s.IV Crimes, Ch.15 Enslavement as a Crime against Humanity: Some Doctrinal, Historical, and Theoretical Considerations

Author(s):  
Bikundo Edwin

This chapter delves into one specific crime—enslavement as a crime against humanity. It argues that the law has drawn heavily on civil and political rights, neglecting economic, social, and cultural ones. The law surrounding slavery furthermore has drawn on some basic contrasts: notably separating the concept of ‘human’ (a human being) from ‘person’ (a bearer of legal personality and rights). Another distinction is between ‘status’ and ‘condition’. The law has tended to focus on status, i.e., legal non-recognition of personhood, which has affinities with civil and political rights. The chapter argues that the law has given much less attention to ‘condition’, which looks at the person’s material conditions in fact, and which has affinities with economic and social rights. A re-imagined law better encompassing economic and social rights would be more ideologically neutral, more in keeping with human rights law, and more in keeping with the lived experiences of African would-be migrants. Thus, this chapter emphasises that recognition in law is not enough; one must also look at the material conditions of life, the deprivation of which enables enslavement.

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 540-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis B. Sohn

Too much has been written lately about the limited approach to human rights at Dumbarton Oaks, the struggle at the San Francisco Conference, and the great flowering of declarations, conventions, covenants and instruments to implement them in the last fifty years. Instead of adding another retelling of these more than twice-told tales, this essay tries to look at the origin of two less known contributions to the law of human rights—the broad nondiscrimination clause which added a more practical meaning to the vague “human rights and fundamental freedoms” phrase; and the bold addition of economic and social rights to the more traditional civil and political rights.


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Wilde

The spatial test for triggering the extraterritorial application of the main treaties on civil and political rights law has been the subject of significant judicial comment in recent years. This piece offers a critical evaluation of an important common theme in these judicial determinations: the suggestion that the spatial test is to be understood in a manner that covers a sub-set of extraterritorial activity involving territorial control occurring as a matter of fact. It provides a sustained explanation and critical evaluation of four different ways such a suggestion can be identified in some of the key judicial determinations on the issue of the extraterritorial application of treaties on civil and political rights generally. Since one of the other main areas of law potentially relevant to extraterritorial activity—the law of occupation—also uses a test of territorial control as a trigger for application, the interplay between the approaches taken in each area of law on the question of what type of control is required mediates the extent to which the fields of activity covered by the two areas of law overlap. Understanding the merit of the determinations concerning human rights law discussed in this piece is significant, then, not only on its own terms, but also because of its significance to the broader question of the overlap between human rights law and the law of occupation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gauthier de Beco

AbstractThis article argues that a new understanding of the indivisibility of human rights has emerged through the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD has blurred the distinction between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic and social rights, on the other. After showing how this distinction has been blurred in the Convention, the article critically analyses the impact this has had on the concept of indivisibility, as well as its consequences for international human rights law more generally. It shows that there is now a shift away from a preoccupation with different categories of rights and towards concern for the real and actual enjoyment of human rights.


