| HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECED UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW |
| Created on 01-02-2009 10:37 pm |
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HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTED UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW1 Non-discrimination
2 Life
3 Liberty and security of the person
4 Protection against slavery and servitude
5 Protection against torture
6 Legal personality
7 Equal protection of the law
8 Legal remedy
9 Protection against arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile
10 Access to independent and impartial tribunal
11 Presumption of innocence
12 Protection against ex post facto laws
13 Privacy, family, home and correspondence
14 Freedom of movement and residence
15 Nationality
16 Marry and found a family
17 Protection and assistance of families
18 Marriage only with free consent of spouses
19 Equal rights of men and women in marriage
20 Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
21 Freedom of opinion and expression
22 Freedom of the press
23 Freedom of assembly
24 Freedom of association
25 Participation in government
26 Social security
27 Work
28 N o compulsory or forced labour
29 J ust and favourable conditions of work
30 Trade unions
31 Rest, leisure and paid holidays
32 Adequate standard of living
33 Education
34 Participation in cultural life
35 Self- determination
36 Protection of and assistance to children
37 Freedom from hunger
38 Health
39 Asylum
40 Property
41 Compulsory primary education
42 Humane treatment when deprived of liberty
43 Protection against imprisonment for debt
44 Expulsion of aliens only by law
45 Prohibition of war propaganda and incitement to discrimination
46 Minority culture
47 No imprisonment for breach of civil obligations
48 Protection of children
49 Access to public service
50 Democracy
51 Participation in cultural and scientific life
52 Protection of intellectual property rights
53 International and social order for realizing rights
54 Political self-determination
55 Economic self-determination
56 Women’s rights
57 Prohibition of the death penalty
58 Prohibition of apartheid
Right to Work
The right to work has at least two significant social functions: it is a source of livelihood and income and a source of dignity and self-realisation. To be a source of livelihood everyone must have access to work, and it must provide a just remuneration ensuring an existence worthy of human dignity. To be a source of dignity and self-realisation, it must be work which a person freely chooses or accepts, and he or she must enjoy safe and healthy working conditions, equal remuneration and equal opportunity for promotion free from discrimination on the basis of gender, race, etc.
The right to work involves many other related rights, such as: the right to opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted; technical and vocational guidance and training programmes; just and favourable conditions of work; fair wages, equal pay for equal work without discrimination; remuneration that provides decent living; safe and healthy conditions of work; rest and leisure; periodic holidays with pay, for trade unions, join trade unions etc.
Right to Work: norms/standards
UDHR : Article 23
ICESCR : Articles 6, 7, 8
CEDAW : Article 11
CRC : Article 32
CERD : Article 5 (e) (i) (ii)
Right to Development : Article 8 (1)
Right to Health
The right to health is not to be understood as the right to be healthy. The right to health involves both freedoms and entitlements: the freedom to choose or to control one?s health (e.g. reproductive health issues) and an entitlement to a system of health protection, facilities, services etc.
The right to health has two major dimensions :
Right to access and enjoyment of both health services and the underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable water and adequate sanitation facilities, on the basis of non-discrimination and equality. Right to enjoy certain social conditions, which carries obligations to the state to take specific measures for safeguarding public health (e.g. prevention, treatment and control against epidemic, occupational and other diseases, including measures of hygiene and sanitation, environmental protection, dissemination of information on health-related matters, and establishing conditions which ensure that care can be given to children, disabled persons and the elderly).
The right to health includes :
* Availability
* Accessibility (non-discrimination; physical accessibility; economic accessibility; information accessibility)
* Acceptability (respectful of medical ethics and culturally appropriate)
* Quality
Right to Health: Norms/standards
UDHR: Article 25
ICESCR: Article 12
CRC: Article 24
CEDAW: Article 12
CERD: Article 5 (e) (iv)
Right to Development: Article 8
Right to Food
The right to food implies availability and adequacy of food supply: sufficient for dietary needs; safe from contaminating substances; culturally acceptable; possibilities for feeding oneself directly from land or other productive resources, or efficient distribution and market systems.
Accessibility of food supply: economic accessibility to poor or socially vulnerable groups; physical accessibility such as presence of roads between growers and markets, and accessible to all e.g. to victims of disasters.
Stability of the supply and access to food for current use and future food security: environmental, economic and social sustainability. As with most human rights there are important gender dimensions to consider regarding the right to food.
Right to Food: Norms/standards
UDHR: Article 25
ICESCR: Article 11
Right to Development: Article 8
Right to Housing
The right to adequate housing should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity.
The core contents of this right are:
Legal security of tenure - persons must have places to live where they cannot be forcibly evicted or harassed at any time. Tenure can take many forms.
Availability - of services, materials, facilities, and infrastructure. It includes facilities for health, security, comfort and nutrition; and takes into account access to resources, safe drinking water, energy for cooking, and drainage.
Affordability - personal or household financial costs associated with housing should be at a level that does not threaten or compromise the attainment or satisfaction of other basic needs.
