rights or on duties? Almost all systems of interpersonal ethics are built on duties. 19. What condition has to be met so that a system of interpersonal ethics be compatible with human rights? When are political ethics compatible with human rights? The duty to respect the human standard should be implied by (or at least compatible with) the duties of the interpersonal ethics. The duties to protect and fulfil human standards should be moral duties. Political ethics should see the state duty-bound to guarantee that human standards for everyone be protected and fulfilled.

A.V. States obligations

20. What are respect-bound (protection-bound, fulfilment-bound) obligations under a human right? These are the obligations entailed respect (protect, fulfil) the human standard under this right - not to destroy it (respect), prevent and persecute its destruction by third parties (protect), guarantee the standard for those deprived of it. 21. How are the respect-bound (protection-bound, fulfilment-bound) obligations reflected in art.2 of the ICESCR? States have to respect, protect and fulfil the human standard to the maximum of available resources. This includes the implementation of these obligations by legislation and programmes, their promotion and enforcement so that the basic human standard can be realized by the beneficiaries. 22. Explain the differences between internal, external and international obligations.

There are national resp. international states obligations, namely those which states exercise through national resp. international authorities. Internal obligations are

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A.VI. Full realisation, non-discrimination

23. Can you give a precise description of the "implementation" of a human right? Implementing a human right means for states to provide for programmes and legal procedures (programmes and legislation, i.e. the "implements") which can be successful used by the beneficiaries (and their supporters) - to protect or satisfy their human standard related to this human right; and/or - to get the states to meet their obligations. 24. Can you give a precise description of the "enforcement" of a human right? Enforcing a human right means for states to not only to create legislation and programmes but also to carry these out using their monopoly of power. 25. Can you give a precise description of the "promotion" of a human right? Promoting a human right means for states to facilitate people's use of existing legislation and programmes implementing the human right, in particular to inform about and propagate existing implements and to train beneficiaries to make use of them 26. What is meant by justiciability? A violation of a human right is justiciable if the case can be brought before a court and the court can provide remedy. A human right is justiciable if all its violations are justiciable. 27. Can you give a precise description of the "full realization" of a human right? A human right is fully realized if the following conditions are met - the states fully implement this right, i.e. the states provide legal and other procedures ready for use by the beneficiaries to protect or satisfy the related basic standard; - each individual is in a position to make use of these procedures successfully; - the basic standard is enjoyed by everybody. 28. What is meant by the human rights principle of non-discrimination? The state/community of states meets its protection- and fulfilment-bound obligations (which may be limited due to the availability of resources) without creating a disadvantage for persons on the basis of ethnic or social origin, gender or creed. 29. What is meant by the human rights principle of sustainability? The states meet their respect-, protection- and fulfilment-bound obligations without discriminating against future generations, i.e. they safeguard the human standard of future generations not less than the standard of present generations.

A.VII. Violation

30. What is a violation of a human right? A violation of a human right is - an act or omission of a state / the community of states breaching a related states obligations; or - a discriminatory practice in meeting states' obligations, in particular protection- and fulfilment-bound obligations.

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31. Can national or international authorities violate human rights? In what sense? An act or omission of a national or international authority can be said to violate a human right, if the failure to address such an act or omission would involve the leading state or states in a violation. Strictly speaking, only states can violate human rights,

QUIZ-B The 16 Groups of Human Rights

I. Economic Human Rights

32. What is the difference between economic and social human rights? The economic realm of life has to do with the production of goods and services, whereas the social field of life means the general support structure of society, in particular when a person does not participate in economic activities. 33 Can you list the two main groups of economic human rights? The right to work, and labour rights. 34. Can you describe the different aspects of the right to work ? The right to work includes the right to earn a decent living by economic activities be it self-employment or wage-employment. The right to work also includes that this work be freely chosen or accepted: Personal preferences must be respected as far as possible. 35. Can you describe some misunderstandings of the right to work? Work is sometimes identified with wage labour, whereas its meaning is much wider. Moreover some interpretations only include the aspect of not limiting people's freedom of choice among work offered, and not the fact that for each and everybody work must be made available to begin with. 36. Can you describe the right to just working conditions? Whereas the right to work refers to people's access to activities earning their livelihoods, labour rights are rights safeguarding a person's conditions at work in self-employment or wage-employment - including in particular freedom from slavery. Labour rights are rights at work, and include the right to strike.

II. Social Human Rights

37. Can you list the four main groups of social human rights? The right to an adequate standard of living, the right to social security, the right to health, the rights of families, mothers and children. 38. Is the right food / to an adequate standard of living an economic right or a social right? The right to an adequate standard of living guarantees a certain standard of living is not conditioned on the beneficiary’s work. It is therefore not an economic but a social right. 39. Can you describe the human rights standard of the right to an adequate standard of living in terms of income, capital and (relative as well as absolute) poverty? An adequate standard of living requires a minimum income for everybody at all times. Adequacy of the standard of living also implies that a person be equipped

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(if necessary through transfers) not only with income, but also with capital. Whereas a minimum income must be guaranteed at all times, a capital transfer may occur only once, in the early period of adult life – as suggested by some under the slogan of „basic capital“. Others emphasize that it will be hard to consider even an average livelihood as “adequate” and in line with non- discrimination in political participation, unless there are provisions for a maximum income/capital. Relative poverty describes the absence of a relatively adequate standard of living. Relative income poverty occurs if the income is below a certain percentage of per capita GNP (the relative poverty line). Absolute poverty describes the absence of the satisfaction of basic needs. 40. Can you describe the right to social security? Social security (the human standard under this right) could perhaps be defined as the totality of provisions (in family, group or society) that safeguard a person's standard of living - in particular (or - according to some interpretations exclusively) in situations where the person is not in a position to gain and sustain this standard by economic activities (sickness, unemployment, childhood, old age). The right to social security prevents the breakdown of living conditions under such circumstances and can include more than a minimum adequate standard of living. The state has the obligation to respect and protect such traditional or private provisions and to fulfil social security by certain transfers in cash or kind if such provisions are insufficient. 41. Can you describe the right to health? The states must not destroy health (the human standard under this right) and have to protect health against destruction by third parties. In case of shortcomings in health, states have to take measures to the maximum of available resources (and in a non-discriminatory way) to restore health. The maximum use of available resources and efficiency require that the resources deployed to address shortcomings in health must be used efficiently to give maximum effect for a maximum number of people. Hence there must be a priority for - basic health care for all in the event of sickness, - children and mothers, - environmental and industrial hygiene and - the prevention, treatment and control of diseases.

