Human Rights - Lecture 1 PDF

HUMAN RIGHTS  Human rights are rights possessed by people simply as, and because they are, human beings. The term has only come into common currency during the 20th century. The idea of 'human rights' is not universal - it is essentially the product of 17th and 18th century European thought....

HUMAN RIGHTS  Human rights are rights possessed by people simply as, and because they are, human beings. The term has only come into common currency during the 20th century. The idea of 'human rights' is not universal - it is essentially the product of 17th and 18th century European thought. Even the idea of 'rights' does not necessarily exist in every society or advanced civilization.  Magna Charta (1215) and Habeas Corpus (1679) Magna Charta (1215) Habeas Corpus (1679) John Landless turned his Formula of the writ that attention to “archbishops, bishops, abbots, counts, barons, the act of 1679 viscounts, provosts, officials and generalizes and makes bailiffs” and more generally, to the “free men of our kingdom” into law: Art. 29: “No free man may be We command that you have arrested, imprisoned, disposed of before us to show, at his goods, or placed outside of Westminster, that body X by the law or molested in any way; whatsoever name be may be we will not place our hands on him nor will have others place called therein, which is held their hands on him, except after a in your custody, as it is said, legal judgment by his peers as well as the cause of the according to the law of the realm” arrest and the detention”. English Bill of Rights in 1689 The Bill of Rights : It made the King subject to the rule of law, like any citizen, instead of claiming to be the law's (divine) source. It required the King to respect the power of Parliament - elected by the people, with the power to control the state's money and property. It protected some basic rights to justice - excessive bail or fines, cruel and unusual punishments and unfair trials. God's natural law (Locke): 1) no-one should harm anybody else in their life, health, liberty or possessions 2) These rights could never be given up 3) The existence of this natural law also established the right to do whatever was necessary to protect such rights  5 The Social Contract To provide order and security – Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) To guarantee individual liberties: life, liberty and estate – John Locke (Two Treaties of Government, 1689) To carry out the general will - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, 1754)  The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens American Declaration of Independence (1776) The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens (1789) - Doctrine of popular sovereignty (Article III) – The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. This is against divine right of kings. - Doctrine of equal opportunity (Article VI) “All the citizens, being equal in [the eyes of the law], are equally admissible to all public dignities, places, and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents”.  Rights included Liberty Property Security Resistance to oppression Equal justice Freedom of speech Freedom of religion Karl Marx (1818-1883) “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness” 7 The UN Charter The UN Charter (preamble) states: “We the peoples of the United Nations [are] determined to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”. Article 1  Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) Three “generations” of human rights advanced by the French jurist Karel Vasak: 1) Liberté : Civil and political rights 17th and 18th reformist theories noted above (i.e., those associated with the English, American, and French revolutions). The first generation conceives of human rights more in negative terms ("freedoms from") than positive ones ("rights to"). Among the others, freedom from gender, racial, and equivalent forms of discrimination; the right to life, liberty, and security of the person; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile; the right to a fair and public trial; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of peaceful assembly and association; and the right to own property and the right not to be deprived of it arbitrarily A constant in this first-generation conception is the notion of liberty, a shield that safeguards the individual—alone and in association with others—against the abuse of political authority (based on Western liberal conception of human rights - Thomas Hobbes and John Locke)  Égalité: Economic, social, and cultural rights The second generation finds its roots primarily in the socialist tradition (revolutions and welfare movements) It is a response to the abuses of capitalist development and its underlying and essentially uncritical conception of individual liberty, which tolerated, and even legitimized, the exploitation of working classes and colonial peoples It conceives human rights in positive terms ("rights to") than in negative ones ("freedoms from"). It requires the intervention of the state for the purpose of assuring the equitable production and distribution of these values Articles 22-27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as the right to social security; the right to work and to protection against unemployment; the right to rest and leisure, including periodic holidays with pay; the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of self and family; the right to education; and the right to the protection of one's scientific, literary, and artistic production.  Fraternité: Solidarity rights Product of both the rise and the decline of the nation-state in the last half of the 20th century. Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights set forth in this declaration can be fully realized”. This generation embraces six rights: the right to political, economic, social, and cultural self-determination; the right to economic and social development; and the right to participate in and benefit from "the common heritage of mankind" (shared Earth and space resources, scientific, technical, and other information and progress, and cultural traditions, sites, and monuments) the right to peace, the right to a healthy and sustainable environment, and the right to humanitarian disaster relief