Habitability - adequate space and protection from cold, damp, heat, rain, wind or other threats to health, structural hazards and disease.
Accessibility - disadvantaged groups should have some priority consideration.
Location - housing must be accessible to markets, schools, hospitals.
Cultural adequacy - design and material used should express cultural identity.
Right to Housing: Norms/standards
UDHR: Article 25
ICESCR: Article 11
CERD: Article 5 (e) (iii)
Right to Development: Article 8
Right to Education
Education is both a right in itself and a means of realizing other human rights. The core contents of the right to education include:
Availability - functioning institutions and programmes available in sufficient quantity, trained teachers, teaching materials etc
Accessibility - non-discrimination; physical accessibility; economic accessibility (while primary education should be free to all, States are required to progressively introduce free secondary and higher education if they can afford to do so).
Acceptability - form and substance of education should be relevant, culturally appropriate, and of good quality.
Adaptability - to needs of changing societies and communities.
Best interest of the child.
Technical and vocational education is also noted under the right to work.
Adoption of special measures intended to bring out equality for men and women and for disadvantaged groups is not a violation of the right to non-discrimination in education. Wide disparities in spending policies that result in different qualities of education for people residing in different locations may constitute discrimination.
Right to Education: Norms/standards UDHR: Article 26
ICESCR: Article 13
CRC: Article 28, 29
CEDAW: Article 10
CERD: Article 5 (e) (v)
Right to Development: Article 8 (1)
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Committee on Economic, Social and cultural Rights has 18 members who are experts with recognized competence in the field of human rights. Members of the Committee are independent and serve in their personal capacity, not as representatives of Governments. The Committee issues ?general comments? on the rights and provisions contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to assist governments fulfill their reporting obligations and to provide greater interpretative clarity as to the intent, meaning and content of the Covenant. The Committee further views the adoption of general comments as a means of promoting the implementation of the Covenant with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights established under the Covenant.
* The right to food (General Comment No.12)
* The right to the highest possible standard of health (General Comment No.14
* The right to water (General Comment No.15)
* The equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (General Comment No. 16
* The right to work (General Comment No.18)
* The right to Social Security (General comment No. 19)
Key Human Rights Institutions and Monitoring Systems
The fulfilment of commitments under international human rights treaties 3 is monitored by independent expert committees called ?treaty bodies,? which also help to clarify the meaning of particular human rights.4 These clarifications can be very useful in establishing the normative content of a particular right, the core obligations of states and the international community. From time to time the Treaty Bodies also conduct inquiries into issues of concern.
National human rights institutions (NHRIs)
NHRIs are organisations that have been established by national governments with the specific role of promoting and protecting human rights.
Their role generally includes protecting people against all forms of discrimination and protecting their civil and political rights. NHRIs may also have a mandate to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights, while others may operate like an Ombudsman and have powers to investigate allegations of corruption. There are more than 90 NHRIs in operation around the world. In Asia there are NHRIs in Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste. The Fiji human Rights Commission is the only NHRI in the Pacific region, although its membership of APF is currently suspended.
Some NHRIs are established by a nation?s constitution. More commonly they are created by legislation or decree. In practice, all are ?administrative? organisations - that is, they do not have the power to ?make? laws or ?enforce? laws.
NHRIs operate independently from government, although they may be required to report to government on a regular basis. The degree of independence which each NHRI enjoys will depend on a range of factors, including its legal framework, its membership and its financial resources.
In 1991, a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights agreed on a set of minimum standards - known as the ?Paris Principles? - that NHRIs are required to meet in order to be effective. They include:
1. a clearly defined and broad-based mandate, based on universal human rights standards
2. independence guaranteed by legislation or the constitution
3. autonomy from government
4. pluralism, including membership that broadly reflects the society
5. adequate powers of investigation
6. sufficient resources.
While the nature and focus of their work may differ, NHRIs share a number of central functions. One of the most important is to receive and investigate complaints of discrimination or human rights abuses that breach national laws.
NHRIs have a responsibility to review national laws, policies and programmes and ensure that they are consistent with human rights standards. They may also monitor the government?s compliance with its own laws and with international human rights standards, and recommend changes when necessary.
Another important function of an NHRI is to raise community awareness and understanding of human rights issues.
More information about NHRI can be found at http://www.asiapacificforum.net/members/what-is-an-nhri
Asia Pacific Forum (APF)
The APF (receives multi-year funding from NZAID from the Multi-lateral Programme) provides a framework for national human rights institutions to work together and cooperate on a regional basis through a wide range of services including training, capacity building, networks and staff exchanges. For more information go to http://www.asiapacificforum.net/
Regional Human Rights Instruments
Unlike Europe, Africa and the Americas there is no Regional Human Rights Instrument in the Asia Pacific Region; the ASEAN Charter is a possible step towards the development of such an instrument and signals the establishment of an ASEAN Human rights body.
PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF ALL HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Paul Hunt
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