NGOs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Mutzenberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Oral Information

This chapter evaluates the role played by NGOs before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Committee. Even if NGO participation was not originally foreseen in the Covenants, clear proceedings have subsequently been established to ensure their involvement in the Committees’ work. This chapter’s main focus is on the reporting procedure: it assesses how NGOs can submit written and oral information to strengthen this process. It also briefly addresses the NGO role in other areas of the Committees’ work, in particular the drafting of General Comments and the individual communications mechanisms. However, NGO participation is not limited to the work carried out in Geneva, and the chapter highlights recent NGO initiatives to ensure proper national implementation of the Committees’ recommendations. Such engagement is also possible in the context of the follow-up procedures, albeit to different extents depending on the practices of the respective Committee.

scholarly journals THE HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS AFTER 70 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
MARÍA DALLI
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the first international text recognising universal human rights for all; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 recognises the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to health and medical care. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration, this article presents an overview of the main developments that have been made towards understanding the content and implications of the right to health, as well as an analysis of some specific advancements that aim to facilitate the enforcement thereof. These include: a) the implication of private entities as responsible for right to health obligations; b) the Universal Health Coverage goal, proposed by the World Health Organization and included as one of the Sustainable Development Goals; and c) the individual complaints mechanism introduced by the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted on the 10th December 2008, 60 years after the UDHR).

Cultural Rights of MigrantsLiving Together in Dignity?

2021 ◽  
pp. 175-195
Author(s):  
Bianca Gutan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
European Court ◽  
Living Together ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Constitutional Identity

The growing and multifarious challenges (political, legal, social, and economic) that global migration raises for contemporary states requires solutions related not only to constitutional identity, but also to a better protection of human rights. Although less visible in the ‘big picture’, cultural rights are an important category of human rights. An absent or a precarious protection of these rights might affect other rights. That is why a balance must be struck between society’s needs and the cultural rights of the individual. In this context, questions may be asked: could there be common points regarding the cultural rights of migrants and of minorities in Europe? Is ‘living together’ a concept that can ensure the full respect of the human dignity of migrants, especially as regards cultural rights? The chapter attempts to answer some of these questions, mainly through the prism of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

scholarly journals The Human Rights Act 1998: A Bridge between Citizenship and Justice?

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Liberal Conception ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Political Citizenship ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

This article discusses the implications of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). It suggests that the HRA is designed to promote a classic liberal conception of political citizenship, which protects the individual from the exercise of arbitrary state power, and not to extend the role of the state as a welfare provider. It goes on to argue that the government has limited the effectiveness of the HRA by claiming that they are building a culture of rights and responsibilities whilst treating human rights as an issue for the courts rather than an issue for government and public authorities generally. The article concludes by discussing extending the HRA to include economic, social and cultural rights.

The Principle of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-182
Author(s):  
Henk Addink
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Employment Education ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

The term ‘human rights’ has different meanings and is used in many academic subjects. It is used by lawyers and politicians, by philosophers and theologians, and, more generally, by the public. The term is used to denote a broad spectrum of very diverse rights, ranging from the right to life to the right to a cultural identity. They involve all elementary preconditions for an existence worthy of human dignity. These rights are ordered and specified in different ways. Often a distinction is made between civil and political rights on the one hand and economic, social, and cultural rights on the other. Some also add collective rights as a third group. The first group is related to restricting the powers of the state in respect of the individual. The second group often requires governments to intervene actively to create good conditions for human development, such as employment, education, and healthcare. When we speak about the right to good governance we must distinguish between the right as such and the underlying norms which are part of the principles of good governance: properness, transparency, participation, effectiveness, and accountability. This means that the underlying norms of the right to good governance are also related to these five principles. The inclusion of human rights as one of these principles here is to make it more explicit that this is not only a subjective right for the citizens but also an obligation for the government. The right and the obligation are two sides of the same coin.

scholarly journals ”New” and ”Existing” Rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
Gabriela Nemţoi ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Economic

Considered a fundamental document, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union aims to bring together all the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that citizens and residents of the Community can enjoy in order to outline the EU’s obligation to respect these fundamental rights. Thus, from the perspective of the content of the Charter, civil and political rights can be understood as those rights necessary for the assertion of the individual and defined by the action of their holder[1] and in contrast are the economic, social and cultural rights that can be understood as those rights recognized to individuals, in their capacity as members of certain social categories. Through its content, the Charter reaffirms the rights that arise from the content of national constitutions and international obligations, common to the Member States. Thus, these rights stand out as a foundation that is built on the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, on the Social Charters adopted by the EU, on the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. In this context, it should be noted that the Charter is the first normative act that manages to codify in a single document, the main civil, political, economic and social rights[2], enshrined in previous Community Treaties. Under the auspices of the Charter, we will try to point out the innovative aspect that this document enjoys as a legal instrument for the protection of fundamental human rights.

