Human rights in the Arab World (2009–10): the impact of wasted chances and the consecration of human rights violations

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhsin ʿAwad

This article is based on the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) report on the situation of human rights in the Arab World (ʿAwad et al. 2010), which was issued in July 2010 and is comprehensive for the period extending from mid-2009 to mid-2010. This connotes a pivotal and decisive period when the Arab nation was obliged to confront critical decisions that will influence the future and the fate of the nation (ummah) for a long time to come. Across a wide range of pivotal issues central to the Arab nation there have been decisive gains at the level of the right of self-determination in Palestine and Iraq, and at the level of civil peace and territorial integrity in the Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, as well as on reform and democratic transition in many Arab countries. For a very long time there has not ceased to be a choice between development, social policies and Arab economic cooperation in the period between two global crises, the first of which depleted Arab sovereign funds by half and the second of which is brewing ominously on the horizon of the global economy. This paper tackles the most prominent features of the human rights condition through four main sections: the development of national legislation; political and civil rights; public freedoms; and developmental and environmental challenges and their impact on the implementation of social and economic rights.

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Erasmus

Socio-economic rights are those human rights that aim to secure for all members of a particular society a basic quality of life in terms of food, water, shelter, education, health care and housing. They differ from traditional civil and political rights such as the right to equality, personal liberty, property, free speech and association. These “traditional human rights” are now found in most democratic constitutions and are, as a rule, enshrined in a Bill of Rights; which is that part of the Constitution that is normally enforced through mechanisms such as judicial review. The victims of the violation of such rights have a legal remedy. Individual freedom is a primary value underpinning civil and political rights.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-363
Author(s):  
Mary T. Bassett

AbstractThe Black Panther Party (BPP) evolved from an organization focused on armed self-defense against police brutality to one that framed police violence as part of broader social violence. Protection meant advocating for a wide range of social and economic rights, including the right to health. In this view, the BPP aligned with a broader tradition of community health from the civil rights movement, women’s movement, and other progressive movements. Fred Hampton articulated a radical view that saw the inadequate government social services as a form of oppression. Central to better health was the promotion of social justice and human dignity, incorporated into the BPP “survival programs.” In a few short years, the BPP established more than a dozen clinics across the country and a national sickle cell screening program. Its legacy remains relevant today.


Author(s):  
Halyna Pryshliak ◽  

Numerous ideological dogmas and "propaganda struggles" over human rights, which took place for decades, did not make it possible to realistically comprehend and solve the problems of individual rights in Soviet society in full, according to a certain level of progress,say in the European Union. Such dogmas include the assertion that only socialism is able to fully guarantee human rights, that the main socio-economic rights for man and his freedom. Thus, freely or not, political and personal, spiritual and human rights, and even more so, environmental ones were underestimated. Unfortunately, this view reflected the actual practice in the former USSR and other former socialist countries. In the field of political, spiritual and personal rights and freedoms, there were quite a few forbidden topics, and environmental ones were not singled out at all. At the same time, competent jurists, both during the years of stagnation and during the so-called perestroika, consistently developed and defended the idea of human and civil rights. The article considers the problem of realization of human and civil rights and freedoms and guarantees of observance of international standards of ecological human rights in the national legislation. Emphasis is placed on the implementation of international norms in the field of human rights and freedoms in the practice of national legislation. It is proposed to supplement the current legislation with the right of citizens and their associations to control the bodies of state power and local self-government in the environmental sphere. It is concluded that problems with the realization of environmental rights and freedomsin Ukraine, unfortunately, exist. The level of theirimplementation islow, therefore, it can be stated that the level of efficiency is also low. In addition, it should be noted that citizens' awareness of the full range of their environmental rights and freedoms, which are enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine, and their continued application, will lead to their implementation at the appropriate democratic and legal level.


