Human Rights Lecture Notes

Introduction

Continuation of introduction session for students who were not present on Monday.
Students to state their name, their interest in human rights law, and two human rights issues of importance.

Double Standards in Human Rights

Disparity in global response to human rights violations in different regions.
World's swift response and compassion for certain regions versus a different narrative for Africa.

Constitutionalization of Socioeconomic Rights

Focus on constitutionalizing socioeconomic rights, particularly in Botswana.
Many people lack proper access to water and healthcare.
Artisanal mining: Children are denied education because they have to work in artisanal mines in Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, and Congo.
The speaker references a commission from 2021 that dealt with constitutional rights.
The speaker notes that the commission failed Botswana because it did not address key issues like constitutionalizing socio-economic rights.
The commission only proposed including the right to health.
Lack of access to water in both urban and rural areas.

Gender and Women's Rights

Focus on gender and women's rights, specifically access to abortion in Botswana.
Question on limitations to bodily autonomy.
Gender-based violence is an important human rights issue.
The president's statement denying the existence of gender-based violence was reckless.
The president's influence could compromise the trajectory of human rights.
Statement made before in 2018 in parliament when he was the leader of the opposition.

Presidential Power and Influence

The president has extensive executive power.
Example of Trump's decisions affecting ordinary lives globally.
Important of president being aware of the implications of their statements.

Patriarchy and Misogyny in Botswana

Support for the president's statement on violence reflects inherent patriarchy and misogyny in Botswana.
Disappointment with statements promoting traditional femininity.

The President as a Lawyer

The president approaches the presidency as a human rights fighting lawyer, which may not always be appropriate.
Presidency requires a calm and thoughtful approach.
Mistakes in the presidency can cause significant problems.
The president is learning from social media and public comments, but social media is not the best place to learn.

Freedom of Expression and Voting Rights

The right to vote is an aspect of freedom of expression.
Voting the UDC reflects unhappiness with the BDP rather than support for the UDC.
In 2019, UDC got 36% of the total vote, now moved to 37%.
BCP, when pulling out of UDC, they got 12%.
Over 50% of Batswana didn't vote for the UDC.

Social Contract and Government Accountability

The government has a social contract with the people.
Citizens should make demands of the government.
UDC gave timelines of what they were going to do, so they should be held accountable for that.
UDC has a moral obligation to discharge on its social contract.
Have Batswana ever held the government accountable for failure to deliver on the basics?
Manifestos are often ambitious.

Citizen Action and Human Rights

Citizens can take from the human rights point of view to ensure they vindicate their rights as far as ruling parties or governments are concerned.

UDC Implementation

What if UDC, in the process, implements what they were supposed to do.

Grace Period for UDC

The UDC deserves a grace period, given the BDP had 55 years.
Certain things become systemic hurdles.
Appointing a permanent secretary to the president might be difficult.
UDC might take longer to return so that people can go there.
The UDC has given timelines of certain things, which may be deceptive.
They will require time to do some audits.
The president put timelines to it.
They shouldn't have given timelines.

Rights to Freedom

If citizens lose the rights to freedom, that takes away lots of other right.
Freedom is an all encompassing type of right.
People have the rights to freedom because they are able to go exercise.
They are going to have conjugal rights because people have said this before that they demand to have conjugal rights the same way as as done in the system you are referencing.

Youth and Criminal System

The end goal is to assist the youth.
Maybe we need to deal comprehensively with our justice system.
Arrests are inhumane from even petty crimes.
There is softness for harder core criminals.

Criminal Types and Rights

Suggests categorizing crimes; those committing serious crimes like rape should have rights denied.
Those committing petty theft shouldn't have the same denial of rights.

Impact on Institutions

Denying conjugal rights affects other institutions, like marriage.
It can cause a domino effect on institutions outside the prison system.

Integrated Human Rights

Human rights are integrated, intertwined, interlinked, etc.
It's not only about conjugal rights.
Prisoners access to ARVs which started with the Zimbabwean prisoners.
Denying someone ARVs is a death threat.
Beyond orgasm, its about all these life sustaining benefits.

Price Tag of Justice

The system has a price tag.
Small machineries slow the legal process.
Human rights violations cannot be remedied, no matter how much money you give somebody.

