Transcript Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

Human Rights
Mian Ali Haider
L.L.B., L.L.M (Cum Laude)
U.K.
INTRODUCTION
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Human rights are universal legal guarantees protecting individuals and
groups against actions and omissions that interfere with fundamental
freedoms, entitlements and human dignity.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights law obliges Governments (principally) and other duty-bearers
to do certain things and prevents them from doing others.
Are universal—the birthright of all human beings
Focus on the inherent dignity and equal worth of all human beings
Are equal, indivisible and interdependent Cannot be waived or taken away
Impose obligations of action and omission, particularly on States and State
actors
Have been internationally guaranteed Are legally protected
Protect individuals and, to some extent, groups
INTRODUCTION
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Human rights standards have become increasingly well
defined in recent years. Codified in international, regional and
national legal systems, they constitute a set of performance
standards against which duty-bearers at all levels of society—
but especially organs of the State—can be held accountable.
The fulfilment of commitments under international human
rights treaties is monitored by independent expert committees
called “treaty bodies,” which also help to clarify the meaning
of particular human rights.
Philosophical Visions:
Human Nature - A search for Common secular inquiry
and human reason
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400 B.C.E. est. - Mo Zi founded Mohist School of Moral
Philosophy in China
Importance of duty, self-sacrifice, and an all-embracing respect for others –
“universally throughout the world”
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300 B.C.E. est. – Chinese sage Mencious
Wrote on the “human nature” – “humans are fundamentally good, but
goodness needs to be nurtured”
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300 B.C.E. est. – Hsun-tzu
Asserted “to relieve anxiety and eradicate strife, nothing is a effective as the
institution of corporate life based on a clear recognition of individual rights”
Philosophical Visions:
Human Nature
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1750 B.C.E. – King Hammurabi in Babylon
Necessary to honor broad codes of justice among people. Created one of the earliest
legal codes to govern behavior – “let the oppressed man come under my statue” to
seek equal justice in law
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Ancient Egypt
Explicit social justice – “comfort the afflicted…refrain from unjust punishment. Kill
not…make no distinction between the son of a man of importance and one of humble
origin”
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Early Sanskrit writings in Indian
Responsibility of rulers for the welfare of people. “Noone should be allowed to
suffer… either because of poverty or of any deliberate actions on the part of others”
Philosophical Visions:
Human Nature with Spiritual/Religious Traditions
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300 B.C.E. – Ashoka of India
Freedom of worship and other rights of his subjects. Other leaders from this area
impartial justice and social equality and no castes should exist since all are from one
tree
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16th century - Hindu philosopher Chaitanya
“There is only one caste – humanity”
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Sikh leader Guru Gobind Singh
Proclaimed “recognize all the human race as one”
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10th Century - Al-Farabi, an Islamic Philosopher
Wrote The Outlook of the People of the City of Virtue, a vision of moral society in
which all individual were endowed with rights and lived in love and charity with their
neighbors.
Philosophical Visions:
Natural Law – focused on universal responsibilities
and duties rather than what are now described as rights
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Greek Philosophers
Equal respect for all citizens (insotimia). Equality before the law (isonomia). Equality
in political power (isokratia) and Suffrage (isopsephia).
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Marcus Tillius Cicero
“Universal justice and law guided human nature to act justly and be of service to
others” – This natural law “binds all human society” together, applies to every member
of “the whole human race” without distinction and unique dignity of each person.
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French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)
but everywhere he is in chains”
“Man is born free,
Precursors to 20th Century Human Rights
Documents
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1750 B.C.E.
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Koran
1215
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Magna Carta, England
1400
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Code of Nezahualcoyotl, Aztec
Declaration of Independence, United States
1787
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English Bill of Rights, England
1776
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New Testament
644 - 656 C.E.
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Treaty of Westphalia, Europe
1689
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Analects of Confucius
40 - 100 C.E.
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Old Testament
551 - 479 B.C.E.
1648
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Code of Hammurabi, Babylonia
1200 - 300 B.C.E.
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United States Constitution
1789
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French Declaration on the Rights of Man
and the Citizen, France 1791 -United States
Bill of Rights
19th and 20th Century Human
Rights based on Natural Rights
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1863: Emancipation Proclamation, United States
1864 & 1949: Geneva Conventions, International Red Cross
1919: League of Nations Covenant, International Labor
Organization (ILO) Created
1920: Women gain the right to vote in the U.S.
