scholarly journals Human Rights and Environmental Wrongs: Achieving Environmental Justice through Human Rights Law

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Environmental Injustice ◽  
The Right

The numerous interconnections between the environment and human rights are well established internationally. It is understood that environmental issues such as pollution, deforestation or the misuse of resources can impact on individuals’ and communities’ enjoyment of fundamental rights, including the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to self-determination and the right to life itself. These are rights which are guaranteed under international human rights law and in relation to which governments bear certain responsibilities. Further, environmental issues can also impact on governments’ capacity to protect and fulfil the rights of their citizens. In this way human rights and environmental protection can be constructed as being mutually supportive. In addition to these links between the environment and human rights, human rights principles arguably offer a framework for identifying and addressing environmental injustice. The justice implications of environmental problems are well documented and there are many examples where pollution, deforestation or other degradation disproportionately impact upon poorer neighbourhoods or areas populated by minority groups. On the international level, environmental injustice exists between developed and developing States, as well as between present and future generations who will inherit the environmental problems we are creating today. This paper investigates the role of human rights principles, laws and mechanisms in addressing these instances of environmental injustice and argues that the framework of human rights norms provides an approach to environmental governance which can help to minimise injustice and promote the interests of those groups which are most adversely affected. Further, it suggests that the human rights enforcement mechanisms which exist at international law could be utilised to lend weight to claims for more equitable environmental policies.

scholarly journals The duty to work as precondition for human dignity: a Swiss perspective on work programmes

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-112
Author(s):  
Melanie Studer ◽  
Kurt Pärli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Eligibility Criterion ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right ◽  
Federal Supreme

In Switzerland, the participation in certain work programmes is an eligibility criterion to social assistance benefits and the constitutionally granted right to the financial means required for a decent standard of living. This chapter examines whether the implementation of these programmes is in accordance with fundamental rights and more precisely, whether they respect the normative framework elaborated in Chapter 4. As will be shown, the right to financial assistance when in need has close links to human dignity. Therefore, the evaluation of the mentioned work programmes against the human rights background leads to some critical conclusions on their compatibility with international human rights law in general and human dignity in particular. Especially, the authors argue that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s case law lacks a comprehensive approach for the evaluation of human rights infringements in this context.

Sovereign Rights of the State and the Scope of their Implementation in the Context of Development of the International Human Rights Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Iryna PROTSENKO ◽  
Кostiantyn SAVCHUK
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Adequate Treatment ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

In the contemporary science of international law, the state sovereignty issue lacks adequate treatment. In particular, the list and essence of sovereign rights and duties of the state are not defined, although these are referred to in some international legal instruments and resolutions of international courts and arbitrations. In addition, particular circumstances are being under development, which require if not precise outlining of the catalogue of fundamental rights of states, then at least determining the essence of some of these rights and the scope of their implementation. It goes about developing the practice to limit specific sovereign rights of the state to ensure the implementation of human rights (notably, the ones not directly related to the respective rights of the state). In this very way, the state is limited in its right to determine its own immigration policy. The fact is that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled in some of its judgments that by implementing this right, the state violates the right to respect for private and family life provided for by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 (ECHR). This resulted in ECtHR`s practice to be somewhat considered in the draft articles on the expulsion of aliens elaborated by the International Law Commission (ILC) in 2014. The examples from ECtHR`s practice analyzed in this paper provide the basis for the conclusion that the development of the International Human Rights Law is gradually narrowing the scope of the internal sovereign rights of the state.

scholarly journals Privacy and Data Protection

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-162
Author(s):  
Mireille Hildebrandt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
General Data Protection Regulation ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The Right Of Privacy ◽  
The Right

This chapter covers privacy and data protection. This entails a series of legal requirements for development and design, for the default settings, and for the employment of computer architectures. In addition, the chapter defines the right to privacy as a subjective right, attributed by objective law, which may be national (constitutional) law, international human rights law, or supranational law (EU fundamental rights law). The chapter first confronts the landscape of human rights law at the global, national, and EU level. It then inquires into the right of privacy, as guaranteed under the ECHR and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU), and finally provides an extensive analysis of the new fundamental right to data protection, as guaranteed by the CFREU and protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Immigration Policy: Between Demographic Considerations and Preservation of Culture

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na'ama Carmi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
The State ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

Cultural rights of minority groups are recognized in international human rights law. These rights include the right of minority groups to adopt various measures to protect their cultural identity, which may include closure of the group’s community from outsiders. The state in which such groups reside has a concurrent duty to respect these rights and sometimes even to take positive measures to ensure their implementation. The consideration of demographic factors, then, is regarded as legitimate when designed to protect minority groups. The rights of majority groups, on the other hand, are often ensured by the mere fact that they constitute a majority within the state and as such do not require special measures.This state of affairs is challenged, however, in face of mass immigration that could change the relation existing between majority and minority groups within the state. Under these circumstances, does a majority have the right to preserve its own culture through an immigration policy that takes into account demographic factors? I argue that the duty of states under international human rights law to protect rights of minority groups might serve as an incentive to restrict immigration endangering the character of the state. This character—the state’s public culture—is the outcome of collective preferences of the majority of its citizens, which is assumed ought to be respected.

scholarly journals The Consequences of Corona Virus on Human Rights System: تداعيات فيروس كورونا على منظومة حقوق الإنسان

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Hasan Malla Khater
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
Fundamental Rights And Freedoms ◽  
The Right

The outbreak of the New Corona Epidemic has been leading governments around the world to adopt strategies to limit its spread and to counter it. Some of the measures taken have affected a number of fundamental rights and freedoms, which are guaranteed according to the international human rights law, and not just intended the right of life and the right of effective health care. In fact, many other rights were affected intentionally or unintentionally. This study seeks to highlight on states practices and responses related to fighting against the Corona Crisis, its impact on human rights in general, and the rights of the most vulnerable groups in particular, by using the descriptive and analytical method. One of the most important results of this research is that the protection of human rights while combating this Epidemic can't be considered as a secondary issue. It is necessary for these government measures to be consistent with the rules and provisions of the International Human Rights Law. 

The Protection of Intellectual Property in International Human Rights Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Core Subject ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the human rights system and the way it deals with human creations and innovations that are the traditional core subject matter of intellectual property (IP) rights. It begins by reviewing the scope for protection under Article 27 (2) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 15 (1) (c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The chapter moves on to the protection of property in human rights law, especially on the regional, European level. It examines how IP can be protected as property under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU Charter). Finally, the chapter looks at some of the overlaps with international IP rules and the conflict norms in the human rights system to address such overlaps.

AI and Migration Management

2020 ◽  
pp. 768-787
Author(s):  
Petra Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
Development Technology ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Right

This chapter focuses on how technologies used in the management of migration—such as automated decision-making in immigration and refugee applications and artificial intelligence (AI) lie detectors—impinge on human rights with little international regulation, arguing that this lack of regulation is deliberate, as states single out the migrant population as a viable testing ground for new technologies. Making migrants more trackable and intelligible justifies the use of more technology and data collection under the guide of national security, or even under tropes of humanitarianism and development. Technology is not inherently democratic, and human rights impacts are particularly important to consider in humanitarian and forced migration contexts. An international human rights law framework is particularly useful for codifying and recognizing potential harms, because technology and its development are inherently global and transnational. Ultimately, more oversight and issue specific accountability mechanisms are needed to safeguard fundamental rights of migrants, such as freedom from discrimination, privacy rights, and procedural justice safeguards, such as the right to a fair decision maker and the rights of appeal.

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