42. Can you describe specific rights of families and children? These rights include the protection of the family and the freedom of marriage, equal rights or the spouses in marriage, children's right to a nationality, name and registration and an especially protected standard.

IV. Cultural Rights

43. Can you list three groups of cultural rights? The right to education, minority rights and the right to participate in cultural life. 44. Are you aware of the four main elements of the right to education?

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They are -the right to compulsory primary education; -the progressive availability of free secondary and higher education for all, -free choice of free schools; -education must enable people to participate effectively in a free society and must promote understanding, tolerance and friendship. 45. Can you list three specific minority rights? The rights to enjoy one's own culture, to speak one's own language, to profess and practice one's own religion. 46. Can you name three states obligations deriving from the right to participate in cultural life? The states are obliged to conserve, develop and diffuse culture and science and their benefits; to safeguard the freedom of the arts and sciences; to encourage and develop international contacts and co-operation in the cultural and scientific fields

V. Civil Rights

47. Can you list four main groups of civil rights? - The right to personal security including prisoners rights - The right to a fair trial - The right to liberty of movement - The right to freedom of opinion 48. Would you please specify five prisoners' rights? - The prohibition of arbitrary arrest - The prohibition of torture - The abolishment of capital punishment - The prohibition of forced labour - The right to be protected from inhumane penal conditions 49. Can you name three elements of a fair trial - Recognition and equality before a court - Assumption of innocence - Prohibition of ex post facto laws

VI. Political Rights

50. Can you list five main groups of political rights?

- The right to participation in political life - The right to freedom of opinion - The freedom of peaceful assembly - The freedom of association - The right to freedom of movement 51. Could you please name three elements of the right to participation in political life? - Participation in the conduct of political affairs directly or through freely chosen representatives;

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- Universal, free and equal elections by secret ballot guaranteeing the free expression of the political will; - Access to public service in one's country. 52. Can you name four specific rights under the freedom of opinion, as well as some provision required by human rights to limit such freedoms? - the right to freedom of thought, of conscience, of religion, and of speech; - the right to freedom of speech; - prohibition of propaganda against human rights. 53. What is meant by the freedom of peaceful assembly? This right makes sure that only a minimum of restrictions compatible with or required by human rights is put on free assembly and specifies these restrictions. 54. What is meant by the freedom of association? It means the right to form and join organisations, including trade unions. It makes sure that only a minimum of restrictions compatible with or required by human rights is put on organisations and specifies these restrictions. 55. What does the right to liberty of movement contain? It contains for example provisions to protect foreigners in case of expulsion, and the right to enter one's own country.

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17. Answers to Questions for Discussion

Most questions for discussion are really not much more than exercises on the understanding of the text. Careful reading of the text can give the answers. Others are really open for grabs and are meant as a starting point to carry the arguments of the text a little further. A third category is important enough to deserve special attention - and hints for replies. They carry a * in the textbook.

Here is a list of suggested answers for the questions carrying a *:

2.2 Children/young people may be seen to have a moral duty to offer their seat in a bus to an old person having to stand. From this duty, older persons might construe a moral right to obtain a seat from young people. If this moral right turned into a legal right, kids who did not follow could be legally prosecuted. This would probably over-stress the law: Legal rights should just cover the “most basic” parts of general moral rights.

2.5 No, a human rights violation is a breach of states obligations (as the state is the duty- holder in human rights). Hence a violation is an act/omission of states - not a situation. A situation may be the result of violations, but is not a violation in itself.

2.6 Case 1: physical integrity, freedom from torture Case 2: access to food, an adequate standard of living Case 3: access to work, an adequate standard of living Case 4: access to work/to productive resources, life and physical integrity Case 5: access to one’s own culture, to work, to livelihood, access to food, to physical integrity, access to health services, political participation (in decision making on the sanctuary).

2.7 Case 1: security (of physical integrity), identity (foreigners are victims) Case 2: security (to satisfy basic needs), participation (the victims cannot properly participate in the life of society.

Case 3: security (to satisfy basic needs), identity (their traditional tribal occupation) Case 4: security (to physical integrity), identity (the persons are peasants and want to stay peasants), participation (the landless are excluded from participating in the economic life for lack of land).

Case 5: security (to satisfy basic needs, to enjoy physical integrity), identity (the victims tribal identity is linked to their ancestral lands), participation (the victims were excluded from health services and from decision making on the sanctuary).

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2.12 The human principles (security, identity, participation) are indivisible and interdependent. And so are the different realms of live (the economic, social, cultural, civil and political).

2.14 It is useful, because it allows for a cultural variety of interpersonal ethics, and recognizes human rights as a technical and administrative matter of a modern state, rather than a cultural one.

2.17 The human standard can be seen as having a “threshold”, such as a minimum wage or minimum standards for a fair trial: Here the standard is seen as a point on a scale (with numerical indicators), where small numbers indicate that the standard is not satisfied. The threshold would then be the point on the scale above which a situation starts being acceptable. “Pushing/keeping down” means moving/keeping the indicator of the situation down below the threshold on this scale.

2.19 Case 4: The landlords who planned and/or financed the massacre committed crimes against human rights. Of course, they also committed crimes under Brazilian law.

Case 5: The leaders of the tourist industry who promoted the alienation of Adivasi land committed crimes. The goons beating up the tribal leaders after the meeting at Dhorkhana are criminals against human rights (and also under Indian law).

2.22 Human standard / human right: Human standard is a quality of life recognized by the related human right. It is the first key element of a human right. The human right itself is a relationship between vulnerable individuals/groups and states with three key elements: The human standard on which everybody has a valid claim, the states obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human standard and the states’ duty to implement these obligations in law. Identifying human standards and human rights gives rise to confusion and/or identification of the next two terms as well. Violation / deprivation: A deprivation is the absence of the human standard: A broken leg (absence of physical integrity). A violation is a breach of a states obligation: A state official tortured a person and broke her leg. Violation / crime: A crime is an act of a third party destroying a human standard: The person was beaten up by the drunken neighbour. A violation is an act by a state or states authority: It was the police who was beating the person up.

