scholarly journals Redefining the idea of human rights

2013 ◽  
pp. 483-496
Author(s):  
Rodoljub Etinski
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Territorial Jurisdiction ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function

Human Rights are complex social phenomenon that includes political, legal, cultural and economic dimensions and escapes a simple definition. Concise retrospective of human rights documents of historic value as well as natural law doctrine was used as a frame for determination of political importance and function of human rights. Natural law definition of human rights was completed by positivist critique. Human rights are seen as a legal expression of interactions of individual needs and expectations on the one hand, and readiness and capabilities of a state to satisfy these needs and expectations and to create social framework for their satisfaction on the other. The relationship between human rights and culture was discussed. A thesis on equality of human rights in all different jurisdictions was qualified by recognition of certain space - a margin of appreciation - left to states for adaptation of international standards of human rights to local culture in a process of implementation of abstract and general provisions of human right treaties in domestic law. An appearance of international organizations that interfere in human rights as well as an increase of extraterritorial effects of state activities is a challenge to classic legal understanding of a human right as the legal relationship between a state and individuals under its territorial jurisdiction. International humanitarian law protects certain human rights of individual outside territorial jurisdiction of states in war. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has started to consider extraterritorial effects of state activities in respect of economic, social and cultural rights. International environmental law obliges states to take care of extraterritorial effects of activities undertaken under their jurisdictions. The time has come for recognition of an obligation of a state to respect human rights of individuals outside its territorial jurisdiction who are affected by its extraterritorial activities or by extraterritorial effects of activities undertaken on its territory. It seems that an obligation of international organization to respect human rights of individual affected by its acts is not disputable.

scholarly journals Natural Law and Human Right—The Casus of Contraception (Comments from the Level of Law)

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Tomasz Gałkowski
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Point Of Reference

The author of the study deliberates whether the right to contraception can be described as a human right. He makes his speculations on the basis of a broader context of reflections concerning the relationship of human rights with the natural law, to which the former ones refer. The point of reference is recognizing the right as a good which co-creates a man. Contraception is not such a good since it is not an ontological value, that is, the one which does not entail anti-values.

scholarly journals The North and South Divide in the Practice and Application of International Law: A Humanitarian and Human Right Law Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Hamid Kwarteng ◽  
Thomas Prehi Botchway
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
Draft Resolution ◽  
The One ◽  
North And South

The North and South divide in the practice and application of international laws have been previously perceived to be evident in international environmental law where the Global developed North countries on the one hand advocate for a collective action to protect the environment while the Global developing Southern countries, on the other hand, argue for social and economic justice in practice. However, in recent times the North and South divide has permeated other aspects of international law such as International Human right and International Humanitarian law (IHL), hence the essence of this article. Thus, this article contributes to the existing literature by providing evidence to the existence of the North and South divide in the application of IHL and human right law.The article is divided into four main parts. The first part gives an introduction to the North and South divide in the application of international law. The second part reviews the literature on the existence of North and South divide in the application of international environmental laws. The third part gives a new dimension to the North and South divide in the application of international humanitarian and human right laws with the Syrian Crisis, Malaysian Airline flight MH17 and the 2007 draft resolution on the peace and security of Myanmar as the case studies. The last part concludes by giving an overview of how this phenomenon threatens world peace and consequently offers some recommendations.

Human Right to Environment and Its Effective Protection in Catalonia, Spain and Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Alexandre Peñalver i Cabré
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
First Generation ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Additional Layer ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

Human Right to Environment is one the most relevant Third Generation Human Rights which includes new universal needs arisen from the last third of 20th century. These new human rights add as an additional layer to the First Generation Human Rights (civil and political rights from the end of 18th century) and to the Second Generation Human Rights (economic, social and cultural rights from 19th century).

scholarly journals Freedom of Expression in Malaysia: Compatibility with the International Human Rights Standard

BESTUUR ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Saidah Fasihah Binti Che Yussoff ◽  
Rohaida Nordin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human

<p>Malaysia is likely to introduce new laws on freedom of information. However, the important questions are whether the said laws are effective and will have enough bite with the public looking forward to opening government policy. Freedom of information has developed under international human rights law as the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart knowledge and ideas through media, regardless of any frontier. This paper aims to examine freedom of expression under the international realm, scrutinize the said freedom in the Malaysian legal framework, and discuss the proposed enactment of freedom of information laws in Malaysia in conformity with international human rights law. This research uses the qualitative research method. This paper concludes that freedom of information in Malaysia is severely impeded by the enforcement of the Official Secret Act. This paper calls for the repeal or amendment to the Act in conformity with international standards.  </p><p><strong>Keywords</strong><strong>:</strong> Expression; Freedom; Expression; Human Right.</p>

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).