ADALAH ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Latipah Nasution

Indonesia sebagai negara yang berdasarkan hukum (rechstat), mempunyai konsekuensi yakni adanya supremasi hukum. Ini artinya, setiap tindakan administrasi negara harus berdasarkan hukum yang berlaku, selain harus memberikan kepastian hukum (asas legalitas). Sistem demokrasi yang berlandaskan hukum dan berkedaulatan rakyat menjadi dasar kehidupan dalam berbangsa dan bernegara. Demokrasi sebagai sistem pemerintahan yang dianut oleh Indonesia menyatakan bahwa suatu pemerintahan dipimpin oleh rakyat, dari rakyat, dan untuk rakyat. Bentuk pengejawantahan dari sistem demokrasi adalah diselenggarakannya Pemilu secara langsung. Adapun landasan dasar dilaksanakannya pemilu adalah pasal 22 E ayat (1) Undang Undang Dasar 1945 yang telah mengamanatkan diselenggarakannya pemilu dengan berkualitas, mengikutsertakan partisipasi rakyat seluas-luasnya atas prinsip demokrasi yakni langsung, umum, bebas, rahasia, jujur dan adil melalui suatu perundang-undangan (Handayani, 2014: 1). Pemilihan umum sebagai sarana pelaksanaan kedaulatan rakyat yang dilaksanakan secara langsung, umum, bebas, jujur, dan adil dengan menjamin prinsip perwakilan, akuntabilitas dan legitimasi dalam Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia berdasarkan Pancasila dan Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945.  Dinamika pada pemilihan umum seringkali diwarnai dengan isu mahar politik oleh para kontestan politik, sebagaimana dipublikasi diberbagai media di Indonesia. Praktik mahar politik dapat dipahami sebagai transaksi dibawah tangan yang melibatkan pemberian sejumlah dana dari calon pejabat tertentu untuk jabatan tertentu dalam pemilu partai politik sebagai kendaraan politiknya (Susilo, 2018: 155). Pemilihan umum sejatinya merupakan sebuah arena yang mewadahi para calon kandidat dalam kontestasi politik yang meraih kekuasaan partisipasi rakyat untuk menentukan pilihan dan sebagai penyalur hak sosial dan politik masyarakat itu sendiri (Simamora, 2014: 2).Pelaksanaan pemilu memberikan harapan rakyat dengan lahirnya seorang pmimpin yang mampu menyejahterakan dan membahagiakan rakyat dengan beberapa kebijakan yang dibuatnya. Namun dalam proses pemilu seringkali dicederai oleh beberapa oknum dari para calon kandidat beserta tim suksesnya yang mengunakan segala cara untuk memenangkan kontestasi politik, selain mahar politik, money politic juga kerap menjadi isu hangat dalam kontestasi politik. Terjadinya politik uang bukan hanya pada pasangan kandidat, namun juga karena masyarakat yang berpikir instan seringkali tertarik dengan politik uang. Penegakan hukum dalam kasus ini perlu diperhatikan guna melestarikan pesta demokrasi yang bersih dari tindak pidana dalam pemilu (Hadi; Fadhlika; Ambarwati, 2018: 398).Prinsip demokrasi dan keadilan dalam pemilihan umum (electoral justice) adalah keterlibatan masyarakat merupakan hal yang mutlak. Hak masyarakat sangat mendasar dan asasi sifatnya. Hal ini diamini, sebagaimana dimuat dalam Universal Declaration of Human Right 1948 yang telah dijamin juga dalam konvenan dan turunannya, terlebih dalam Convenan on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Cultural and social Rights atau yang lumrah disebut dengan International Bill of Human Rights.  Dengan dicantumkannya hak dasar dalam pelaksanaan pemilu, maka berlaku pula prinsip-prinsip integritas pemilu  yang mensyaratkan adanya pemantauan masyarakat yang independen dan penyelenggaraan pemilu yang transparan dan akuntabel. Hal ini serupa pentingnya dengan prinsip lain yang juga harus ditetapkan oleh institusi penyelenggara (KPU) dengan memiliki standar perilaku dan beretika, serta mampu menerapkan aturan secara adil tanpa pandang bulu.Untuk menjamin agar pemilu berjalan sesuai dengan ketentuan dan asas pemilu, diperlukan suatu pengawalan terhadap jalannya setiap tahapan pemilu. Dalam konteks pengawasan pemilu di Indonesia, pengawasan terhadap proses pemilu dilembagakan dengan adanya lembaga Badan Pengawas Pemilu (Bawaslu). Pengawasan dari Bawaslu adalah bentuk pengawasan yang terlembaga dari suatu organ Negara.Terlepas dari aturan tentang pemilihan umum yang diatur sedemikan rupa untuk memberikan kedaulatan bagi rakyat itu sendiri dalam penyelenggaraan pemilihan umum, pada prakteknya terdapat banyak permasalahan yang pada akhirnya mengurangi, merampas, dan meniadakan kedaulatan rakyat dalam penyelenggaraan pemilu. Pemerintahan yang seharusnya berasal dari rakyat, oleh rakyat, dan untuk rakyat berubah menjadi pemerintahan yang berasal, dari, dan untuk kepentingan kelompok tertentu. Hal yang paling mencolok terjadi dalam pemilihan presiden dan wakil presiden yakni Black Campaign. Permasalahan penyelenggaraan pemilihan umum yang berakibat pada  kedaulatan rakyat seperti money politic, budaya money politic marak terjadi dimana – mana dan bukan lagi merupakan rahasia umum. Praktik politik uang terjadi pada saat pengusungan calon yang dilakukan partai dan pada saat pencarian dukungan langsung dari rakyat. Rakyat dibayar, disuap, untuk memilih calon tertentu. Dengan demikian, rakyat dalam menentukan pilihannya tidak lagi dalam kehendak bebas, kesadaran akan bangsa dan negara, maupun dalam pengendalian penuh atas dirinya. Money politic meniadakan prinsip kedaulatan rakyat dalam pemilihan umum. Suara yang diberikan tidak berdasarkan prinsip jujur dan adil.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-269
Author(s):  
Sarah Joseph