2019 ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
SVITLANA KARVATSKA

The doctrinal substantiation of the practical consideration of precedents in relation to ensuring and violating the migrants’ rights is in sight of the representatives of various field of science. It is also a subject of complex international legal, political, historical, economic, demographic, anthropological and social studies. However, a rapid dynamic development, caused by various factors in migration processes, and its institutionalization requires picky and thorough scientific analysis of some important issues such as the migration problem, the impact of the right to migrate, political and rational incentives for migration, consideration of the interpretation of such cases by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a further and comprehensive settlement of migration policy on both European and national level. Although particular steps are being taken to create a sustainable regulatory framework for the recognition and assurance of human rights in response to current challenges and to systemic drawbacks of the national human rights mechanism – the problems of migration and asylum are very urgent and thorny. The purpose of the article is to analyse doctrinal approaches and legal positions of the ECtHR in the process of interpretation in the field of migration. The use of the research methodology was caused by the specifics of the study subject. The comprehensive approach to analysis, which combines a wide range of philosophical, general scientific, special scientific and legal methods, served as a research basis. Thus, the dialectical method has allowed substantiating a regular nature of the formation of an evolutionary approach to the interpretation of ECtHR judgments. The anthropological approach emphasized on the place and role of man in the process of legal interpretation. With the help of the hermeneutic method, the concept of the categories “migrant”, “migrants’ rights”, “asylum”, as well as the content of the doctrinal approaches and legal positions of the Court were disclosed, while a systematic method reflected the interrelationship between them. The statistical method made it possible to quantitatively synthesize the case law of the ECtHR in the field of migration and asylum. The use of the comparative method allowed to carry out a comparative analysis of doctrinal approaches employed by the Court in considering various categories of migration issues in different periods of its activities. It is proved that the ECtHR uses many doctrinal approaches, the Court emphasizes on the need to adhere to the principle of wide margin of appreciation. In cases of deportation of foreigners convicted of a criminal offense, the Court is guided by the principle of proportionality. Most of the cases examined by the ECtHR concerning migrants are related to the provision of asylum. The interpretation activities of the Court are focused on identifying barriers to asylum and formulating the principle of prohibition of dismissal, if the asylum seeker was forced to leave his country caused by various circumstances such as humanitarian crisis, non-selective violence, real threat / danger, denial of justice, or unlawful detention or conviction by a manifestly unfair trial in country of residence, or procedural violations against migrants and etc. The ECtHR has also focused on assessing the risks of not granting asylum, in particular, harsh treatment and has formulated the predominance principle of the child’s extraordinary vulnerability, which prevails over the status of the illegal stay presence as a foreigner on the territory of the state


Author(s):  
Grote Rainer ◽  
Röder Tilmann J

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact that new and draft constitutions and amendments—such as those in Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia—have had on the transformative processes that drive constitutionalism in Arab countries. The authors aim to identify and analyze the key issues facing constitutional law and democratic development in Islamic states, and offer an in-depth examination of the relevance of the transformation processes for the development and future of constitutionalism in Arab countries. Using an encompassing and multi-faceted approach, this book explores underlying trends and currents that have been pivotal to the Arab Spring, while identifying and providing a forward looking view of constitution making in the Arab world. In its analysis, this book also includes country-specific case studies on the relationship between Islam and the rule of law and human rights, within contemporary Islamic societies and offers an in-depth comparison of Arab Spring constitutionalism to the models of constitutionalism around the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (11) ◽  
pp. 2983-2991
Author(s):  
Viktor V. Horodovenko ◽  
Larysa G. Udovyka ◽  
Tatiana О. Shekhovtsova

The aim: To identify the problems and prospects of introducing mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 in the context of respect for human and civil rights and freedoms based on generalization and systematization of foreign experience in implementing such measures. Materials and methods: In the research, we applied a complex of philosophical and ideological approaches, general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition, in particular civilizational and axiological approaches as well as dialectical, dogmatic, comparative, and statistical methods. The empirical basis of the study is represented by the statistical data of the healthcare sector of European countries, generalization of the practice of vaccination. In the study, we use international and European regulatory legal acts and documents in the field of human rights, national legislation of foreign countries. Conclusions: Vaccination represents an important component of the fundamental right to health. International legal acts on the human rights regulation, in particular the right to health, do not provide an unambiguous answer to the question of whether vaccination is the right or responsibility of a person, which has resulted in the existence of a wide range of vaccination policies and models. The existence of a wide range of policies and practices in States Parties to the Convention makes permissible the application of more imperative approaches to immunization, in particular, in cases where voluntary vaccination is not sufficient to ensure the threshold of herd immunity. In most countries, vaccination against COVID-19 is carried out voluntarily, whereas the complication of the epidemiological situation has resulted in following the path of introducing mandatory vaccination in some countries, both with regard to certain population categories (France, Greece, Russia, Ukraine) and the entire population (Tajikistan, Turkmenistan).