International Organizations

Think about the effectiveness of institutions of the world that enforce human rights.
If a body like the United Nations is failing, what can we cook at home that can vindicate human rights or that could promote and protect human rights.
If a system like the African Union is failing, what can we possibly cook at home that will be able to do better than that original system.
If a system like the Saddiq tribe, you know, can crumble because Zimbabwe decides at one time at one point that we are sick and tired of what these guys are telling us.
What kind of systems are we looking at that can supplement the judicial?
Should there be quasi judicial systems?
How do we facilitate access?
Can we have a human rights commission in Botswana?
What shape should it take?
What kind of powers would it possibly have?
The Ombudsmen can do so much human rights cases and successfully.
The judiciary itself is failing at how long the case takes.

Pushing the Boundaries of Human Life

One can push the boundaries of human life.
Entitlement of society happens.
Boundaries are not being set.

Domino Effect

The domino effect also works on the negative end.
It discriminates depending on context.
The same is given to human rights.
Also context plays a huge part.

Inherent Aspects of Human Rights

The confusion comes with the human rights.

Dislike of International Law

International Law can be boring.
They are boring because they just never know how to place them.
They seem to be existing in an ivory tower.
They have been constructed from the point of view of Europe.
Then they come here.
They are constantly being squeezed in into our context, not taking shape or taking our ideologies.

Eurocentric Theories

Like human rights and international law, the public international law.
They have the same they they have the same qualms.
You'll have the same difficulties between the two disciplines.
The the two theories, they are more like theory based, and the theory is very Eurocentric, and it's it's based on a very dark history with a painful to accept, painful to understand, difficult to confine type of ideologies, whatever you want to call them.

The Marx Theory

It condemns the thinking within the natural rights theory framework.
It condemns the thinking it condemns the thinking within the historical rights theory and literally rubbishes all that.
This theory is based on the teachings of Karl Marx.
It's obvious economic right.
So it's anchored on the teachings of Karl Marx and his ideologies, is thinking about what makes the world tick.
Is is a powerful agency to uphold the particular type of social organization.
That is to mean that the state has the authority and the power and resources to contextualize the society within which we give it as citizens.
It could be a socialist society.
It could be a capitalist society.
Are we beyond that?
Law is a tool of the states that preserves and safeguard the interest of the dominant group in a given society.
Social rights theorist will say law is something that should have some utility in a given context benefit of society and individuals and so on and so forth.
Calmars is saying in the context of human rights, the state is going to use the law to protect the interests of the dominant group.
So political, social, religious, and other institutions are determined by economic components, which is essentially what call cal marks because you know the theory, deems the mode of production.
Political, social, religious, and so on and so forth of a country, they are directly related to to the economic component. Meaning, if you are if you have a purely capitalistic society, that means the economic aspect of that society is capitalist.
Society evolves, ideologies start merging. Globalization happens.

Thomas Hobbes Notes

Humans are inherently selfish, self centered, and inward looking.

Examples of Karl Marx's Theory

The church does not pay taxes.
Tax law in 1998 or 1999 stated that giving to schools or sports got a tax exemption.
Buying cars from South Africa in 1998 gave people more money since the taxes were not there versus buying here in Bojana.

Tax Laws and Karl Marx

The tax laws that was enacted in 1998, '90 '9, I believe.
It says if you donate a certain amount to schools or sports, it doesn't matter how much, but if you donate, you get a tax exemption of some sort.
They want to benefit from the tax exemption.
People who don't own means of production can never benefit from that.
Because they don't run businesses.
They are not built in business entities for purposes of that kind of tax.
So the those who own means of production according to Carlmax will influence the legislative frameworks.
If they are capable of influencing the legislative frameworks, they are capable of dictating the kind of rights that you get to enjoy. Right now, you think you have certain rights because you are cool. You don't.
You have them because those who own means of production have decided that such rights do not interfere with them in any shape or form.
As soon as they interfere with their business interest, their economic interest, they are putting whatever necessary strength.

Indigenous People

The analysis is even more prevalent in dealing with indigenous populations.
Economic dominance with indigenous populations cause people to move out for resources.

Conservation Effort of State

They are diamonds in this land who wants to give way to diamond miners so that there's some prospecting and then the resources, they will benefit the greater population.
Development is just trying to chase an illusion.

Karl Marx Ideologies After People Evolve

We cannot have a way as society where people are like, no, you have this, you have this, you have this equally.
That's not possible.
And you know, when Talmud talks about the socialist was also possible because we are not exposed to how much you can have as a person.
So as society evolves, ideologies start merging.
Globalization happens.

