6. Rights and responsibilities: human rights to human security

2015 ◽  
pp. 111-134
Author(s):  
Jussi M. Hanhimäki
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Ecological Disaster ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Human

The protection of individual human rights is perhaps at the top of the UN's agenda. The task is not straightforward as the major violators of human rights tend to be states, and states make up the UN. ‘Rights and responsibilities: human rights to human security’ asks: is it more important to protect the integrity of a state or the individual? What about people rendered stateless by violent conflict, or ecological disaster, or people's rights to move within and between states? The answer is difficult because the state tends to reign supreme over the individual, but the UN is the only universally recognized body that can exert pressure on nations to modify their human rights behaviour.

Remarks by Sean D. Murphy

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 193-199
Author(s):  
Sean D. Murphy ◽  
Claudio Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Interstate System ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Individual

Our conversation might begin by looking backward a bit. The human rights movement from 1945 onward has been one of the signature accomplishments of the field of international law, one that refocused our attention from a largely interstate system to a system where the individual moved in from the periphery to the center. Human rights champions point to numerous landmark treaties, numerous institutions, and the rise of NGOs as a critical vehicle for developing and monitoring human rights rules. Yet others look at the international human right system and still see the state as overly central, tolerating and paying lip service to human rights, but too easily discarding them when they prove to be inconvenient. The persistence of racism comes to mind. As a general matter, how would you assess the strengths and weaknesses of the system that was built essentially during your lifetime?

scholarly journals Africa: Risk, Security and Mapping of Human Rights Violations

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-127
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Varani ◽  
Enrico Bernardini
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Social Indicators ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Planetary interdependence makes the task of states and international organizations to guarantee security inside and outside national borders ever more urgent. The tendency is to widen the space from national to international and to conceive of security as multidimensional for the satisfaction of human needs, assumed as priority needs with respect to those of the States. The old concept of national security must today confront the new concept of human security cultivated within the United Nations, which places the fundamental rights of the individual and of people at the centre of attention and lays the foundations for overcoming the traditional politics of power. The concept of human security emphasises the security of the individual and his protection from political violence, war and arbitrariness. It takes account of the strong correlation between peace policy, human rights policy, migration policy and humanitarian policy. The contribution provides, through a series of social indicators such as the Global Peace Index (GPI), Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the World International Security and Policy Index (WISPI), a framework on risk, security, human rights violations in the African continent and examines some significant case studies related to sub-Saharan Africa.

Basic Income as a Human Right?

2019 ◽  
pp. 541-552
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hemel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Global Commons ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.

Implementation of UN Treaty Body Decisions: A Brief Insight for Practitioners

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-192
Author(s):  
Kate Fox Principi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Treaty Body ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So ◽  
Individual Human

Abstract The United Nations human rights treaty bodies are independent bodies of experts tasked with monitoring the implementation by states parties of human rights treaties. These bodies monitor the implementation of treaties, inter alia, by making decisions on allegations of individual human rights violations under the individual complaints procedures (these decisions are officially referred to as ‘Views’). The number of complaints to the treaty bodies has increased exponentially since the first complaint was examined by the Human Rights Committee in 1977 and is expected to continue to rise. At the same time, a backlog in cases has increased, as resources have never matched the rise in cases to be considered. In addition, decisions in which the treaty bodies find violations of human rights are not always implemented—that is, states do not necessarily grant the victim of the violation the remedy prescribed by the treaty body examining the case. This current situation is taking place against a global backdrop of increased criticism of human rights: a global pushback against human rights, including from states which have been heretofore human rights supportive. Surely, the response from supporters of human rights should be to reinforce the importance and universality of the treaties as the foundation of human rights norms. This article seeks to demonstrate one way to do so by focusing on implementation of treaty body decisions in individual cases.