Bosnian voices from the bottom of the well: Genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and victims’ right to remedies

2021 ◽  
pp. 026975802110464
Author(s):  
Alma Begicevic
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Close Family Member ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Post War ◽  
The One

Human rights advocates call for reparation as an important step to acknowledge and repair historical injustice and mass harms. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims of war continue to seek monetary reparation for non-pecuniary damages caused by genocide: murder, injury to human body and dignity, and harms inflicted upon a close family member. They seek legal remedies using national, foreign, and international human rights judicial venues. Drawing from qualitative, ethnographic research data and archival documents, the article examines legal claims and public discourse regarding reparation and makes a case for a reconceptualization of reparation by including victim voices. The article concludes that despite being absent from the post-conflict victims’ reparation programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, monetary reparation has assumed a social valuation attribute. On the one hand, it is a victim’s call for retributive, legal conceptions of justice – that someone who escaped international and national criminal justice programs pays. On the other hand, it is a tool to draw attention to Bosnian victims’ present civil and political exclusions that came with the international post-conflict peace treaty. While the post-war reconstruction focused on international trials, democratization, restorative justice, and state building programs, it also restricted socio-economic and cultural rights by redefining the citizenship and dismantling the welfare state. Reparation is a debt owed to victims.

Sexual Orientation as a Human Right

2015 ◽  
pp. 70-85
Author(s):  
Despina A. Tziola
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Complex Problem ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Sexual Orientations ◽  
The Supreme Court

In this chapter, the authors examine the matter of sexual orientation as a human right. Human rights violations take many forms, from denials of the rights to life to discrimination in accessing economic, social, and cultural rights. More than 80 countries still maintain laws that make same-sex consensual relations between adults a criminal offence. Those seeking to peaceably affirm diverse sexual orientations or gender identities have also experienced violence and discrimination. A gay man was entitled to live freely and openly in accordance with his sexual identity under the Refugee Convention (“the Convention”) and it was no answer to the claim for asylum that he would conceal his sexual identity in order to avoid the persecution that would follow if he did not do so. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom had to solve this complex problem as many issues were raised in the hearing.

scholarly journals “Foreign Terrorist Fighters”: A Human Rights Approach?

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 120-172
Author(s):  
Helen Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The One ◽  
Long Term Impact

This article reflects on the proliferation of responses to the so-called phenomenon of “foreign terrorist fighters,” and the profound human rights challenges they give rise to. It considers national, regional and international developments, many spurred by an activist Security Council, through which expanded powers have been assumed and rights restricted by reference to the need to respond to ftf threats. A series of uncomfortable relationships emerge from this analysis. They include for example tensions: between the evolving and still relatively superficial understanding of the nature and source of uncertain threats and contributing factors on the one hand, and the onerous and far-reaching nature of responses directed against them on the other; between the expansive use of coercive measures including criminal law, and basic constraining principles of criminal law upon which its legitimacy and power depends, such as individual culpability, harm principle and remoteness; or between the original purposes of most ftf measures and their impact in practice, on the operation of humanitarian law, on humanitarian workers and human rights defenders, and on the rule of law. Exceptional ftf measures continue to spread their reach and creep into other areas of security and organised crime. The article highlights the need to consider the short and long term impact, on the full range of rights of many, of the array of administrative, criminal and other measures being passed into law and implemented in practice across the globe in the name of responding to the ill-defined phenomenon of “ftfs”.

The Human Right to Science and Its Relationship to International Environmental Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 625-656
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Hubert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Regimes ◽  
The Right

Abstract This article explores the potential contribution of international human rights law – specifically, the oft-neglected ‘right to science’ – to the interpretation, operation and progressive development of international environmental law. Science and its applications play a critical role in environmental protection. At the same time, society faces persistent controversies at this interface. Environmental regimes may lack sufficient norms and tools for regulating upstream science and innovation processes because they tend to focus narrowly on physical harms to the environment and may not address the wider ethical, legal, social and political concerns. The human right to science, which is codified in various international and regional human rights instruments, may serve to augment international environmental law and contribute to more effective, equitable and democratically legitimate and accountable processes and outcomes in relation to the application of science and technology in environmental regimes. The article begins by outlining the scope and contents of, as well as the limitations on, the right to science, focusing on Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and its overlaps with the norms of international environmental law.1 It then analyses the ways in which the right to science may influence the development of international environmental law by elucidating mechanisms for the integration of a human rights perspective in science and technology and by outlining its potential substantive contributions to the development of international environmental law.

scholarly journals Gender Identity: The Human Right of Depathologization

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 978
Author(s):  
Maria Elisa Castro-Peraza ◽  
Jesús Manuel García-Acosta ◽  
Naira Delgado ◽  
Ana María Perdomo-Hernández ◽  
Maria Inmaculada Sosa-Alvarez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Access To Medical Care ◽  
The One

Background: Transgender people have a gender identity different from the one allocated to them at birth. In many countries, transsexualism and transgenderism are considered mental illnesses under the diagnosis of gender dysphoria. This pathologization impacts on human rights. Main content: The United Nations (UN) has denounced violations against trans-people, including attacks, forced medical treatments, lack of legal gender recognition, and discrimination in the areas of education, employment, access to healthcare, and justice. The UN has linked these violations directly with discriminatory diagnostic classifications that pathologize gender diversity. Trans-people have been pathologized by psycho-medical classification and laws all around the world, with a different impact depending on countries. This paper argues that pathologization infringes infringes upon a wide range of human rights such as; civil, economic, social cultural and also the access to medical care. Conclusions: The current situation for trans-people with respect to legal healthcare matters, depends on the country. Human rights are universal, not a question for cultural interpretation. They are the minimum that every human being must have assured only by the fact of being human. Countries must protect these rights by regulating trans-pathologization with special attention dedicated to intersex people and their specific needs.

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