3.1 If the potential victims enjoy the human standard respect- and protection-bound obligations apply. If the human standard is not satisfied the obligation to fulfil is called for.

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3.2 The obligations will be carried by “state-line” entities - those who exercise control over the territory.

3.3 No, the resources available to a state are those available to society and not those the state deems to include in its budget.

3.10 I women are not allowed to vote, are excluded from political education or have to cope with other special handicaps in political participation, states have to make sure that women can vote and have such handicaps removed.

3.12 It is a legal principle that the intention is irrelevant in considerations whether something is a crime or not. They do, however, have an impact on the judgement about the seriousness of the crime and on its punishment. Similarly the question whether an act (or more importantly - an omission) is a violation must not look at the intention but a the result.

3.16 Here is a sample proposal: The first step should be to assess the programme cost for guaranteeing the priority fulfilment needs for each right (something called by the experts “the core content”). Perhaps there could be agreement that the maximum of domestically available resources for the fulfilment of core content could be stipulated to cover at least the global average percentage of the GDP which OECD states spend on social services as defined for example in the World Development Reports. Covering the deficit (if any) between this figure and the national cost would be seen as an international obligation. The funds to comply with this obligation could be raised by a flat tax from each state party or country. If one side in these joint programmes honours its obligation and the other side does not, neither side should be seen under an obligation to pick up the total cost. It would seem fair that the other side can only be seen under an obligation to provide the same portion of the necessary fund, as the failing side: If the international authority has to provide 60% of the programme and the (poor) nation state 40%, and the international authority only provides one half of its due amount (30% of the project cost), then the state can only be seen under an obligation to provide half of this amount as well (20% of total cost) – and vice versa. In both cases the programme can only be carried out at one half of the necessary level. The side (state or community of states parties) which triggered the lack of funds in such joint programmes would be seen in violation of human rights.

4.2 Implementation (in the sense of providing the necessary tools for people to defend and/or attain their human standard) is formally an act by the state. Experience shows, however, that states often have to be brought to the point of implementation by pressures from civil society.

4.7 Ethics are value systems implying duties between persons (interpersonal) or towards society, the state, or by the state or community of states (political). Human rights is an

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(essentially legal) relationship between individuals/groups and the state/community of states (see section 2.1). Human rights need conducive ethical environments to prosper. Ethical systems themselves are not meant to be implemented in law (this could be totalitarian), although some elements of ethical systems are backed up legally.

5.11 This could be done by considering the income relative to the local society: The Bill of Human Rights states that the minimum remuneration should allow the workers a decent living for themselves and their families in "accordance with the provisions of the present covenant". These provisions include, of course, the right to an adequate standard of living in ICESCR 11. For this matter the decent living referred to ICESCR 7 must at least provide an adequate standard of living (Group 3, below). There are good reasons to claim that it means more: As the right to an adequate standard of living holds unconditionally, whereas the decent living of ICESCR is seen as a result of economic activities and should provide a an extra recognition and incentive. If the adequate standard of living is linked to say 35% of the average income, then the income providing a decent living could be fixed at say 50%. Such a procedure gives rise to minimum wages by calculating the minimum decent income for a family and divide it by the normal hours of work.

6.6 The core content means the essential part of the normative content. This means that an essential part of the human standard is also singled out: Freedom from hunger is a consequence of the human standard “access to food”, but the latter contains much more. The core content describes in particular a priority for the fulfilment and protection in situations of scarcity or emergencies which render the fulfilment or protection of the full normative content impossible.)

9.5 This question is important for the understanding of the coherence and unity of human rights as reflected in the International Bill. For this matter we give below a solution to the "matrix problem", but we leave it to the reader to justify and explain the distribution of the 16 groups to the 15 matrix fields.

13.1 A modern state is characterised by the separation of legislative, judicative and executive powers - and built on the premise that the state is a service institution to the population living in its territory. These and other built in checks and balances provide the basis of the rule of law, which remains, however, fragile and needs the vigilance of civil society.

13.4 Human rights law is under the control of states. On the other hand human rights are prior to states and are inherent in each person. Human rights must be a source of inspiration for human rights law. Human rights law must not proclaim to “define” human rights, as this would expropriate the people and deprive them of their rights. Human rights are not subject to democratic processes - and even the most democratic state is a potential oppressor. Human rights must prevail as autonomously owned by each person.

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economic Social cultural civil/judicial political Security 2. Right to 3.Right to an 13b.Right to 9. Right to 13.a.Right to fair Adequate Freedom of Life and the Privacy working Standard of Thought, Personal conditions Living Conscience Security 13.c Right to and Religion 11. Rights of Freedom of Prisoners Expression 10. Right to a Fair Trial 16. Right to Liberty of Movement Identity 1b.Right to 5.Rights of 8. Rights of 10.a. Right 14.Freedom work freely Families, Minorities, of of chosen or mothers, to use their Recognition association accepted children, culture, before the 15.Freedom freedom of language, law of assembly marriage religion Participation 1a.Right to 4.Right to 6. Right to 10. Right to 12.Right to earn one's Health Participate a Fair Trial Participation living in Cultural (and to in Policial Life participate in Life 7. Right to judicial Education procedures)

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Annex: Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this The International Bill of Human Rights Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and The International Bill of Human Rights consists of three documents: The Universal Declaration of among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article I This concluding chapter brings for easy reference the full texts of these three international legal All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and documents: conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of Adopted and proclaimed by any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) origin, property, birth or other status. of 10 December 1948 Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self- Preamble governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of Article 4 speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their common people, forms.

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion Article 5 against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Article 6 Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women Article 7 and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, against any incitement to such discrimination. the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Article 8 Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the realization of this pledge, fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Now, therefore, Article 9 The General Assembly, No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

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Article 10 Article 18 Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 11 1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved Article 19 guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold defence. opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media 2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did and regardless of frontiers. not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time Article 20 the penal offence was committed. 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. 2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 12 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, Article 21 nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law 1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely against such interference or attacks. chosen representatives. 2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. Article 13 3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and State. shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. 2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 22 Article 14 Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through 1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of 2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. development of his personality.