1926: Slavery Convention
1945: United Nations Charter, San Francisco
1947: Mohandas Gandhi uses non-violent protests leading India
to independence.
Philosophical Visions:
Human Rights & the Social Construction of Human Nature
A Moral Vision of Human Nature
Human Rights set the limits and requirements of social (especially state)
action. But the state and society, guided by human rights, play a major role
in realizing that “nature.” When human rights claims bring legal and
political practice into lines with their demands, they create a person in line
with a moral vision. (Donnelly, 2003)
“Human Rights Theories and documents point beyond actual conditions of
existence to what is possible.”
“Treat a person like a human being and you’ll get a human being.”
What are the Human Rights
Principles?
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The rights that
someone has simply
because he or she
is a human being &
born into this world.
Core Principles:
 Human Dignity
 Equality
 Non-discrimination
 Universality
 Interdependency
 Indivisibility
 Inalienability
 Responsibilities
Five Primary Categories of Human
Rights:
 Civil
Rights
 Political Rights
 Economic Rights
 Social Rights
 Cultural Rights
International Bill of Human
Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR)
December 10, 1948
Int'l Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Int'l Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICCPR)
Adopted by UN General Assembly in 1966
Entered into Force in1976
(ICESC)
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966
Entered into Force in1976
2 Optional Protocols to the ICCPR
(Member nations permit individuals or groups
to report personal human rights violations to the
UN Human Rights Committee)
Is There Any Hierarchy Among
Human Rights?
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No, all human rights are equally important.
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes it clear that
human rights of all kinds—
 Economic, political, civil, cultural and social—
These are of equal validity and importance.
This fact has been reaffirmed repeatedly by the international community,
for example:
 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development,
 The 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
 Near-universally ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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Human rights are also indivisible and interdependent.
The principle of their indivisibility recognizes that no human
right is inherently inferior to any other.
Economic, social and cultural rights must be respected,
protected and realized on an equal footing with civil and
political rights.
The principle of their interdependence recognizes the
difficulty (and, in many cases, the impossibility) of realizing
any one human right in isolation
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For instance, it is futile to talk of the right to work without a certain
minimal realization of the right to education.
Similarly, the right to vote may seem of little importance to somebody
with nothing to eat or in situations where people are victimized because of
their skin colour, sex, language or religion.
Taken together, the indivisibility and interdependence principles mean that
efforts should be made to realize all human rights together, allowing for
prioritization as necessary in accordance with human rights principles
What kinds of human rights
obligations are there?
 Obligations
are generally of three
kinds:
 To respect,
 To protect and
 To fulfil human rights:
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To respect human rights means simply not to interfere with their
enjoyment. For instance, States should refrain from carrying out forced
evictions and not arbitrarily restrict the right to vote or the freedom of
association.
To protect human rights means to take steps to ensure that third parties do
not interfere with their enjoyment. For example, States must protect the
accessibility of education by ensuring that parents and employers do not
stop girls from going to school.
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To fulfil human rights means to take steps progressively to realize the right
in question.
This obligation is sometimes subdivided into obligations to facilitate and
to provide for its realization.
 The former refers to the obligation of the State to engage proactively
in activities that would strengthen people’s ability to meet their own
needs, for instance, creating conditions in which the market can supply
the healthcare services that they demand.
 The obligation to “provide” goes one step further, involving direct
provision of services if the right(s) concerned cannot be realized
otherwise, for example to compensate for market failure or to help
groups that are unable to provide for themselves
Do individuals, as well as States,
have obligations?
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Human rights obligations can also attach to private individuals,
international organizations and other non-State actors.
 Parents, for example, have explicit obligations under the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and States are obliged to cooperate with
each other to eliminate obstacles to development.
State remains the primary duty-bearer under international law, and cannot
abrogate its duty to set in place and enforce an appropriate regulatory
environment for private sector activities and responsibilities.
 National legislation and policies must detail how the State’s human
rights obligations will be discharged at national, provincial and local
levels, and the extent to which individuals, companies, local
government units, NGOs or other organs of society will directly
shoulder responsibility for implementation
ARE THERE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND COLLECTIVE RIGHTS?
