scholarly journals The Human Right to Democracy and the Pursuit of Global Justice

2020 ◽  
pp. 277-301
Author(s):  
Pablo Gilabert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
Global Democracy

This chapter addresses two interconnected questions about human rights and the pursuit of global justice: Is there a human right to democracy? How does the achievement of human rights, including the human right to democracy, contribute to the pursuit of global justice? The chapter answers the first question in the affirmative. It identifies three reasons for favoring democracy and explores the significance of those reasons for defending it as a human right. It answers important worries that acknowledging a human right to democracy would lead to intolerance and lack of respect for peoples’ self-determination, exaggerate the importance of democracy for securing other rights, generalize institutional arrangements that only work in some contexts, and tie human rights to specific ideas of freedom and equality that do not have the same universal appeal and urgency. Regarding the second question, the chapter distinguishes between basic and non-basic global justice and argues that democracy is significant for both. It claims that the fulfillment of human rights constitutes basic global justice, explains how a human right to democracy has significance for the legitimacy of international besides domestic institutions, and shows how forms of global democracy and the exploration of cosmopolitan and humanist commitments underlying human rights may enable and motivate the pursuit of non-basic demands of global justice (such as those concerning socioeconomic equality). The key claim in the chapter is that the fulfillment of the human right to democratic political empowerment is crucial for the pursuit of global justice.

Political Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 261-286
Author(s):  
Pablo Gilabert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Political Empowerment

Is there a human right to democracy (HRD)? How does the achievement of human rights, including the human right to democracy, contribute to the pursuit of global justice? The chapter identifies three reasons for favoring democracy and explores their significance for defending it as a human right. It answers important worries that acknowledging an HRD would lead to intolerance and lack of respect for people’s self-determination, exaggerate the importance of democracy for securing other rights, generalize institutional arrangements that only work in some contexts, and tie human rights to specific ideas of freedom and equality that do not have the same universal appeal and urgency. Tackling the second question, the chapter argues that by providing a floor of dignity on which people can stand in the organization of their social life, democratic political empowerment is crucial for the pursuit of both basic and maximal global justice.

scholarly journals The Right of Self-Determination: Its Emergence, Development, and Controversy

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Munafrizal Manan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Self Determination

This paper discusses the right of self-determinationfrom  international  law  and international human rights law perspective. It traces the emergence and development of self-determination from political principle to human right. It also explores the controversy of the right of self-determination. There have been different and even contradictory interpretations of the right of self-determination. Besides, there is no consensus on the mechanism to apply the right of self-determination. Both international law and international human rights law are vague about this.

scholarly journals Disentangling the conundrum of self-determination and its implications in Greenland

Polar Record ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothée Céline Cambou
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Significant Control ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Self Determination

Abstract In 2009, the Act on Greenland Self-Government was adopted. It recognises that “the people of Greenland is a people pursuant to international law with the right of self-determination”. Within this framework, the people of Greenland have gained significant control over their own affairs and the right to access to independence. Yet, the extent to which this framework ensures the right of self-determination in accordance with fundamental human rights can still be questioned. From a human rights perspective, the right of self-determination is not a one-time right. It is fundamental human right that applies in different contexts beyond decolonisation and which has implications not only for colonial countries and peoples but also for the population of all territories, including indigenous and minority groups. From this perspective, this contribution seeks to disentangle and analyse the different facets of self-determination in Greenland while considering the implications of the right based on the multifarious identity of the peoples living in the country as colonial people, citizens, indigenous and minority groups, including their claim to control mining resources.

scholarly journals A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO FOOD INSECURITY IN INUIT NUNANGAT

Aletheia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Adequate Food ◽  
International Reputation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Food Needs

The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization for Inuit in Canada, has voiced serious concern about the food insecurity crisis in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland comprising Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and the Northwest Territories (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, 2019). The widespread and disproportionate experiences of food insecurity in Inuit Nunangat requires critical examination, especially when access to adequate food has been identified as a human right (OHCHR, 2010). My research paper aims to explore this topic of food insecurity as a human rights concern in Inuit Nunangat. A human rights approach acts as both a pathway to investigate, and a tool to inform, policy development. Such an investigation is especially relevant given Canada’s international reputation and constitutional mandate to grant equal protection of rights to all citizens. In this essay, I review international and domestic human rights frameworks that intersect with Inuit food insecurity, in addition to evaluating Canada’s current interventions. I ultimately argue that, based on Canada’s commitments to uphold rights to food, health, and Indigenous self-determination, the government must increase the enforceability of food rights in domestic policy and, second, there must be strengthened collaboration between the government and Inuit partners to more appropriately conceptualize, and respond to, food needs in Inuit Nunangat.