Article 15 Article 23 1. Everyone has the right to a nationality. 1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. nationality. 2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Article 16 3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself 1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, means of social protection. during marriage and at its dissolution. 4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. 2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. 3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by Article 24 society and the State. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and Article 17 periodic holidays with pay. 1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

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Article 25 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. entry into force 3 January 1976, in accordance with article 27 2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. Preamble Article 26 The States Parties to the present Covenant, 1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, all on the basis of merit. 2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the Recognizing that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person, strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote Recognizing that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political 3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. rights,

Article 27 Considering the obligation of States under the Charter of the United Nations to promote universal 1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedoms, arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any Realizing that the individual, having duties to other individuals and to the community to which he scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. belongs, is under a responsibility to strive for the promotion and observance of the rights recognized in the present Covenant, Article 28 Agree upon the following articles: Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. PART I

Article 29 Article 1 1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his 1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine personality is possible. their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. 2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as 2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its and the general welfare in a democratic society. own means of subsistence. 3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles 3. The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the of the United Nations. administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions Article 30 of the Charter of the United Nations. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

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PART II 2. The steps to be taken by a State Party to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies Article 2 and techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and full and 1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through productive employment under conditions safeguarding fundamental political and economic international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum freedoms to the individual. of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the Article 7 adoption of legislative measures. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and 2. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in favourable conditions of work which ensure, in particular: the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or (a) Remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with: other status. (i) Fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any 3. Developing countries, with due regard to human rights and their national economy, may kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those determine to what extent they would guarantee the economic rights recognized in the present enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work; Covenant to non-nationals. (ii) A decent living for themselves and their families in accordance with the provisions of the present Covenant; Article 3 (b) Safe and healthy working conditions; The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the (c) Equal opportunity for everyone to be promoted in his employment to an appropriate higher enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights set forth in the present Covenant. level, subject to no considerations other than those of seniority and competence; (d ) Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as Article 4 well as remuneration for public holidays The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, in the enjoyment of those rights provided by the State in conformity with the present Covenant, the State may subject such rights only to such Article 8 limitations as are determined by law only in so far as this may be compatible with the nature of these 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure: rights and solely for the purpose of promoting the general welfare in a democratic society. (a) The right of everyone to form trade unions and join the trade union of his choice, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, for the promotion and Article 5 protection of his economic and social interests. No restrictions may be placed on the 1. Nothing in the present Covenant may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person exercise of this right other than those prescribed by law and which are necessary in a any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the democratic society in the interests of national security or public order or for the rights or freedoms recognized herein, or at their limitation to a greater extent than is provided for protection of the rights and freedoms of others; in the present Covenant. (b) The right of trade unions to establish national federations or confederations and the right of the latter to form or join international trade-union organizations; 2. No restriction upon or derogation from any of the fundamental human rights recognized or (c) The right of trade unions to function freely subject to no limitations other than those existing in any country in virtue of law, conventions, regulations or custom shall be admitted prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of on the pretext that the present Covenant does not recognize such rights or that it recognizes national security or public order or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of them to a lesser extent. others; (d) The right to strike, provided that it is exercised in conformity with the laws of the PART III particular country. 2. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these Article 6 rights by members of the armed forces or of the police or of the administration of the State. 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the 3. Nothing in this article shall authorize States Parties to the International Labour Organisation right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or Convention of 1948 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right. Organize to take legislative measures which would prejudice, or apply the law in such a manner as would prejudice, the guarantees provided for in that Convention.

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Article 9 (b) The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene; The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to social security, including (c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other social insurance. diseases; (d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical Article 10 attention in the event of sickness. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that: 1. The widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the Article 13 natural and fundamental group unit of society, particularly for its establishment and while it is 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They responsible for the care and education of dependent children. Marriage must be entered into agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the with the free consent of the intending spouses. sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental 2. Special protection should be accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively childbirth. During such period working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all adequate social security benefits. racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the 3. Special measures of protection and assistance should be taken on behalf of all children and maintenance of peace. young persons without any discrimination for reasons of parentage or other conditions. 2. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, with a view to achieving the full Children and young persons should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Their realization of this right: employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to life or likely to hamper (a) Primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all; their normal development should be punishable by law. States should also set age limits below (b) Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational which the paid employment of child labour should be prohibited and punishable by law. secondary education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education; Article 11 (c) Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, education; and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take (d) Fundamental education shall be encouraged or intensified as far as possible for those appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential persons who have not received or completed the whole period of their primary importance of international co-operation based on free consent. education; 2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to (e) The development of a system of schools at all levels shall be actively pursued, an be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the adequate fellowship system shall be established, and the material conditions of measures, including specific programmes, which are needed: teaching staff shall be continuously improved. (a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making 3. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the and, when applicable, legal guardians to choose for their children schools, other than those principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way established by the public authorities, which conform to such minimum educational standards as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources; as may be laid down or approved by the State and to ensure the religious and moral education (b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting of their children in conformity with their own convictions. countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to 4. No part of this article shall be construed so as to interfere with the liberty of individuals and need. bodies to establish and direct educational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principles set forth in paragraph I of this article and to the requirement that the education given Article 12 in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of State. the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. 2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full Article 14 realization of this right shall include those necessary for: Each State Party to the present Covenant which, at the time of becoming a Party, has not been able to (a) The provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the secure in its metropolitan territory or other territories under its jurisdiction compulsory primary healthy development of the child; education, free of charge, undertakes, within two years, to work out and adopt a detailed plan of action