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Equal worth and dignity of all can be assured only through the recognition
and protection of individuals’ rights as members of a group.
The term collective rights or group rights refers to the rights of such
peoples and groups, including ethnic and religious minorities and
indigenous peoples, where the individual is defined by his or her ethnic,
cultural or religious community.
Human rights claims are generally made most effectively by people acting
together as a group.
For instance
 while we are all entitled as individuals to the right to freedom of
association, it is only when that right is asserted collectively that it can
meaningfully be realized
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But in certain specific cases the right in question protects a common
interest which the group—rather than any specific individual— is entitled
to claim.
For instance,
 The rights of indigenous peoples to traditional lands are recognized in
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ILO Convention No. 169,
Minority rights are recognized in article 27 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights,
The right to self-determination is granted to all peoples in article 1 of both
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Collective rights are reflected strongly in some regional human rights
regimes
DO HUMAN RIGHTS DEPEND
ON CULTURE?
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International human rights are universally recognized regardless of
cultural differences, but their practical implementation does demand
sensitivity to culture
International human rights standards enjoy a strong claim to universality,
with considerable adaptability to different cultural contexts.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
 “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
Human rights are inherent and inalienable in human beings, simply by the
fact of their being human
The human person in whom they inhere cannot voluntarily give them up.
Nor can others take them away.
 All countries have ratified at least one of the seven core United
Nations human rights treaties
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The international human rights framework itself
acknowledges cultural diversity by limiting the ambit of
international human rights to a range of standards on which
international consensus is possible.
However, “culture”
 Is neither static nor sacrosanct, but rather evolves
according to external and internal stimuli.
There is much in every culture that societies quite naturally
outgrow and reject. In any case, culture is no excuse not to
ensure the enjoyment of human rights
What is the relationship between
human rights and human
development?
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“Human development and human rights are close enough in motivation
and concern to be compatible and congruous, and they are different
enough in strategy and design to supplement each other fruitfully,”
According to the Human Development Report 2000.
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Human rights and development both aim to promote well-being and
freedom, based on the inherent dignity and equality of all people.
The concern of human development is the realization by all of basic
freedoms, such as having the choice to meet bodily requirements or to
escape preventable disease
Human rights and human development share a preoccupation with
necessary outcomes for improving people’s lives, but also with better
processes
Being people-centred, they reflect a fundamental concern with
institutions, policies and processes as participatory and comprehensive in
coverage as possible, respecting the agency of all individuals
WHAT IS A HUMAN RIGHTSBASED APPROACH?
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A human rights-based approach is a conceptual framework for the process
of human development that is normatively based on international human
rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting
human rights.
 It seeks to analyse inequalities which lie at the heart of development
problems and redress discriminatory practices and unjust distributions
of power that impede development progress
 Mere charity is not enough from a human rights perspective. Under a
human rights-based approach, the plans, policies and processes of
development are anchored in a system of rights and corresponding
obligations established by international law.
 No universal recipe is available
HUMAN RIGHTS LEARNING WHEEL KRP - 1999
Inspire
Know
Value
Celebrate
Reflect
Act
Connect
Heal
Building Blocks for Human Rights
Education
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BLOCK 1 – THINKING
Know your human rights
BLOCK 2 – FEELING
Value your human rights
BLOCK 3 - EQUIPPING
Learn new human rights Skills
BLOCK 4 – ACTING
Practice human rights
Measuring the Impact and Being
Accountable
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STEP 1 – MEASURING IMPACT
What are initial outcomes?
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STEP 2 – REFLECTING
Was our intent the impact?
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STEP 3 – COMMUNICATE OUR LEARNING &
JOURNEYS
Can we connect and hold each other accountable?
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STEP 4 – CELEBRATE OUR EMERGING
PRACTICES
Can our work be a means rather than an end?
Who are the Stakeholders and Responsible
Partners in our Human Rights Community?
Governor
Mayor and City Council
Elected Officials and Dept of Human Rights
Ombudsman & HR League/Commissions
School Suprintendent
Principals and University Deans/President
Teachers, Faculty, and Staff
Students
Parents
Police & Law Enforcement
NGOs/Non-Profit Organizations
Philanthropic Donors and Funders
Libraries, Hospitals, and Parks
Largest Private Employers