Citizenship and Human Rights

2017 ◽  
pp. 246-267
Author(s):  
David Owen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Human ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship of citizenship and human rights has become a central issue for contemporary politics. This chapter begins with a brief overview of theories of human rights, before addressing two pivotal topics for this relationship: a human right to citizenship (as membership of a state) and a human right to democracy. It then turns to consider the practical salience of the international human rights regime for citizenship and human rights, before concluding with a discussion of the relationship of human rights as cosmopolitan norms to the principle of the self-determination of peoples.

scholarly journals Capacity to Mediate and the Human Right to Self Determination: The Mediator’s Responsibility!

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-222
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Decision Making Capacity ◽  
Guiding Principles

The purpose of this paper is to examine capacity in a mediation context including the level of responsibility a mediator has for assessing the capacity of participants; when that assessment should be made; and whether or not there are any guiding principles available to assist mediators in making the assessment. This is carried out, by reference to the available literature, under the following headings: the human rights origins of self-determination; capacity in a mediation context; the internationally recognised approaches to capacity; the best approach to capacity for mediators; and the obligations which will be imposed on mediators working in Ireland in view of the imminent Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Bill 2013. The paper additionally looks at the skills necessary to assess capacity in mediation and asks if mediators’ training adequately provides them, and concludes that the responsibility to assess capacity to mediate rests solely with the mediator.

Human rights: a reply to Geoffrey Best

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-94
Author(s):  
Tony Evans
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
The United Nations

Geoffrey Best's article ‘Whatever Happened to Human Rights9 in the January 1990 issue of the Review touches upon many important questions which are well known to human rights scholars. These include such political, legal and philosophical difficulties as defining the concept of self-determination, the prospects for implementing certain economic and social rights and the role of international law in improving human right standards. By examining the work of René Cassin in his role as a member of the Commission for Human Rights during the early years of the United Nations, Best points to these difficulties while attempting to achieve two further objectives. The first is to provide an appreciation of Cassin's personal qualities, and the second, to demonstrate that had Cassin's views been more closely adhered to human rights would in some way be healthier today. Although Best's article is the edited text of a lecture, and is consequently not the tightly argued piece we might expect from a more considered paper prepared especially for publication, several of his claims are either questionable or mistaken.

scholarly journals Souled out of rights? – predicaments in protecting the human spirit in the age of neuromarketing

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Sieber
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Survey Analysis ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mental Privacy

AbstractModern neurotechnologies are rapidly infringing on conventional notions of human dignity and they are challenging what it means to be human. This article is a survey analysis of the future of the digital age, reflecting primarily on the effects of neurotechnology that violate universal human rights to dignity, self-determination, and privacy. In particular, this article focuses on neuromarketing to critically assess potentially negative social ramifications of under-regulated neurotechnological application. Possible solutions are critically evaluated, including the human rights claim to the ‘right to mental privacy’ and the suggestion of a new human right based on spiritual jurisdiction, where the human psyche is a legal space in a substantive legal setting.

scholarly journals A Socially Constructed Human Right to the Self‑determination of Indigenous Peoples

2017 ◽  
pp. 105-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Gregg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Socially Constructed

I propose a human right to self‑determination for indigenous peoples as a something in each case developed by the indigenous people and valid only if embraced by that people. That is, I approach human rights as social constructs toward (1) arguing for the social construction of indigenous peoples themselves, (2) with certain limits on indigenous rights to autonomy and diversity even as they construct collective rights for themselves, (3) in this way achieving the internal self‑determination of indigenous peoples, whereby an indigenous people would design its own human right to self‑determination without thereby undermining individual rights, (4) by means of a social and political movement that I conceive as a metaphorical «human rights state.»Received: 25 July 2016Accepted: 30 November 2016Published online: 11 December 2017

Self-determination and Secession: Human Rights-based Conflict Resolution

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoilo A. Velasco
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Effective Power ◽  
Per Se

Abstract Throughout its development as an international law principle, there prevailed an assumption that self-determination gives rise to secession. This assumption, which has fuelled the most violent ethno-national conflicts in modern history, is however misleading. Self-determination does not lead to secession. Self-determination is conceptually and legally separate and independent from secession. Its association with secession actually makes self-determination a legal anomaly. Whether a “nation” can secede is not a function of self-determination but is dictated by an entirely different variable – effective power or authority in international politics. There is a need to break the link between self-determination and secession, and instead recognise self-determination as a human right per se rather than a principle that justifies, confuses, and exacerbates ethno-national conflicts. The result is a change in our way of understanding, and hopefully resolving, existing secessionist struggles and ethno-national conflicts worldwide.

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