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for the progressive implementation, within a reasonable number of years, to be fixed in the plan, of the Pursuant to its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations in the field of human rights and principle of compulsory education free of charge for all. fundamental freedoms, the Economic and Social Council may make arrangements with the specialized agencies in respect of their reporting to it on the progress made in achieving the observance of the Article 15 provisions of the present Covenant falling within the scope of their activities. These reports may 1) The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone: include particulars of decisions and recommendations on such implementation adopted by their a) To take part in cultural life; competent organs. b) To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications; c) To benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, Article 19 literary or artistic production of which he is the author. The Economic and Social Council may transmit to the Commission on Human Rights for study and 2) The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization general recommendation or, as appropriate, for information the reports concerning human rights of this right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion submitted by States in accordance with articles 16 and 17, and those concerning human rights of science and culture. submitted by the specialized agencies in accordance with article 18. 3) The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity. Article 20 4) The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the benefits to be derived from the The States Parties to the present Covenant and the specialized agencies concerned may submit encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and comments to the Economic and Social Council on any general recommendation under article 19 or cultural fields. reference to such general recommendation in any report of the Commission on Human Rights or any documentation referred to therein. Article 16 Article 21 The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to submit in conformity with this part of the The Economic and Social Council may submit from time to time to the General Assembly reports with Covenant reports on the measures which they have adopted and the progress made in achieving the recommendations of a general nature and a summary of the information received from the States Parties observance of the rights recognized herein. to the present Covenant and the specialized agencies on the measures taken and the progress made in (a) All reports shall be submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall achieving general observance of the rights recognized in the present Covenant. transmit copies to the Economic and Social Council for consideration in accordance with the provisions of the present Covenant; Article 22 (b) The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall also transmit to the specialized agencies The Economic and Social Council may bring to the attention of other organs of the United Nations, copies of the reports, or any relevant parts therefrom, from States Parties to the present their subsidiary organs and specialized agencies concerned with furnishing technical assistance any Covenant which are also members of these specialized agencies in so far as these reports, or matters arising out of the reports referred to in this part of the present Covenant which may assist such parts therefrom, relate to any matters which fall within the responsibilities of the said agencies bodies in deciding, each within its field of competence, on the advisability of international measures in accordance with their constitutional instruments. likely to contribute to the effective progressive implementation of the present Covenant.

Article 17 Article 23 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant shall furnish their reports in stages, in accordance The States Parties to the present Covenant agree that international action for the achievement of the with a programme to be established by the Economic and Social Council within one year of rights recognized in the present Covenant includes such methods as the conclusion of conventions, the the entry into force of the present Covenant after consultation with the States Parties and the adoption of recommendations, the furnishing of technical assistance and the holding of regional specialized agencies concerned. meetings and technical meetings for the purpose of consultation and study organized in conjunction 2. Reports may indicate factors and difficulties affecting the degree of fulfilment of obligations with the Governments concerned. under the present Covenant. 3. Where relevant information has previously been furnished to the United Nations or to any Article 24 specialized agency by any State Party to the present Covenant, it will not be necessary to Nothing in the present Covenant shall be interpreted as impairing the provisions of the Charter of the reproduce that information, but a precise reference to the information so furnished will suffice. United Nations and of the constitutions of the specialized agencies which define the respective responsibilities of the various organs of the United Nations and of the specialized agencies in regard to Article 18 the matters dealt with in the present Covenant. Article 25

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Nothing in the present Covenant shall be interpreted as impairing the inherent right of all peoples to 2. Amendments shall come into force when they have been approved by the General Assembly of enjoy and utilize fully and freely their natural wealth and resources. the United Nations and accepted by a two-thirds majority of the States Parties to the present Covenant in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. 3. When amendments come into force they shall be binding on those States Parties which have PART V accepted them, other States Parties still being bound by the provisions of the present Covenant and any earlier amendment which they have accepted. Article 26 1. The present Covenant is open for signature by any State Member of the United Nations or Article 30 member of any of its specialized agencies, by any State Party to the Statute of the International Irrespective of the notifications made under article 26, paragraph 5, the Secretary-General of the United Court of Justice, and by any other State which has been invited by the General Assembly of Nations shall inform all States referred to in paragraph I of the same article of the following particulars: the United Nations to become a party to the present Covenant. (a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions under article 26; 2. The present Covenant is subject to ratification. Instruments of ratification shall be deposited (b) The date of the entry into force of the present Covenant under article 27 and the date of the with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. entry into force of any amendments under article 29. 3. The present Covenant shall be open to accession by any State referred to in paragraph 1 of this article. Article 31 4. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Secretary- 1. The present Covenant, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are General of the United Nations. equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations. 5. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all States which have signed the 2. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall transmit certified copies of the present present Covenant or acceded to it of the deposit of each instrument of ratification or accession. Covenant to all States referred to in article 26.

Article 27 1. The present Covenant shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit with the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the thirty-fifth instrument of ratification or instrument of accession. 2. For each State ratifying the present Covenant or acceding to it after the deposit of the thirty- fifth instrument of ratification or instrument of accession, the present Covenant shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit of its own instrument of ratification or instrument of accession.

Article 28 The provisions of the present Covenant shall extend to all parts of federal States without any limitations or exceptions.

Article 29 1. Any State Party to the present Covenant may propose an amendment and file it with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Secretary-General shall thereupon communicate any proposed amendments to the States Parties to the present Covenant with a request that they notify him whether they favour a conference of States Parties for the purpose of considering and voting upon the proposals. In the event that at least one third of the States Parties favours such a conference, the Secretary-General shall convene the conference under the auspices of the United Nations. Any amendment adopted by a majority of the States Parties present and voting at the conference shall be submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations for approval.

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International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights PART II Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Article 2 Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals entry into force 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 49 within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Preamble 2. Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to The States Parties to the present Covenant, the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such laws or recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Covenant. 3. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes: Recognizing that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person, (a) To ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall Recognizing that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by human beings enjoying civil and political freedom and freedom from fear and want can only be persons acting in an official capacity; achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his civil and political rights, as well as (b) To ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined his economic, social and cultural rights, 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 Considering the obligation of States under the Charter of the United Nations to promote universal possibilities of judicial remedy; respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedoms, (c) To ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted.

Realizing that the individual, having duties to other individuals and to the community to which he belongs, is under a responsibility to strive for the promotion and observance of the rights recognized in Article 3 the present Covenant, The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights set forth in the present Covenant. Agree upon the following articles: Article 4 PART I 1 . In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures Article 1 derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by 1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on the 2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources ground of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin. without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based 2. No derogation from articles 6, 7, 8 (paragraphs I and 2), 11, 15, 16 and 18 may be made under upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be this provision. deprived of its own means of subsistence. 3. Any State Party to the present Covenant availing itself of the right of derogation shall 3. The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the immediately inform the other States Parties to the present Covenant, through the intermediary administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, of the provisions from which it has derogated the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions and of the reasons by which it was actuated. A further communication shall be made, through of the Charter of the United Nations. the same intermediary, on the date on which it terminates such derogation.

