A right which is believed to belong to every person.
- "a flagrant disregard for basic human rights"
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DEFINITION
HUMAN RIGHTS are the
rights that all people have by virtue of being human beings.
HUMAN RIGHTS are
derived from the inherent dignity of
the human person and are defined internationally, nationally and locally by
various law making bodies.
Overview
& Agenda
Brief History of International Human Rights*
Modern Protection of Human Rights
United Nations
Regional Organizations
Local Non-Governmental Organizations
Health as a Human right
*Source: “International Human Rights: Law, Policy and
Process,” David Weissbrodt, Joan Fitzpatrick and Frank Newman (3d ed. 2001)
Understanding the Charter
How can your agencies use it
What are the consequences
Challenging discriminatory practices
Creating a Human Rights Based Approach to our clients’
needs
.
Brief
History
•
Antiquity
Code of Hammurabi
Rights of Athenian citizens
•
Medieval
Magna Carta (1215)
Sir Thomas Aquinas’ theory of natural rights (13th Century)
Enlightenment
English Declaration of the Rights of Man (1689)
U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776)
French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
United States Constitution and Bill of Rights (1789)
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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;English Declaration of the Rights of Man (1689)
U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776)
French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
United States Constitution and Bill of Rights (1789)
•
Early Developments (cont.)
International Committee for the Red Cross (1863)
Geneva Convention (1864)
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
League of Nations and the International Labor Organization
(1919)
•
Aftermath of World War II
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech
(January 6, 1941)
(January 6, 1941)
The Atlantic Charter Between the United States and Great
Britain (August 14, 1941)
The Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals
Creation of the United Nations (1945)
Modern Protection of
International Human Rights
•The
Preamble to the United Nations Charter states that 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.”
In 1948, the UN
General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.* The Declaration enumerates civil, political,
economic, social, and cultural rights, but the Declaration contains no
provisions for monitoring or enforcement.
•48-0 with 8
abstentions (Eastern bloc, Saudi Arabia and South Africa)
•
. In 1966, the
General Assembly adopted:
The Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (and its First Optional Protocol)
The Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
which, together with the UDHR, are now known
as the International Bill of Human Rights
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, color,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status” without regard to citizenship
Prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment (personal integrity)
Prohibits slavery
Limits the death penalty (in countries that still allow
it) to the most serious crimes committed by persons over 18
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, color,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status” without regard to citizenship
Prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment (personal integrity)
Prohibits slavery
Limits the death penalty (in countries that still allow
it) to the most serious crimes committed by persons over 18
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Prohibits arbitrary arrest or detention
Protects freedom of movement and residence
Protects the right to trial, presumption of innocence,
right to a lawyer, right to an appeal, freedom from self-incrimination, and
freedom from double jeopardy
Protects freedom of opinion and expression
Protects freedom of association and assembly
Public emergency exception (but no torture, executions,
or slavery is ever permissible)
Ratified by the United States in 1992
Right to work and make a “decent living for themselves and
their families”
Safe and healthy working conditions
Right to form trade unions with the right to strike
Right of everyone to Social Security, including social
insurance “widest possible protection and assistance
should
be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of
society”
Right to adequate food, clothing and housing and to the
continuous improvement of living conditions
Right to education
Right to heath care
Economic rights are subject to each county’s ability to
provide such rights progressively as its resources permit.
Signed but not ratified by the United State.
Modern
Protection of International Human Rights
•
In addition to the International Bill of Human
Rights, the United Nations has drafted and promulgated over 80 human rights
instruments:
genocide
racial discrimination
discrimination against women
Refugee protection
torture
the rights of disabled persons
the rights of the child
UN
Human Rights Bodies
Security Council
General Assembly
Economic and Social Council
Commission on Human Rights
Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights
Commission on the Status of Women
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
International Court of Justice
International Criminal Court
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (created by
the General Assembly in 1993)
Treaty
Monitoring Bodies
Human Rights Committee
Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial
Discrimination
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women
Committee Against Torture
Committee on the Rights of the Child
Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights
Human
Rights in International Law
Regional Organizations and Law-Making
The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
adopted by the Organization of American States in 1948 and the American
Convention on Human Rights adopted by the OAS in 1969 which are implemented by
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter- American Court of
Human Rights.
Health
Care and Human Rights
The
revelations of the Nuremberg trials about experiments by physicians on concentration camp inmates led
to the creation of the World Medical
Association. One of the first acts of
the WMA was the
revision of the Hippocratic Oath in 1948 to include: “I will not permit consideration of race,
religion,
nationality, party politics, or social standing to intervene between
my duty and my patient.”
The principle of medical neutrality
Source: Geneva Conventions of 1949, Protocol I of 1977
The right to physical and mental health
International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women.
Principle
of Medical Neutrality
A. Rights guaranteed
by medical neutrality
Protection of the
sick and wounded, civilians, and medical personnel
No torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
No killings or disappearances
No impeding medical functions
No punishment for treating the sick and wounded or for
upholding medical confidentiality
Protection of medical
facilities and services
No bombing or shelling of hospitals or clinics
No incursions into hospitals
No prevention of the function of medical services in conflict
areas or occupied territories
B.Responsibilities
required by medical neutrality
Proper use of medical
facilities
No misuse of hospital/clinic/ambulance for military purposes
No misuse of medical emblems for protection
No abuse of medical
skills
No torture, cruel treatment or interrogation by medical
personnel
No selective or discriminatory treatment of wounded combatants
or civilians on non-medical grounds
Prohibition of medical treatment given according to military
instruction rather than clinical indications
No breach of medical confidentiality.
Sources
of Modern Right to Physical and Mental Health
International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 12:
The State’s Parties
to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health.
The steps to be taken by the State’s Parties to the present
Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those
necessary for:
The provision for reduction of stillbirth rate and of infant
mortality and for the health development of the child;
The improvement of all aspects of environmental and
industrial hygiene;
The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic,
occupational and other diseases;
The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical
service and medical attention in the event of sickness.the child;
The improvement of all aspects of environmental and
industrial hygiene;
Convention
on Rights of the Child
Articles 6 in 24 provide for, among other things:
Efforts to combat disease and malnutrition through the
application of available technology and the provision of adequate nutritious
foods and clean drinking water
Appropriate prenatal and post natal health care for mothers.
Access to education concerning basic health, nutrition,
hygiene, and environmental sanitation.
Prevention of accidents.
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
•Articles
11 provides special protection to women during pregnancy with respect to types
of work that are proven to be harmful to them.
Article 12 insures equality of men and women with respect to
access to health care services including those related to family planning and
specifically providing that women get appropriate services in connection with
pregnancy, confinement, and the post natal period, including adequate nutrition
during pregnancy and lactation.
Article 14 provides
equal access to women in rural areas to health care facilities including
counseling
services and family planning.
Where Do
Human Rights Begin?
“In small places, close to home, so close and
so small that
they cannot be seen on any
maps of the world.
Yet they are the world of
the individual person, the neighborhood he
lives in, the factory, farm, or office where he
worked. Such are the places where every
man, woman,
and child seeks equal justice,
equal opportunity, equal dignity without
discrimination. Unless these rights have
meaning there, they have little meaning
anywhere.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958
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