2009 ◽  
pp. 485-502
Author(s):  
Francesco Salerno

- Two elements must be taken into account in order to assess Bobbio's influence on Italian legal thinking regarding human rights and their protection at the international level: on one side, Bobbio's polyedric attitude towards legal studies; on the other side, the difficulty experienced by the Italian doctrine of international law in moving away from traditional positivist and statalist paradigms. The "dialogue" between Bobbio and international legal thinking probably reached its peak in the middle of the 20th Century, when some international law scholars, referring inter alia to Bobbio's reflection on custom as a source of law, developed the idea of "spontaneous law" in connection with international customary rules. Yet, this "contact" had only a limited impact on the law of human rights, probably due to the fact that, for a long time, Italian scholars have generally followed a very cautious approach over the possibility of ascertaining the existence of universal rules for the protection of such rights. Besides, the Italian doctrine of international law, in line with its formalistic and statalist foundations, paid in general little attention to the "promotional" function of international law in the area of human rights, despite Bobbio's attempts to draw the attention to its potentials, especially after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948). Italian scholars, assuming that international relations and international law should be looked at from the standpoint of the "constitutional sovereignty" of the State, have also been generally unwilling to study the impact of international rules over issues of constitutional law and to assess whether international law requires States to adopt an institutional and legal framework compatible with the "right to democracy". Instead, Bobbio's attention to federalism has proved to be more easy to share among international law scholars, especially in connection with international organizations acquiring a supra-national dimension: the need of assuring respect of human rights within such organizations, just like at State level, has been constantly remarked by Italian authors.


Author(s):  
Gisela Hirschmann

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? Political scientists and legal scholars have shed a much-needed light on the limits of traditional accountability when it comes to complex global governance. However, conventional studies on IO accountability fail to systematically analyze a related, puzzling empirical trend: human rights violations that occur in the context of global governance do not go unnoticed altogether; they are investigated and sanctioned by independent third parties. This book puts forward the concept of pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. We can expect pluralist accountability to evolve if a competitive environment stimulates third parties to enact accountability and if the implementing actors are vulnerable to human rights demands. Based on a comprehensive study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the European Union Troika’s austerity policy, and global public–private health partnerships in India, this book demonstrates how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of studying alternative accountability mechanisms, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs’ legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.


2021 ◽  
pp. 092405192199274
Author(s):  
Cathérine Van de Graaf

Fair procedures have long been a topic of great interest for human rights lawyers. Yet, few authors have drawn on research from other disciplines to enrich the discussion. Social psychological procedural justice research has demonstrated in various applications that, besides the final outcome, the manner in which one’s case is handled matters to people as well. Such research has shown the impact of procedural justice on individuals’ well-being, their acceptance of unfavourable decisions, perceptions of legitimacy and public confidence. The ECtHR has confirmed the desirability of these effects in its fair trial jurisprudence. Thus far, it remains unclear to what extent the guarantees offered by Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to a fair trial) coincide with the findings of empirical procedural justice research. This article aims to rectify this and uncover similarities between the two disciplines.


Author(s):  
Harriet Samuels

Abstract The article investigates the negative attitude towards civil society over the last decade in the United Kingdom and the repercussions for human rights. It considers this in the context of the United Kingdom government’s implementation of the policy of austerity. It reflects on the various policy and legal changes, and the impact on the campaigning and advocacy work of civil society organizations, particularly those that work on social and economic rights.


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