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Article 5 (c) For the purpose of this paragraph the term "forced or compulsory labour" shall not 1. Nothing in the present Covenant may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person include: any right to engage in any activity or perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the (i) Any work or service, not referred to in subparagraph (b), normally required of a rights and freedoms recognized herein or at their limitation to a greater extent than is provided person who is under detention in consequence of a lawful order of a court, or of a for in the present Covenant. person during conditional release from such detention; 2. There shall be no restriction upon or derogation from any of the fundamental human rights (ii) Any service of a military character and, in countries where conscientious objection is recognized or existing in any State Party to the present Covenant pursuant to law, conventions, recognized, any national service required by law of conscientious objectors; regulations or custom on the pretext that the present Covenant does not recognize such rights (iii) Any service exacted in cases of emergency or calamity threatening the life or well- or that it recognizes them to a lesser extent. being of the community; (iv) Any work or service which forms part of normal civil obligations. PART III Article 9 Article 6 1. Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary 1. Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. accordance with such procedure as are established by law. 2. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed 2. Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the shall be promptly informed of any charges against him. commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the 3. Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court. reasonable time or to release. It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be 3. When deprivation of life constitutes the crime of genocide, it is understood that nothing in this detained in custody, but release may be subject to guarantees to appear for trial, at any other article shall authorize any State Party to the present Covenant to derogate in any way from any stage of the judicial proceedings, and, should occasion arise, for execution of the judgement. obligation assumed under the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment 4. Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take of the Crime of Genocide. proceedings before a court, in order that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of 4. Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases. 5. Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable 5. Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years right to compensation. of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. 6. Nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital Article 10 punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant. 1. All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. Article 7 2. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In (a) Accused persons shall, save in exceptional circumstances, be segregated from particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation. convicted persons and shall be subject to separate treatment appropriate to their status as unconvicted persons; Article 8 (b) Accused juvenile persons shall be separated from adults and brought as speedily as 1. No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be possible for adjudication. 3. The penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prohibited. prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social 2. No one shall be held in servitude. rehabilitation. Juvenile offenders 3. (a) No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour; shall be segregated from adults and be accorded treatment appropriate to their age and (b) Paragraph 3 (a) shall not be held to preclude, in countries where imprisonment with legal status. hard labour may be imposed as a punishment for a crime, the performance of hard labour in pursuance of a sentence to such punishment by a competent court; Article 11 No one shall be imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation.

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Article 12 (e) To examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the 1. Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. witnesses against him; 2. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own. (f) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the 3. The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject to any restrictions except those which are language used in court; provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order (ordre public), public (g) Not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt. health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights 5. Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being recognized in the present Covenant. reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law. 4. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country. 6. When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a Article 13 new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, An alien lawfully in the territory of a State Party to the present Covenant may be expelled therefrom the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated only in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with law and shall, except where compelling according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is reasons of national security otherwise require, be allowed to submit the reasons against his expulsion wholly or partly attributable to him. and to have his case reviewed by, and be represented for the purpose before, the competent authority or 7. No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already a person or persons especially designated by the competent authority. been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country. Article 14 1. All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal Article 15 charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled 1 . No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it law. The press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial for reasons of morals, was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the public order (ordre public) or national security in a democratic society, or when the interest of time when the criminal offence was committed. If, subsequent to the commission of the the private lives of the parties so requires, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of the lighter penalty, the offender shall the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; but benefit thereby. any judgement rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public except 2. Nothing in this article shall prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern omission which, at the time when it was committed, was criminal according to the general matrimonial disputes or the guardianship of children. principles of law recognized by the community of nations. 2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. Article 16 3. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the Everyone shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. following minimum guarantees, in full equality: (a) To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the Article 17 nature and cause of the charge against him; 1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home (b) To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. communicate with counsel of his own choosing; 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. (c) To be tried without undue delay; (d) To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal Article 18 assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, 1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or not have sufficient means to pay for it; belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. 2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.

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3. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are Article 23 prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the 1. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by fundamental rights and freedoms of others. 4. The States Parties to the present Covenant society and the State. undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to 2. The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own recognized. convictions. 3. No marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses. 4. States Parties to the present Covenant shall take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights Article 19 and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. In the 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. case of dissolution, provision shall be made for the necessary protection of any children. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either Article 24 orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. 1. Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, 3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures of protection as are duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State. only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: 2. Every child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have a name. (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; 3. Every child has the right to acquire a nationality. (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals. Article 25 Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in Article 20 article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions: 1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law. (a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives; 2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to (b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law. suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors; Article 21 (c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country. The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic Article 26 society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, Article 22 religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. 1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 27 2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those which are In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language. or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on members of the armed forces and of the police in their exercise of this right. PART IV 3. Nothing in this article shall authorize States Parties to the International Labour Organisation Convention of 1948 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Article 28 Organize to take legislative measures which would prejudice, or to apply the law in such a 1. There shall be established a Human Rights Committee (hereafter referred to in the present manner as to prejudice, the guarantees provided for in that Convention. Covenant as the Committee). It shall consist of eighteen members and shall carry out the functions hereinafter provided.

