Part I The Human Rights Mandate of the Principal Organs, 3 The Economic and Social Council

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mégret Frédéric
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Social Council ◽  
Central Piece ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Significant Change

This chapter looks at the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) role in promoting human rights. The ECOSOC, whose origins lie in ambitious proposals drawn up in 1939 within the League of Nations for a ‘Central Committee for Economic and Social questions’, was supposed to be the central piece of that machinery, one that would work for the purpose of achieving ‘international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character’. Yet, ECOSOC has never been as central a body in the United Nations as one might have expected it to be. In every proposal for reform, it is one of the prime candidates for significant change or even elimination. The chapter suggests that this has significantly hampered its potential contribution to human rights over the years.

The Significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The record so far and future prospects

1966 ◽  
Vol 6 (63) ◽  
pp. 287-296
Author(s):  
Albert Verdoodt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Social Council ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Condition Of Women

On the 10th December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which had been drawn up by a series of meetings of the Commission of Human Rights and the Commission on the Condition of Women as well as major discussions which took place during the first seven sessions of the Economic and Social Council. The General Assembly presented this Declaration “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 Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education … and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance …”

Les minorités dans la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme, une absence délibérée

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 557-590
Author(s):  
Fernando Arlettaz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
The United Nations

Summary The League of Nations established, in the interwar period, a legal regime for the protection of minorities which considered them as intermeditate groups between the State and the individuals. On the contrary, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by the United Nations, assumed a radically individualistic point of view and did not include any mention to minority rights. The travaux préparatoires of the Universal Declaration suggest that the question of minorities caused strong tension among States and that, for this reason, they avoided its inclusion in the 1948 document.

Economic and Social Council

1954 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-246
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Working Party ◽  
Basic Program ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
Social Council ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

The sixteenth session of the Economic and Social Council was resumed at United Nations headquarters in New York on November 30, and concluded on December 7, 1953. The Council worked out its basic program for 1954 and considered the provisional agenda for its seventeenth session drawn up by the Secretary-General (Hammarskjold). It transmitted to the Commission on Human Rights for appropriate action the resolutions of the eighth session of the General Assembly on the draft International Covenants on Human Rights and measures of implementation; the right of peoples to self-determination; and the development of the work of the United Nations for wider observance of, and respect for, human rights and fundamental freedoms. Amending its resolution of July 31, 1953, on the program of concerted practical action in the social field of the United Nations and the specialized agencies, the Council added to the list of projects on which such a program should concentrate the improvement of health, education and social welfare in the non-self-governing and trust territories. The Technical Assistance Committee, which had been instructed during the first part of the session to submit recommendations concerning the financial arrangements for the expanded program of technical assistance, informed the Council that the working party it had established had decided to refer the question to the Technical Assistance Board, and that since the Board was not due to meet until December 1953, it had received no specific proposals. Finally, the Council confirmed the members nominated by Denmark, Panama, Cuba, the Byelorussian SSR, and China to the Statistical, Social and Human Rights Commissions.

5. The United Nations—organizational structure

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhona K. M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Social Council ◽  
International Court ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter examines the organizational structure of the United Nations, focusing on the principal entities impacting on, monitoring, and enforcing international human rights. These include the Security Council, the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Council, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The chapter explains the functions and responsibilities of these bodies, and highlights the financial and personnel constraints that negatively affect the performance of their duties. The UN treaty bodies will also be introduced.

General Assembly

1951 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 722-736
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Social Council ◽  
Indian Origin ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Regular Session

The sixth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly was to convene at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris on Tuesday, November 6, 1951. The agenda included: the report of the Committee of Twelve, the problem of the independence of Korea, the report of the Collective Measures Committee, items on China, Palestine, the treatment of people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa, the report of the Economic and Social Council, relief and rehabilitation, the draft international covenant on human rights, items concerning trust and non-self-governing territories, administrative and budgetary matters and legal affairs.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

1967 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 84-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. St.J. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
United Nations High Commissioner ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Social Council ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
First Session

By Resolution 2062 (XX) of December 16, 1965, the United Nations General Assembly requested the Economic and Social Council to transmit to the Commission on Human Rights a proposal by Costa Rica to create the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, so that the Commission might study the matter and report on it to the General Assembly at its twenty-first session in 1966. The Commission on Human Rights considered the item in March 1966, and by resolution 4 (XXII) established a Working Group comprising nine members of the Commission to study the proposed institution and to report to the Commission at its twenty-third session in 1967. The item was not taken up by the Third Committee during the Assembly’s twenty-first session in 1966, partly because background studies on the subject had not been completed, and partly because the Committee had allocated most of its time to the task of completing measures of implementation for the two International Covenants on Human Rights.

Haile Selassie, the League of Nations, and Human Rights Diplomacy

2020 ◽  
pp. 64-95
Author(s):  
Derrick M. Nault
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Community ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
International Awareness

Chapter Three proposes that former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, a figure rarely mentioned in histories of human rights, made significant contributions in the realm of human rights diplomacy in the 1930s. Following Fascist Italy’s invasion of his nation in 1935, he persistently lobbied the League of Nations to uphold Ethiopia’s right to self-determination and punish Italy’s use of chemical weapons and other violations of the Geneva Protocol and Hague Conventions, raising international awareness of Italian war crimes in Africa. As is also shown, he adroitly drew attention to the shortcomings of the League’s Covenant, providing vital lessons for the founding of the United Nations (UN). While Selassie was deposed in the 1970s due to numerous failures as a leader, the chapter demonstrates that for almost three decades he enthralled the international community and prompted rethinking on Europe’s relations with its African colonies that had long-term significance for human rights.

Art.36 Consideration of Reports

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Combrinck Helene
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Social Council ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Monitoring ◽  
Treaty Monitoring ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter examines Article 36 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which sets out one of the CRPD’s international monitoring mechanisms, viz the consideration of state reports by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Every human rights treaty contains certain ‘directives’ for the treaty monitoring body on how to respond to reports from member states. The notion of monitoring human rights implementation through the review of periodic reports had its origins in a 1956 resolution of the United Nations Economic and Social Council which requested states to submit, every three years, reports on progress achieved in advancing the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By 1977, a reporting requirement had been included into each of the ‘core’ international human rights treaties. This has become a standard feature of all subsequent human rights treaties, including the CRPD.

Part II Historical and Legal Sources, Ch.13 The Protection of Minorities under the Auspices of the League of Nations

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kovacs Peter
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Specialized Institution

This article examines the protection of minority rights under League of Nations. It explains that the League was created to be a specialized institution for minorities but the mechanism for responding to the grievances of the minorities was developed only after the Versailles peace conference in 1919–20. It discusses the main principles and structures of the League of Nations mechanism and the complaints procedure. This article also explains that the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations in 1946 but its minority protection system was not included in the responsibilities of the new organization. It also highlights the contribution of the League to the evolution of the doctrine of the international legal protection of human rights.

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