9 The Great Enterprise Today (2006)

Author(s):  
Pace John P

This chapter studies the arrival of the Human Rights Council. The idea of a Human Rights Council was raised in 1976, as the Great Enterprise entered a new phase. The documentation in 1976 on this issue is comprehensive, consisting of no less than five informative reports. In addition, the Commission on Human Rights had before it the analysis of the observations received from some Member States. They included an analysis of the deliberations at the Assembly that had taken place in November of 1975, which covered a range of topics, including ‘the possibility of transforming the Trusteeship Council into a Human Rights Council’. In 2005, the Secretary-General announced his plans to propose the establishment of a Human Rights Council to the Commission. A few months later, the World Summit decided on the establishment of a Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council inaugurated its work with the adoption of two international human rights instruments, which had reached completion in the Commission on Human Rights: the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It also extended the mandate of the Working Group formed under the Commission to elaborate an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and of the Commission’s Working Group on the Right to Development.

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-510
Author(s):  
Johan Galtung

O texto colige três pequenos textos do pensador norueguês das relações internacionais Johan Galtung, que abordam seus recidivos temas da paz, da pesquisa sobre a paz e dos direitos humanos. O primeiro texto trata de uma homenagem pelos 20 anos da morte do estadista social-democrata alemão Willy Brandt (1913-1992), por cuja política para com o Leste Europeu no final dos anos 1960 (Ostpolitik), que levara à distensão com aqueles países, e futuramente à unificação alemã, recebera o prêmio Nobel da Paz em 1971. O segundo texto apresenta o projeto Hexágono TRANSCEND, cujo objetivo é estudar a geopolítica hexagonal contemporânea, considerando que os grandes polos geopolíticos do mundo atual seriam os EUA, a UE, a Rússia, a China, a Índia e a OMC, todos os quais possuidores de aspectos negativos e positivos, cujo estudo deverá se basear no método triádico diagnóstico-prognóstico-terapia. O terceiro texto foi escrito para o 6º Fórum Social, dedicado à discussão dos 10 artigos da Declaração das Nações Unidas sobre o Direito ao Desenvolvimento (1986), focado no tema dos direitos humanos. Abstract: This paper group three short texts wrote by the Norwegian international relations thinker Johan Galtung, who brought up the peace theme, researching peace and human rights. The first text is about a tribute to the 20th death anniversary of Willy Brandt (1913-1992), German social-democrat statesman, whose policy for the east Europe in the end of 60s (Ostopolitik), which brought dissention to east European countries, and, in time to come, the German unification, received  the Nobel prize in 1971. The second text presents the hexagon project TRANSCEND, whose objective is study the contemporary hexagonal geopolitics, considering that the world's great geopolitics core would be USA, UE, Russia, China, India and the WTO, all bearers of positive and negative aspects, based on diagnoses-prognoses-therapy triadic method. The third text was written to the 6th Social Forum, meeting dedicated to discuss the 10 articles of the United Nations Declaration on the right to development (1986), focusing the human rights theme


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justice C. Nwobike

AbstractThis article argues that the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Ogoni case represents a giant stride towards the protection and promotion of economic, social and cultural rights of Africans. This is predicated on the African Commission's finding that the Nigerian Government's failure to protect the Ogoni people from the activities of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta is contrary to international human rights law and is in fact a step backwards since Nigeria had earlier adopted legislation to fulfill its obligation towards the progressive realization of these rights. The findings of the African Commission demonstrate that economic, social and cultural rights are not vague or incapable of judicial enforcement. They also illustrate how the Charter can be interpreted generously to ensure the effective enjoyment of rights. Novel and commendable as the decision is, it is not without its shortcomings. These shortcomings lie in the failure of the Commission to pronounce on the right to development, its silence on the desirability of holding transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations, and the institutional weakness of the Commission in enforcing its decisions.


Author(s):  
Enyinna Sodienye Nwauche

This paper explores the protection of expressions of folklore within the right to culture in Africa by considering three issues, which are the increased understanding of the right to culture in national constitutions and the recognition that customary law is a manifestation of the right to culture; an expanded understanding of the substantive content of the article 15(1) of the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as part of the right to culture; and the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples marked significantly by the 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. The paper demonstrates how a human rights regime may assist in overcoming some of the deficiencies in the national protection of expressions of folklore in Africa.