Critical human security studies

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDWARD NEWMAN
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
External Threats ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Distinct Approach

AbstractFrom a critical security studies perspective – and non-traditional security studies more broadly – is the concept of human security something which should be taken seriously? Does human security have anything significant to offer security studies? Both human security and critical security studies challenge the state-centric orthodoxy of conventional international security, based upon military defence of territory against ‘external’ threats. Both also challenge neorealist scholarship, and involve broadening and deepening the security agenda. Yet critical security studies have not engaged substantively with human security as a distinct approach to non-traditional security. This article explores the relationship between human security and critical security studies and considers why human security arguments – which privilege the individual as the referent of security analysis and seek to directly influence policy in this regard – have not made a significant impact in critical security studies. The article suggests a number of ways in which critical and human security studies might engage. In particular, it suggests that human security scholarship must go beyond its (mostly) uncritical conceptual underpinnings if it is to make a lasting impact upon security studies, and this might be envisioned as Critical Human Security Studies (CHSS).

scholarly journals Emergence of the Individual as an International Juristic Entity: Enforcement of International Human Rights

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 534-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Cassidy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Norm ◽  
State Practice ◽  
International Rights ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Individual

In this article it is contended that state practice, as evidenced in the declarations of the judiciary and the many treaties and conventions guaranteeing human rights, reveals a consensus of opinion acknowledging the individual to be an international juristic entity. So extensive is this practice that it could be seen as marking the emergence of a new customary international norm; or at least a general principle of international law, yet to crystallise into a custom; acknowledging the individual as the beneficiary of international rights. This is important for individuals and minority groups because if they possess international rights independently of the State, enforcement of their rights will no longer depend on the interests of the State. Where the State is often the offender of human rights, international law will not effectively confer any real rights unless the individual is so recognised as an inter- national juristic entity.

International Criminal Law

1985 ◽  
Vol 20 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 206-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoram Dinstein
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
The State ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Corporate Entity ◽  
The Veil ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Human

The individual human being is manifestly the object of every legal system on this planet, and consequently also of international law. The ordinary subject of international law is the international corporate entity: first and foremost (though not exclusively) the State. Yet, the corporate entity is not a tangible res that exists in reality, but an abstract notion, moulded through legal manipulation by and within the ambit of a superior legal system. When the veil is pierced, one can see that behind the legal personality of the State (or any other international corporate entity) there are natural persons: flesh-and-blood human beings. In the final analysis, Westlake was indubitably right when he stated: The duties and rights of States are only the duties and rights of the men who compose them.That is to say, in actuality, the international rights and duties of States devolve on human beings, albeit indirectly and collectively. In other words, the individual human being is not merely the object of international law, but indirectly also its subject, notwithstanding the fact that, ostensibly, the subject is the international corporate entity.

scholarly journals COVID-19 pandemic. New challenge for constitutional relations

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Evgeniya V. Lungu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Safety ◽  
The State ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Significant Drop ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Individual Human

The subject. Current constitutional legal relations are considered in the context of the objective legal reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the article is confirmation or confutation of the hypothesis that COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the development of constitutional relations. The methodology. The author uses the method of comparative legal analysis legal measures aiming the minimization of pandemic’s impact on society and formal legal analysis of legislative acts. The main results of the research. It is alleged that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the state of constitutional legal relations and revealed the most acute social and economic problems in all areas of public life. The development of constitutional legal relations in a pandemic will lead, firstly, to a new correlation of collective and individual human rights. As a result of a pandemic, constitutional legal relations in the healthcare sector will move from the category of individual right to life and health to the category of public interest. When the health of an individual citizen is a guarantee of economic and public safety. Secondly, the development of the institution of self-limitation of constitutional human rights. From the position of law, self-restriction of rights allows: to ensure personal and public safety of citizens; avoid introducing restrictions on constitutional rights and freedoms; eliminate redundancy of human rights restrictions. Self-limitation of constitutional human rights is considered as conscious voluntary abstinence from the exercise of constitutional rights on the recommendation of public authorities in an emergency or other conditions close to them (high alert, self-isolation) in order to ensure public and personal safety. Self-limitation of constitutional human rights allows us to observe the constitutional balance of personal and public interests. Thirdly, the experience of combating a pandemic has shown that if the population is able to cope with the consequences of a short-term restriction of their rights on their own, then long-term quarantine measures lead to a significant drop in incomes of the population and must be compensated by the state. Conclusions. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on the one hand triggered a new stage of constitutional legal relations, and on the other hand, like any emergency, exposed the most acute social and economic problems in society. The development of constitutional legal relations in the context of the emerging digital society and the state will not only lead to the development of new principles of constitutional development and, as a result, to constitutional legal relations of a new, digital level, but also affect such areas as the ratio of collective and individual human rights; development of the institution of self-restriction of human rights; further improvement of compensatory constitutional legal relations.

