Protecting Human Rights as Public Morals under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (gatt) 1994

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
J. Ife Ogbonna

This article analyses the acceptance of the concept of ‘public morals’ as a legitimate objective grounded in the importance of internationally recognised human rights instruments and worthy of protection by a Panel of the World Trade Organisation (wto) in the case European Communities – Measures Prohibiting the Importation and Marketing of Seal Products. It analyses how the General Exception clause to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (gatt) Article XX(a) was successfully used to defend a regulatory measure and concludes by endorsing a symbiotic relationship between wto Agreements and international human rights instruments.

Author(s):  
Bożena Drzewicka

Conceptions And Interpretations of Human Rights in Europe and Asia: Normative AspectsThe issue of confronting values between civilizations has become very important. It influences not only the level of international politics but also the international normative activity. It is very interesting for the modern international law and its doctrine. The most important factor of causing huge changes in the system of international law is still the international human rights protection and the international humanitarian law which is related to it. It is very difficult to create one catalogue of executive instruments and procedures but it is possible to influence the attitude toward the basic paradigms. The frictions appear from time to time and move to other planes. The West and Asia are still antagonists in the dialogue on the future of the world. The article is a contribution to the intercivilizational dialogue.


Author(s):  
Ronald Labonté ◽  
Arne Ruckert

A long-standing and fundamental facet of global governance for health has been the development of an international human rights framework. Arising from the aftermath of World War II, human rights are comprised of several different covenants that constitute international law, albeit lacking in international enforcement measures. When these rights are instantiated within national laws or constitutions, however, they become justiciable within a country’s legal system. There are also global bodies responsible for oversight of their implementation. Their strength, as with that of the Sustainable Development Goals’ Agenda 2030, may rest more on their normative force—how the world’s people imperfectly expressed through their governments believe the world should work and look like. Given a growing illiberal temper in the emerging post-truth world, whether the norms embedded in human rights law can rise to the challenge of ‘taming’ globalization’s neoliberal underpinnings is a pivotal question still awaiting a firm answer.


Author(s):  
Michael Freeman

This chapter examines the concept of human rights, which derives primarily from the Charter of the United Nations adopted in 1945 immediately after World War II. It first provides a brief account of the history of the concept of human rights before describing the international human rights regime. It then considers two persistent problems that arise in applying the concept of human rights to the developing world: the relations between the claim that the concept is universally valid and the realities of cultural diversity around the world; and the relations between human rights and development. In particular, it explores cultural imperialism and cultural relativism, the human rights implications of the rise of political Islam and the so-called war on terror(ism), and globalization. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the new political economy of human rights.


Author(s):  
Heyns Christof ◽  
Killander Magnus

This article focuses on the regional human rights systems. It suggests that the emergence of these systems constitutes an important dimension of broader participation in the international human rights project because they provide platforms where people from all parts of the world can potentially make their voices heard in the global human rights discourse. It compares the regional human rights systems of Europe, the Americas and Africa and considers other smaller initiatives such as the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).


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