2016 ◽  
pp. 329-345
Author(s):  
Dale T. Snauwaert

In a groundbreaking session at the United Nations on June 6, 2013 members of civil society and the UN Secretariat opened a very significant inquiry into fundamental questions of the desirability and possibilities of bringing an end to war. Some have posed this query in terms of whether there is a fundamental human right to peace. The United Nations, members of the global civil society, and scholars have engaged in a significant effort to articulate a human right to peace (See, for example, Alston 1980, Roche 2003, Weiss 2010), and the UN Human Rights Council has established an open-ended intergovernmental working group to draft a United Nations declaration on the right to peace (http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/AdvisoryCommittee/Pages/RightToPeace.aspx).This brief essay is intended to launch that same discussion among peace educators.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-272
Author(s):  
Klaus D. Beiter

Abstract Increasingly, the economy of industrialised countries moves away from being based on a multiplicity of independent innovators to one characterised by cross-licensing and the pooling of intellectual property (IP) rights. Competition law is accorded a more limited role. Refusals to license or restrictive licence terms are tolerated. This paradigm emphasises the innovation at the expense of the dissemination rationale of IP and competition law. The pressure on developing countries is to follow suit. However, this approach jeopardises overcoming the technology dependence of these states. Yet, the political consensus underlying the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was that, in exchange for IP rights protection, a transfer and dissemination of technology benefiting the global South would occur. This has not taken place so far. Taking this promise seriously requires according an enhanced, more social role to competition law. Articles 8(2), 31 and 40 of TRIPS – the TRIPS competition rules – could be interpreted in a way to accomplish this. This article argues in favour of a “prodevelopment” approach to IP-related competition law. This could be viewed as a demand of the rule of law at the international level. On the one hand, treaties such as TRIPS are to be interpreted in good faith. On the other, public interest and human rights considerations justify, as it were, require, such an approach. Articles 7 and 8 of TRIPS can play a crucial role in this regard. They reflect such public interest considerations as “object and purpose” of TRIPS. They also provide a link to international human rights law (IHRL). IHRL protects a (group) right to development, confirming “policy space” for World Trade Organization (WTO) members and the freedom to opt for a competition law model that facilitates dissemination. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) further protects various economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications (REBSPA). These rights may be said to give rise to “transfer and dissemination of technology” as a human right. Duties under the right to development and “territorial” and “extraterritorial” human rights obligations (ETOs) under the ICESCR support an understanding of competition law which is pro development, which takes account of local access and welfare needs. The article concludes with a set of 10 consolidated considerations for a “prodevelopment” IP-related competition law.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 96-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khandaker Farzana Rahman

The concept of right to development has been inserted into the rights discourse quite recently, though it was known earlier that theg proper implementations of human rights tend to secure the life standard and progressive development of the community. New concepts of development expressed its concern for the overall betterment of human being.1 Right to Development (RTD) is being recognized as a collective right in the human rights arena. On the other hand, Rights Based Approach (RBA) has an inseparable link with right to development which seeks for the identification of issues to make a need based assessment. In brief, a human-rights approach translates poor people’s needs into rights, and recognizes individuals as active subjects and stakeholders. It further identifies the obligations of states that are required to take steps – for example through legislation, policies and programs with a view to respect, promote and fulfill the human rights of all people within their jurisdiction.2 RBA addresses rights based issue to achieve goals adopted by MDG, like alleviating poverty, promoting education, ensuring gender equality and empowerment of the women, developing a global partnership for development etc. In this article, the right to development is being tried to accurately affiliate with the framework known as Rights Based Model with a view to characterizing a successful coordination between the two. Thus if the states intend to adjust their methods of functioning and fulfill their obligations to the beneficiaries according to the rights based model, the recognized human rights such as economic, social, cultural rights involved in human development would be enjoyed and respected by an individual irrespective of his class, group, origin and any other attributes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/nujl.v1i0.18528 Northern University Journal of Law Vol.1 2010: 96-111


1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Maria Nzomo

This paper takes the position that the human rights of women are inalienable and an integral and indivisible part of universal human rights, which we define to include the right to full and equal participation of women with men, in the political civil, economic, social and cultural life at all levels. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which is one of the International instruments that explicitly focuses on women’s human rights, is quite comprehensive in its coverage. Consisting of 30 articles, CEDAW covers women’s human rights in all aspects of their lives—political, economic, social and cultural rights.


2004 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 462-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Dennis ◽  
David P. Stewart

Should all internationally recognized human rights—economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights—be subject to the same individual-complaints procedures? This issue is now before a newly convened working group of the UN Commission on Human Rights. At its first meeting, from February 23 to March 5,2004, the Working Group debated the feasibility of elaborating an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) that would provide for the adjudication of individual and group complaints against states under that Covenant. Participating states were in sharp disagreement over the viability of the proposal, however, and the session ended in disarray. Since the Commission has recommended renewal of the Working Group’s mandate for two years, the issue remains open.


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