The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s Quasi-Judicial Procedure for Individual Communications: Realizing Universal Remedies for Human Rights Violations

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-145
Author(s):  
Heeseok Shin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Judicial Procedure

The Necessity for a Business and Human Rights Treaty

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
David BILCHITZ
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Legal Instrument ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council

AbstractIn June 2014, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution establishing an inter-governmental working group to discuss a legally binding instrument relating to transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In this article, I outline four arguments for why such an instrument is desirable. Identifying the purpose of such a treaty is crucial in outlining a vision of what it should seek to achieve and in determining its content. The arguments indicate that a treaty is necessary to provide legal solutions to cure serious lacunae and ambiguities in the current framework of international law which have a serious negative impact upon the rights of individuals affected by corporate activities. The emphasis throughout is upon why a binding legal instrument is important, as opposed to softer forms of regulation such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The four arguments in turn provide the resources to respond to objections raised against the treaty and to reject an alternative, more restrictive proposal for a treaty that only addresses ‘gross’ human rights violations.

Completing the UN Complaint Mechanisms for Human Rights Violations Step by Step: Towards a Complaints Procedure Complementing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Vandenhole
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Independent Expert ◽  
Human Rights Treaties

With the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW in 2000, four of the six main UN human rights treaties are now complemented with an individual complaints procedure. The proposal to establish an individual complaints mechanism for economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) meets with considerable political opposition. Progress has been jeopardised by an ongoing discussion on the nature of ESCR, which are still very often considered as second-class human rights. It is submitted here that the two main issues of debate – justiciability and the nature of the obligations of States – have been sufficiently clarified in recent years in order to allow for individual complaints. Ongoing reluctance to establish an individual complaints procedure for ESCR can therefore no longer convincingly be based on legal motives. A new impetus to the debate on the establishment of an individual complaints procedure for ESCR was given in 2001, with the appointment of an independent expert, and in 2003, with the establishment of an open-ended working group. The suggested amendments to the draft for an Optional Protocol as prepared by the ESCR-Committee in 1996, may assist the working group in bringing the draft Optional Protocol in line with changed circumstances since 1996, with particular reference to the OP-CEDAW.

Social representations of human rights violations: Further evidence

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Clémence ◽  
Thierry Devos ◽  
Willem Doise
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Questionnaire Study ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
High Tolerance ◽  
Individual Actions

Social representations of human rights violations were investigated in a questionnaire study conducted in five countries (Costa Rica, France, Italy, Romania, and Switzerland) (N = 1239 young people). We were able to show that respondents organize their understanding of human rights violations in similar ways across nations. At the same time, systematic variations characterized opinions about human rights violations, and the structure of these variations was similar across national contexts. Differences in definitions of human rights violations were identified by a cluster analysis. A broader definition was related to critical attitudes toward governmental and institutional abuses of power, whereas a more restricted definition was rooted in a fatalistic conception of social reality, approval of social regulations, and greater tolerance for institutional infringements of privacy. An atypical definition was anchored either in a strong rejection of social regulations or in a strong condemnation of immoral individual actions linked with a high tolerance for governmental interference. These findings support the idea that contrasting definitions of human rights coexist and that these definitions are underpinned by a set of beliefs regarding the relationships between individuals and institutions.

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