Measuring Violations of Human Rights Standards

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Gibney ◽  
Linda Cornett ◽  
Peter Haschke ◽  
Reed M. Wood ◽  
Daniel Arnon
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Physical Integrity ◽  
Ordinal Measure ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Human Rights Standards

Although every violation of international human rights law standards is both deplorable and illegal, one of the major advances in the social sciences has been the development of measures of comparative state practice. The oldest of these is the Political Terror Scale (PTS), which provides an ordinal measure of physical integrity violations carried out by governments or those associated with the state. Providing data from the mid-1970s to the present, the PTS scores the human rights practices of more than 190 countries on a scale of 1–5, with 1 representing “best practices” and 5 indicating gross and systematic violations. There are two different sources for these scores: U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and the Amnesty International Annual Report. Although human rights have traditionally been associated only with the state, individuals can also be denied human rights protection by non-state actors. To measure this, the Societal Violence Scale (SVS) has been created to analyze three sources of physical integrity violations: the individual; corporate or criminal gang activity; and armed groups. As globalization proceeds apace, states have an increased influence on human rights protection in other countries. Unfortunately, human rights data, such as the PTS, analyze only the domestic practices of states. In an effort to better understand the full extent of a state’s human rights performance, the Extraterritorial Obligations (ETO) Report is currently being constructed. The ETO Report will provide an important analysis of state human rights performance when acting outside its own territorial borders.

scholarly journals The Concept Of Solidarity As A Factor In The Realization Of Human And Civil Rights And Freedoms In Ukraine

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
O.S. Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The People ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

The article is devoted to the study of the role and significance of guarantees of individual rights and freedoms in Ukraine. The author defines that they are important factors in the economic, political, legal, cultural and other spheres of society that create conditions for the real possibility of exercising the rights and freedoms of the individual. The concept of solidarity excludes the idea of class struggle, the revolutionary path of development of society. According to this concept, the focus is on the social nature of the state: socio-economic, cultural, environmental rights of citizens are ensured with the participation of the state, which pursues an active socio-economic policy aimed at redistribution of funds for the most vulnerable, employment, social insurance, development affordable education, health care, etc. Guarantees for the realization of human and civil rights, freedoms and responsibilities can be described as a system of conditions and means that together ensure the exercise of constitutional human and civil rights, freedoms and responsibilities. The effectiveness of this system depends on various factors, but the main among them is the presence of certain elements in the system of government. These include: a) the existence of the Basic Law, the effect of which cannot be terminated arbitrarily; b) the definition of state power derived from the power of the people and the Constitution; c) consolidation at the constitutional level of fundamental rights, freedoms and responsibilities of man and citizen and the means and conditions of their exercise; d) the existence of an independent judiciary; e) the opportunity to protect their rights with the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and in international human rights organizations. It is also proposed to solve certain issues of realization of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine through the implementation of the concept of solidarity - the principle of building a social system in which its members (citizens, families, ethnic groups, religious denominations, social groups, political parties, business corporations, etc.) have a real legal and socio-political subjectivity , on the basis of which their rights, opportunities and interests can be consolidated and solidified in order to achieve consensus goals (common good) in social frameworks of different scales (local, national, global).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document