The Implementation of Minority Rights within the United Nations Human Rights Regime

2005 ◽  
pp. 199-252
Author(s):  
Fernando Arlettaz

Summary The League of Nations established, in the interwar period, a legal regime for the protection of minorities which considered them as intermeditate groups between the State and the individuals. On the contrary, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by the United Nations, assumed a radically individualistic point of view and did not include any mention to minority rights. The travaux préparatoires of the Universal Declaration suggest that the question of minorities caused strong tension among States and that, for this reason, they avoided its inclusion in the 1948 document.


Author(s):  
Mégret Frédéric

This chapter discusses the Security Council, which may be the least obvious organ within the United Nations to have a human rights role, yet may also be one of those that can make the most difference when it comes to the upholding of human rights standards internationally. For a human rights regime that is notoriously devoid of much enforcement power, the Security Council comes with a much sought after resource, in the form of the ability to use coercive means against states. Ultimately, the Security Council’s practices provide rich terrain for analysing prospects for human rights at the United Nations, as well as the evolving role of human rights not only as something that is promoted by the United Nations but which shapes, and even constitutes, its authority going forward.


2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICO SCHRIJVER

This article provides an assessment of the replacement of the UN Commission on Human Rights by the Human Rights Council, with a view to ascertaining whether the human rights architecture of the United Nations is now in better or worse shape. Institutionally, it is unique in that an international organ is dismantled and replaced by a new one for the sake of achieving greater effectiveness. What are the chances for success? For a proper assessment, the article first examines the status, functioning, and falling into disgrace of the UN Commission on Human Rights and, second, reviews the establishment of the new Human Rights Council as part of the UN reform process and identifies the new features of the Council compared with the previous Commission. Third, it discusses the work of the Council in its first year, in particular the extensive June 2007 decision on institution building of the UN Human Rights Council. The article concludes that the Council had a far from fresh and easy start, but that its establishment and functioning so far are not a radical departure from the acquis of the UN human rights regime. The first years of the Council are crucial for solid institution building and functioning credibly in an action-oriented way. The first members on the Council bear the heavy responsibility of seizing this historic opportunity.


Author(s):  
Kovacs Peter

This article examines the protection of minority rights under League of Nations. It explains that the League was created to be a specialized institution for minorities but the mechanism for responding to the grievances of the minorities was developed only after the Versailles peace conference in 1919–20. It discusses the main principles and structures of the League of Nations mechanism and the complaints procedure. This article also explains that the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations in 1946 but its minority protection system was not included in the responsibilities of the new organization. It also highlights the contribution of the League to the evolution of the doctrine of the international legal protection of human rights.


1996 ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Editorial board Of the Journal

GENERAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Adopted and proclaimed in resolution 217 A (III) of the General Assembly of the United Nations of 10.12.1948


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.


Asian Survey ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Peek

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