Human Rights and Capabilities: A Program for a Critical Sociology of Law

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 921-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean De Munck
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Critical Sociology ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Basis ◽  
The Capability Approach

This article sets out the fecundity of the Capability Approach for a sociology of human rights. The author endeavors to show that four difficulties can be successfully overcome. (1) The first is epistemological in nature. Human rights are often presented as legal norms. By relying on the Putman/Habermas debate, the author maintains that Sen’s epistemology is Putnamian, allowing us to treat human rights a system of values (rather than as a system of norms), thereby enabling the construction of a system of evaluation (the “goal rights system”) that is neither consequentialist nor deontological. This system is open to public deliberation and can thus take into account the systems of evaluation of participants (in addition to that of the observer). This epistemological basis serves to remove the other obstacles. (2) By defining the individual in terms of “capabilities”, Sen avoids a methodological individualism that would produce an under-socialized version of the individual. (3) He includes social, economic, and cultural rights in the list of human rights, whereas liberal philosophies tend to exclude these. (4) He allows for the thematization of the specific conversion factors that condition the transformation of formal rights into real freedoms (internormative culture, civilian legal intermediaries, access to resources and the capabilities to use them). Avoiding formalism, the capability approach is a valuable instrument for a critical sociology of human rights.

The Right to Petition an International Authority

1953 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Bruegel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
International Authority ◽  
Sixth Session ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
United Nations Charter

Article 55 of the United Nations Charter commits the member States to promote “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,” recognising thus for the first time the individual as a subject of international law. This would have certainly been a very welcome step—yet we can hardly overlook the fact that very little has been done during the years since 1945, to enable the individual to enjoy this right, guaranteed by the Charter. The “Bill of Rights,” promised in 1946, is far from being completed and ripe for ratification. Rescinding a decision of its fifth session in favour of the inclusion of economic, social and cultural rights in the Draft Covenant of Human Rights, the General Assembly voted during its sixth session in favour of the drafting of two Covenants, one to guarantee civil and political rights and the other economic, social and cultural rights. The drafts of these two documents in the form they emerged from the ninth session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (April 7 to May 30, 1953) do not provide possibilities for the individual to petition an international authority in case of an alleged violation of the Covenant's provisions—in spite of the opinion expressed by the General Assembly at its third session in 1948, that “the right of petition is an essential human right.”

scholarly journals The concept of human rights in the political and legal doctrine of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries of 1917-1921

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 162-168
Author(s):  
Muzyka I.
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

The genesis of rights and freedoms in the history of Ukrainian state-building is closely linked to the activities of Ukrainian political parties and their leaders. Today, in the face of the global economic crisis and the coronavirus epidemic, the concept of human and citizen rights and freedoms is subject to skepticism and criticism. Reassessing the experiences of previous generations can help find ways to overcome a crisis. The concept of the human rights of the UPSR can be characterized as a collectivist, which, in accordance with the idea of prioritizing the interests of the dominant class of workers over the interests of the individual, significantly limited the political and economic rights and freedoms of a large part of the population. At the same time, the concept contained, at the time, quite advanced provisions on equal rights between men and women and national minorities, the provision of equal suffrage, the right to free education and the use of cultural and economic institutions, etc. The concept did not contain a clear division of human rights and citizens into their types. In particular, some economic, social and cultural rights were included in the list of political rights. A significant influence on the formation of the list of rights and freedoms and their content was made by the model of the future socialist Ukrainian state M. Hrushevsky, who was in fact the ideological inspirer of the leadership of the UPSR throughout the party's existence. The basic principles of the concept of human rights of the UPSR were reflected in the Constitution of the UNR in 1918. Keywords: Ukrainian Party of Revolutionary Socialists, Human Rights and Freedoms, M. Hrushevsky, Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), Constitution of the UNR in 1918.

Barking and Biting: The Equal Opportunity Commission as an Enforcement Agency

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Allen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Alternative Dispute Resolution ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
The Individual

Federal anti-discrimination law centres upon the individual who has experienced unlawful discrimination. To address this discrimination, the individual is required to lodge a complaint at the Australian Human Rights Commission (‘AHRC’), which will attempt to resolve the complaint using Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘ADR’). While institutions in other areas, like competition law and occupational health and safety, have a broad range of powers to enforce compliance, successive governments have chosen not to invest the AHRC with equivalent powers. Quite a different model has operated in Britain for four decades. This article analyses the role of the AHRC by comparing it to its British equivalents and examining these institutions according to the ‘enforcement pyramid’ for regulating equal opportunity, which British academics Bob Hepple, Mary Coussey and Tufyal Choudhury have developed. According to these regulatory theorists, to tackle discrimination effectively, equality commissions need to be able to follow up their loud ‘bark’ with a punitive ‘bite’ if necessary. The article concludes by identifying what the experience in both countries reveals about the enforcement of antidiscrimination laws by statutory institutions.

AAC Supports for Individuals With Rett Syndrome Across the Lifespan

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-85
Author(s):  
Sandra M. Grether
Keyword(s):  
Rett Syndrome ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Motor Deficits ◽  
Complex Profile ◽  
Communication Behaviors ◽  
The Individual

Individuals with Rett syndrome (RS) present with a complex profile. They benefit from a multidisciplinary approach for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. In our clinic, the Communication Matrix © (Rowland, 1990/1996/2004) is used to collect data about the communication skills and modalities used by those with RS across the lifespan. Preliminary analysis of this data supports the expected changes in communication behaviors as the individual with RS ages and motor deficits have a greater impact.

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