Human Rights

Positive Rights

Things that humans should have or be given. They often require an outside agency or entity to provide a service (e.g. the state).

• healthcare, education and food

Negative Rights

Things that humans should be free from. Discourage, limit or prevent the actions of an outside agency (e.g. government, other humans) that cause harm to a person.

• speech, security, and mobility

Justice

Associated with fairness. The endless process of giving everyone what they deserve.

Retributive Justice

Criminals deserve punishment for their actions.

In the context of human rights, when they’re violated and victims demand reparations.

Dispensing Authority

Involves judicial institutions with courts, judges and juries.

The legitimacy of judicial institutions is important to HR.

Distributive Justice

What people get and what they have:

• power

• opportunity

• wealth

• privilege

Inalienability of Human Rights

Human rights cannot be bought, sold, transferred or removed.

Indivisibility of Human Rights

In order to guarantee civil and political rights, a government must also ensure economic, social and cultural rights (and visa versa).

Indivisibility → if a govern violates rights it affects people’s ability to exercise other rights.

Universality of Human Rights

Human rights must be afforded to everyone, without exception. People are entitled to these rights simply by virtue of being human.

First Generation Rights

“civil-political” rights

Liberty and participation in political life.

They are strongly individualistic and negatively constructed to protect the individual from the state. 

• Right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of speech…

Second Generation Rights

“Economic, social, and cultural rights”

Guarantee equal conditions and treatment.

They are not rights directly possessed by individuals but require positive actions by the states.

• Right to employment, right to housing, right to social security… 

Third Generation Rights

“collective-developmental” rights

Peoples and groups held against their respective states aligns with the final tenet of “fraternity.”

A response to global interdependence.

• Right to economic development, right to benefit from world trade, right to breathe unpolluted air…

International Human Rights Law

Human Rights Covenants:

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

• International Covenant on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Declaration

Is passed as a resolution by the UN General Assembly by a simple majority vote. They are not law and states are not legally obligated to enforce them

Instrument

Is also passed as a resolution by the UN General Assembly by a majority vote, but is a law.

Signing

Signing refers a state’s representatives agreeing to a treaty in person and signing the document.

This is usually a government minister like a minister of foreign affairs or foreign secretary.

Ratification

Ratification refers to the process of formally accepting the treaty in a state’s own government. Usually this requires formal consent by a governing body (e.g. parliament, congress, senate).

Once a treaty is ratified by the national government the state will notify the UN that it has formally accepted the treaty and it then becomes legally binding.

Protection of HR on a national level

States enforce their own human rights laws through local and national court systems.

In some cases, a state’s supreme court will decide whether fundamental rights and freedoms have been violated by the state.

• The issue with national courts, however, is that not all states have a fair, independent, or transparent court system.

Protection of HR on an international level

There are several overlapping international organizations tasked with protecting and enforcing human rights,

• International Court of Justice (ICJ),

• International Criminal Court (ICC),

• European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

These courts are a “last resort” they are only used if and when a state is incapable or unwilling to protect human rights within its borders.

Monitoring Human Rights

• Institutional approach → states, international organizations, the UN human rights framework (e.g. UNHRC, OHCHR)

• Non-institutional approach → non-governmental organizations (e.g. Human Rights Watch, International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International), civil society activism

Individual V. Collective Rights

The argument of whether group rights (such as those of the Indigenous people) is more efficient, or whether the rights of everyone can be better protected if implemented at an individual level.

Universalism 

Universalists argue that all peoples have a shared and common humanity which means there can be some universal values.

In human rights, universalists believe that all humans have the same inalienable rights simply because of their humanity.

• Therefore, all humans are entitled to the same rights and freedoms, regardless of age, sex, gender or any other distinguishing characteristic.

Relativism

Relativism argues nothing is universal among humans and that all values are created by culture. Because there is no universal culture, there can be no universal values.

• As a result, each culture determines its own values and its own idea of justice. Morality is subjective, and there is no objective morality.

Relativists believe it is impossible to impose a universal set of human rights on all cultures because each culture creates its own set of morals and ideas of right and wrong.

• Instead, human rights are relative to the cultures that created them (i.e. western culture) and other cultures are entitled to their own morality.

Sanctions

A common tool used by states to influence the behavior of other states.

Generally defined, a sanction is a punishment or

• freezing financial assets, banning exports of critical technologies, goods or resources, or banning individuals from international travel.

The Case Against Politicization

Actors that accuse those of violating human rights are dishonest or hypocritical.

• Meaning they either don’t care about the issue (and have a separate agenda) or are selective and value some human rights while ignoring others.

Human rights are used to justify economic sanctions and other forms of hard power.

The Case For Politicization

Authoritarian states in particular often make the claim that accusations of human rights violations actually reveal a desire for regime change on the part of democracies.

• This usually occurs when the detention of anti-government activists and protestors is met with condemnation from liberal democracies.

Need-Based Justice

Everyone shouldn’t get the same, because needs are different for everybody

• equity

Merit-based justice

Justice actually means giving unequally, based on what each person deserves.

• equality

Veil Of Ignorance

Removes personal biases, compelling individuals to consider the interests of all members of society, ensuring equitable policies and institutions