Abstract States have duties under Article 12(2)(c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to prevent, control and treat covid-19. Implementation of these three obligations is analysed, taking account of countervailing human rights considerations. Regarding prevention, lockdowns designed to stop the spread of the virus are examined. Control measures are then discussed, namely transparency measures, quarantine, testing and tracing. The human rights compatibility of treatment measures, namely the provision of adequate medical and hospital care (or the failure to do so), are then examined. Finally, derogations from human rights treaties in times of pubic emergency are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-275
Author(s):  
Eda Seyhan

Abstract In response to the rise of ‘populism’ and the perceived threat to human rights that it represents, human rights advocates have argued that NGOs must speak to the economic anxieties of majority populations by increasing work on economic and social rights. In this essay, I present a counter-argument to this proposal, drawing on insights from the COVID-19 pandemic and my experiences working at Amnesty International and monitoring emergency powers during the pandemic for Covid State Watch. I argue that international human rights NGOs should retain a focus on civil and political rights for three reasons. The COVID-19 pandemic has (1) revealed and reinforced the vast repressive power of the state and consequent serious risks to civil and political rights in the global North and (2) demonstrated that human rights NGOs are often alone in challenging restrictions to civil and political rights, especially during crises. I further suggest that, in contrast to the civil and political rights sphere, (3) human rights NGOs offer little ‘value added’ in the field of economic and social rights in the global North. I conclude by proposing that human rights serve their most useful function when they protect those who few others are willing to defend, such as the vector of disease, the terrorist and the criminal.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Daniel W Hill ◽  
K Anne Watson

Abstract Research on international human rights law suggests that the beneficial effects of treaties depend on the strength of democratic political institutions. However, democracies are, by definition, compliant with many provisions in treaties that protect civil and political rights. Additionally, theories of compliance derive from a focus on civil and political rights rather than on other rights, so we lack a good understanding of whether predictions hold for other kinds of rights. We examine compliance with the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which protects rights that are distinct from those that characterize democratic governance. To measure compliance, we create a new indicator of women's rights that offers several advantages over existing indicators. We examine the conditional effect of CEDAW using models that allow for heterogenous treaty effects. This helps to adjudicate between theories that expect treaties to be most effective in highly democratic countries and those that expect them to be most effective among partial democracies. Our findings do not support either expectation and suggest that effectiveness does not depend on democracy, at least in the case of CEDAW. This points to the need to enrich existing theories of ratification and compliance by accounting for differences in the nature of the rights protected by different treaties.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 734-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen O’Keefe ◽  
Alex Scott-Samuel

While the importance of civil and political rights to health advocates is widely acknowledged, economic and social rights are not yet securely on advocates’ agenda. Health impact assessment is an approach that can promote an appreciation of their importance. This paper introduces health impact assessment, gives examples of how it is being used, links its development to a focus on inequalities in health status, indicates the insufficiency of civil and political rights to protect health, and shows that the use of health impact assessment draws attention to economic and social rights. While civil and political rights are an astonishing social achievement, they are not in themselves sufficient to promote health.


2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lappin

AbstractThe right to vote is the most important political right in international human rights law. Framed within the broader right of political participation, it is the only right in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights not guaranteed as a universal human right but rather as a citizen's right. While limitations on the right to vote are permissible in respect of citizenship and age, residency-based restrictions are not explicitly provided. However, recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights endorse a view that voting rights may be conditioned on residency on the grounds of an individual's bond to their country-of-origin and the extent to which laws passed by that government would affect them. This article questions this proposition and explores whether disenfranchisement based solely on residency constitutes an unreasonable and discriminatory restriction to the essence of the right.


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