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2. The Committee shall be composed of nationals of the States Parties to the present Covenant 2.. Elections at the expiry of office shall be held in accordance with the preceding articles of this who shall be persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human part of the present Covenant. rights, consideration being given to the usefulness of the participation of some persons having legal experience. Article 33 3. The members of the Committee shall be elected and shall serve in their personal capacity. 1. If, in the unanimous opinion of the other members, a member of the Committee has ceased to carry out his functions for any cause other than absence of a temporary character, the Article 29 Chairman of the Committee shall notify the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who 1. The members of the Committee shall be elected by secret ballot from a list of persons shall then declare the seat of that member to be vacant. possessing the qualifications prescribed in article 28 and nominated for the purpose by the 2. In the event of the death or the resignation of a member of the Committee, the Chairman shall States Parties to the present Covenant. immediately notify the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall declare the seat 2. Each State Party to the present Covenant may nominate not more than two persons. These vacant from the date of death or the date on which the resignation takes effect. persons shall be nationals of the nominating State. 3. A person shall be eligible for renomination. Article 34 1. When a vacancy is declared in accordance with article 33 and if the term of office of the Article 30 member to be replaced does not expire within six months of the declaration of the vacancy, the 1. The initial election shall be held no later than six months after the date of the entry into force Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify each of the States Parties to the present of the present Covenant. Covenant, which may within two months submit nominations in accordance with article 29 for 2. At least four months before the date of each election to the Committee, other than an election the purpose of filling the vacancy. to fill a vacancy declared in accordance with article 34, the Secretary-General of the United 2. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall prepare a list in alphabetical order of the Nations shall address a written invitation to the States Parties to the present Covenant to persons thus nominated and shall submit it to the States Parties to the present Covenant. The submit their nominations for membership of the Committee within three months. election to fill the vacancy shall then take place in accordance with the relevant provisions of 3. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall prepare a list in alphabetical order of all the this part of the present Covenant. persons thus nominated, with an indication of the States Parties which have nominated them, 3. A member of the Committee elected to fill a vacancy declared in accordance with article 33 and shall submit it to the States Parties to the present Covenant no later than one month before shall hold office for the remainder of the term of the member who vacated the seat on the the date of each election. Committee under the provisions of that article. 4. Elections of the members of the Committee shall be held at a meeting of the States Parties to the present Covenant convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations at the Article 35 Headquarters of the United Nations. At that meeting, for which two thirds of the States Parties The members of the Committee shall, with the approval of the General Assembly of the United to the present Covenant shall constitute a quorum, the persons elected to the Committee shall Nations, receive emoluments from United Nations resources on such terms and conditions as the be those nominees who obtain the largest number of votes and an absolute majority of the General Assembly may decide, having regard to the importance of the Committee's responsibilities. votes of the representatives of States Parties present and voting. Article 36 The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall provide the necessary staff and facilities for the Article 31 effective performance of the functions of the Committee under the present Covenant. 1. The Committee may not include more than one national of the same State. 2. In the election of the Committee, consideration shall be given to equitable geographical Article 37 distribution of membership and to the representation of the different forms of civilization and 1. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall convene the initial meeting of the of the principal legal systems. Committee at the Headquarters of the United Nations. 2. After its initial meeting, the Committee shall meet at such times as shall be provided in its Article 32 rules of procedure. 1. The members of the Committee shall be elected for a term of four years. They shall be eligible 3. The Committee shall normally meet at the Headquarters of the United Nations or at the United for re-election if renominated. However, the terms of nine of the members elected at the first Nations Office at Geneva. election shall expire at the end of two years; immediately after the first election, the names of these nine members shall be chosen by lot by the Chairman of the meeting referred to in article 30, paragraph

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Article 38 communication, bring the matter to the attention of that State Party. Within three Every member of the Committee shall, before taking up his duties, make a solemn declaration in open months after the receipt of the communication the receiving State shall afford the committee that he will perform his functions impartially and conscientiously. State which sent the communication an explanation, or any other statement in writing clarifying the matter which should include, to the extent possible and pertinent, Article 39 reference to domestic procedures and remedies taken, pending, or available in the 1. The Committee shall elect its officers for a term of two years. They may be re-elected. matter; (b) If the matter is not adjusted to the satisfaction of both States Parties concerned within 2. The Committee shall establish its own rules of procedure, but these rules shall provide, inter six months after the receipt by the receiving State of the initial communication, either alia, that: State shall have the right to refer the matter to the Committee, by notice given to the (a) Twelve members shall constitute a quorum; Committee and to the other State; (b) Decisions of the Committee shall be made by a majority vote of the members present. (c) The Committee shall deal with a matter referred to it only after it has ascertained that all available domestic remedies have been invoked and exhausted in the matter, in Article 40 conformity with the generally recognized principles of international law. This shall 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to submit reports on the measures they not be the rule where the application of the remedies is unreasonably prolonged; have adopted which give effect to the rights recognized herein and on the progress made in the (d) The Committee shall hold closed meetings when examining communications under enjoyment of those rights: this article; (a) Within one year of the entry into force of the present Covenant for the States Parties (e) Subject to the provisions of subparagraph (c), the Committee shall make available its concerned; good offices to the States Parties concerned with a view to a friendly solution of the (b) Thereafter whenever the Committee so requests. matter on the basis of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms as 2. All reports shall be submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall recognized in the present Covenant; transmit them to the Committee for consideration. Reports shall indicate the factors and (f) In any matter referred to it, the Committee may call upon the States Parties concerned, difficulties, if any, affecting the implementation of the present Covenant. referred to in subparagraph (b), to supply any relevant information; 3. The Secretary-General of the United Nations may, after consultation with the Committee, (g) The States Parties concerned, referred to in subparagraph (b), shall have the right to transmit to the specialized agencies concerned copies of such parts of the reports as may fall be represented when the matter is being considered in the Committee and to make within their field of competence. submissions orally and/or in writing; 4. The Committee shall study the reports submitted by the States Parties to the present Covenant. (h) The Committee shall, within twelve months after the date of receipt of notice under It shall transmit its reports, and such general comments as it may consider appropriate, to the subparagraph (b), submit a report: States Parties. The Committee may also transmit to the Economic and Social Council these (i) If a solution within the terms of subparagraph (e) is reached, the Committee comments along with the copies of the reports it has received from States Parties to the present shall confine its report to a brief statement of the facts and of the solution Covenant. reached; 5. The States Parties to the present Covenant may submit to the Committee observations on any (ii) If a solution within the terms of subparagraph (e) is not reached, the comments that may be made in accordance with paragraph 4 of this article. Committee shall confine its report to a brief statement of the facts; the written submissions and record of the oral submissions made by the States Article 41 Parties concerned shall be attached to the report. In every matter, the report 1. A State Party to the present Covenant may at any time declare under this article that it shall be communicated to the States Parties concerned. recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications to the 3. The provisions of this article shall come into force when ten States Parties to the present effect that a State Party claims that another State Party is not fulfiling its obligations under the Covenant have made declarations under paragraph I of this article. Such declarations shall be present Covenant. Communications under this article may be received and considered only if deposited by the States Parties with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall submitted by a State Party which has made a declaration recognizing in regard to itself the transmit copies thereof to the other States Parties. A declaration may be withdrawn at any time by competence of the Committee. No communication shall be received by the Committee if it notification to the Secretary-General. Such a withdrawal shall not prejudice the consideration of concerns a State Party which has not made such a declaration. Communications received under any matter which is the subject of a communication already transmitted under this article; no this article shall be dealt with in accordance with the following procedure: further communication by any State Party shall be received after the notification of withdrawal of (a) If a State Party to the present Covenant considers that another State Party is not the declaration has been received by the Secretary-General, unless the State Party concerned has giving effect to the provisions of the present Covenant, it may, by written made a new declaration.