Defining Treaties

Looking at the faces of a treaty.
They will start doing the lobbying.
The process of drafting, negotiating, redrafting, renegotiating will will will will start.
That process in itself is very difficult because it's dependent on some sort of consensus.
Parties to the treaty are entitled to recant or oscillate or do whatever is necessary to direct the process as long as they want for whatever reason to protect their interest or to stall it until something happens.
They can drag the process longer enough.
Put up some reservation on the content of the treaty.
Protocols would be amendments to treaties.
This will be amend the substantive aspect of the treaty, which is the content and the detailing of the treaties.
The procedural aspects include introducing a procedural establishment or a procedural an institutional mechanism to enforce human rights.

Signatory States

Things to signator state parties who are going to be signing a treaty are simply just saying, well, we acknowledge that this is authentic.
Redrafting and sending representatives.

Ratifications

Accessions by states is an expression of consent to be bound.
Signature is not definitive implication. A state is intended to be bound.
Authenticity, but if you want to be bound by the treaty, you are required to ratify the treaty.
It is a very extensive process.
When there is legitimate expectation, they should respect the treaty.
You're required to not do anything that will undermine whatever what's related with the signing.
The Vienna Convention also speaks to that idea that once you have been a party and a signatory to a thief, you must not do anything that will undermine the spirit, purpose and values entailed in a treaty.
Ratification and accession binds stage to a treaty.
signature does not bind a stage to a treaty.
You are about only a ratification.
Accession is the process of accepting an exception to be bowed by a treaty by then. State deposits an instrument of ratification with an appropriate body. That appropriate body is called a deposit sheet.
You also must make sure all your processes in a clear before your international treaties.
Before your representative that we have clothed with authority to go to Addis Ababa to do ABC has done CDEF here internally. We're not going to be bound by that treaty as Bodhwani.

International Treaties Binding

This is why it's important we put our house in order first such that we should reflect on something that would affect all of us going forward.

Relationship of Treaties, Article and National Law

To ensure that we can agree to Article 12 we should reflect on having section twenty five off the conversation conversation in that conversation.
You want to ensure that this a compatibility study between city provisions and national law.
This article sixteen the treaty and you are only going to conform to three articles in the treaty because the rest of the articles one way or the other, offend your national laws.
So we don't want a national law to render international law nonsense because that's what that's the implication if we have a lot of states who are parties to a treaty putting up reservations for half the treaty.
After all those treaties then to domestication. This means because we are so proud that we have not really that's why they are all there.
To maximize its effect at the national level and international law treaty would have to be made in domestic law.
You know children's act is one of them.

United Nations and Effects of World War II

The WW2 was a catalyst that propelled human rights to the central idea of the global population.
Reflect on what do we do this and we should move away this to do it again as a human race, that why we need a way that countries like the United Nations have came up.
We should now what have to be done.
Those two things together are some of the major reasons why we are now here with a lot amount of things we wanted to talk about.
International community was very repulsing about this and the violations.
The main thing is when is international war is going to work from is easy we can work for this right so now so it's both in times of both peace of war and peace.
Many people from the fact the that we don't we didn't learn from the United Nations.

United Nations and its Global Power

Now the United Nations that set that one of the best thing to work with it we set some of the most influential work of international law.
Its to be able to access that now for all the world for all the nations now we don't want anyone to get anything wrong no more because if they will want our people too much but because all that now it must be done for free people will have have have better we would have it in our power that what what that's what the human nature is.
Now this and with the fact the now that is our right we should take a more a lot not get too much stuff to it because we have just came from a period we have been treated in an amount of respect to and that what makes us human we must be given some of the powers. The right to life has been going down a lot and some of the human right things. This happened in the United States of America.
Corporations in the form is the next level and they also in some cases face those cases.
Right and how will it not get there again.
I should not see to my life anymore in the way because with this the all the stuff the world has now has made and those people make it as like like do to just look around and so let go.
The end what we are going now can now be to as and to make sure that all has it the all that we do do or try to be able to. To be able to get to make that it all of us do has be done with and to find find be happy.

Nuremberg Trials

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General and Karl Marx

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Classification of Human Rights

3 Levels of Classifications:
- 1) Civil & Political
- 2) Socio-economic
- 3) Solidarity/Communal
4th Level (emerging) -- has been determined by some individuals.
- Intelligence and technological advancement.
- Nature itself, due to our intrinsic dependence on it.
- Sexuality -- influence our thinking and human life.

Domestic Jurisdiction

Does have the confidence of being able to address the victim.

International Sources

We discuss with international and regional of the UDHR international covenant and that the have to be done within that from the beginning of it up to this.

10:27 Specific Laws

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What's Important in These Treaties

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Sources of Human Rights

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Criminal Cases

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Liberty and Security

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The End Result

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