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4. Article 42 8. The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the responsibilities of the Committee 1.(a) If a matter referred to the Committee in accordance with article 41 is not resolved to the under article 41. satisfaction of the States Parties concerned, the Committee may, with the prior consent of the 9. The States Parties concerned shall share equally all the expenses of the members of the States Parties concerned, appoint an ad hoc Conciliation Commission (hereinafter referred to Commission in accordance with estimates to be provided by the Secretary-General of the as the Commission). The good offices of the Commission shall be made available to the States United Nations. Parties concerned with a view to an amicable solution of the matter on the basis of respect for 10. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall be empowered to pay the expenses of the the present Covenant; members of the Commission, if necessary, before reimbursement by the States Parties (b) The Commission shall consist of five persons acceptable to the States Parties concerned. If the concerned, in accordance with paragraph 9 of this article. States Parties concerned fail to reach agreement within three months on all or part of the composition of the Commission, the members of the Commission concerning whom no Article 43 agreement has been reached shall be elected by secret ballot by a two-thirds majority vote of The members of the Committee, and of the ad hoc conciliation commissions which may be appointed the Committee from among its members. under article 42, shall be entitled to the facilities, privileges and immunities of experts on mission for 2. The members of the Commission shall serve in their personal capacity. They shall not be the United Nations as laid down in the relevant sections of the Convention on the Privileges and nationals of the States Parties concerned, or of a State not Party to the present Covenant, or of Immunities of the United Nations. a State Party which has not made a declaration under article 41. 3. The Commission shall elect its own Chairman and adopt its own rules of procedure. Article 44 4. The meetings of the Commission shall normally be held at the Headquarters of the United The provisions for the implementation of the present Covenant shall apply without prejudice to the Nations or at the United Nations Office at Geneva. However, they may be held at such other procedures prescribed in the field of human rights by or under the constituent instruments and the convenient places as the Commission may determine in consultation with the Secretary- conventions of the United Nations and of the specialized agencies and shall not prevent the States General of the United Nations and the States Parties concerned. Parties to the present Covenant from having recourse to other procedures for settling a dispute in 5. The secretariat provided in accordance with article 36 shall also service the commissions accordance with general or special international agreements in force between them. appointed under this article. 6. The information received and collated by the Committee shall be made available to the Article 45 Commission and the Commission may call upon the States Parties concerned to supply any The Committee shall submit to the General Assembly of the United Nations, through the Economic and other relevant information. Social Council, an annual report on its activities. 7. When the Commission has fully considered the matter, but in any event not later than twelve months after having been seized of the matter, it shall submit to the Chairman of the PART V Committee a report for communication to the States Parties concerned: (a) If the Commission is unable to complete its consideration of the matter within twelve Article 46 . months, it shall confine its report to a brief statement of the status of its consideration Nothing in the present Covenant shall be interpreted as impairing the provisions of the Charter of the of the matter; United Nations and of the constitutions of the specialized agencies which define the respective (b) If an amicable solution to the matter on tie basis of respect for human rights as responsibilities of the various organs of the United Nations and of the specialized agencies in regard to recognized in the present Covenant is reached, the Commission shall confine its the matters dealt with in the present Covenant. report to a brief statement of the facts and of the solution reached; (c) If a solution within the terms of subparagraph (b) is not reached, the Commission's Article 47 report shall embody its findings on all questions of fact relevant to the issues between Nothing in the present Covenant shall be interpreted as impairing the inherent right of all peoples to the States Parties concerned, and its views on the possibilities of an amicable solution enjoy and utilize fully and freely their natural wealth and resources. of the matter. This report shall also contain the written submissions and a record of the oral submissions made by the States Parties concerned; (d) If the Commission's report is submitted under subparagraph (c), the States Parties concerned shall, within three months of the receipt of the report, notify the Chairman of the Committee whether or not they accept the contents of the report of the Commission. PART VI

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Annex

Article 48 Article 52 1. The present Covenant is open for signature by any State Member of the United Nations or Irrespective of the notifications made under article 48, paragraph 5, the Secretary-General of the United member of any of its specialized agencies, by any State Party to the Statute of the International Nations shall inform all States referred to in paragraph I of the same article of the following particulars: Court of Justice, and by any other State which has been invited by the General Assembly of (a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions under article 48; the United Nations to become a Party to the present Covenant. (b) The date of the entry into force of the present Covenant under article 49 and the date of the 2. The present Covenant is subject to ratification. Instruments of ratification shall be deposited entry into force of any amendments under article 51. with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 3. The present Covenant shall be open to accession by any State referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article 53 article. 1. The present Covenant, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are 4. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Secretary- equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations. General of the United Nations. 2. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall transmit certified copies of the present 5. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all States which have signed this Covenant to all States referred to in article 48. Covenant or acceded to it of the deposit of each instrument of ratification or accession.

Article 49 1. The present Covenant shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit with the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the thirty-fifth instrument of ratification or instrument of accession. 2. For each State ratifying the present Covenant or acceding to it after the deposit of the thirty- fifth instrument of ratification or instrument of accession, the present Covenant shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit of its own instrument of ratification or instrument of accession.

Article 50 The provisions of the present Covenant shall extend to all parts of federal States without any limitations or exceptions.

Article 51 1. Any State Party to the present Covenant may propose an amendment and file it with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall thereupon communicate any proposed amendments to the States Parties to the present Covenant with a request that they notify him whether they favour a conference of States Parties for the purpose of considering and voting upon the proposals. In the event that at least one third of the States Parties favours such a conference, the Secretary-General shall convene the conference under the auspices of the United Nations. Any amendment adopted by a majority of the States Parties present and voting at the conference shall be submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations for approval. 2. Amendments shall come into force when they have been approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations and accepted by a two-thirds majority of the States Parties to the present Covenant in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. 3. When amendments come into force, they shall be binding on those States Parties which have accepted them, other States Parties still being bound by the provisions of the present Covenant and any earlier amendment which they have accepted.

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