The Protection of Human Rights by the Organization of American States

1968 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 889-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A. Cabranes
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
American States ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

On December 16, 1966, the General Assembly approved three agreements designed to establish a global system of enforceable treaty obligations with respect to fundamental human rights. These agreements are the second part of the “international bill of rights” proposed at the San Francisco Conference. Eighteen years separated the adoption of these agreements—the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—and the approval in 1948 of the first part of the projected United Nations program for the protection of human rights, the non-binding Universal declaration of Human Rights.

How American International Lawyers Prepared for the San Francisco Bill of Rights

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 540-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis B. Sohn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Law

Too much has been written lately about the limited approach to human rights at Dumbarton Oaks, the struggle at the San Francisco Conference, and the great flowering of declarations, conventions, covenants and instruments to implement them in the last fifty years. Instead of adding another retelling of these more than twice-told tales, this essay tries to look at the origin of two less known contributions to the law of human rights—the broad nondiscrimination clause which added a more practical meaning to the vague “human rights and fundamental freedoms” phrase; and the bold addition of economic and social rights to the more traditional civil and political rights.

Jamaica Withdraws the Right of Individual Petition under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

1998 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Schiffrin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
Roll Back ◽  
Individual Petition

In October 1997, a little-noticed event took place at the United Nations that may roll back the international legal protection of human rights. Jamaica became the first country to denounce the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and thus withdrew the right of individual petition to the UN Human Rights Committee (Committee). Although it is provided for under the Protocol’s Article 12, no state has previously made such a denunciation.

5 The ‘Incubation’ of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1968–1992)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pace John P
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Current Level ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Level Of Understanding ◽  
Fourth Session ◽  
Real Test

This chapter focuses on the ‘incubation’ of economic, social and cultural rights. The implementation of human rights presented challenges to the Commission on Human Rights from its first years of existence. It was the main reason invoked to separate civil and political rights from economic, social and cultural rights, and to have two Covenants instead of the unitary convention, as originally decided by the General Assembly. Once the two Covenants were adopted and opened for signature and ratification in 1966, the international community would face the real test of the implementation processes. Whereas the implementation of civil and political rights presented relatively little question, the implementation—or better still, ‘realization’—of economic, social and cultural rights, both in substance and in procedure, gave rise to much debate and took several years to reach the current level of understanding and acceptance. The formal focus on the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights was launched in 1968 when PE Nedbailo (Ukrainian SSR), outgoing Chairman of the Commission, proposed the inclusion of ‘Study of the question of the realization of the economic and social rights’ in the agenda of the twenty-fourth session. It was to remain on the agenda of the Commission for the rest of the Commission's existence, and thereafter on the agenda of the Human Rights Council.

Reporting to the Human Rights Committee: The Canadian Experience

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 261-285
Author(s):  
Marie-France Major
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Canadian Experience ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The United Nations

SummaryIn 1966, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Once it had acceded to the Covenant, Canada undertook the obligation to make regular reports to the Human Rights Committee (the independent body of experts established under the Covenant) in regard to its protection of human rights and its progress in implementing the new treaty. In the next few pages, the four reports submitted by Canada, as well as the comments issued by committee members in the course of analysis of these reports, are examined, so as to get a better sense of whether, and to what extent, Canada is fulfilling its Covenant commitments.

Justiciability of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: Should There Be an International Complaints Mechanism to Adjudicate the Rights to Food, Water, Housing, and Health?

2004 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 462-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Dennis ◽  
David P. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

Should all internationally recognized human rights—economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights—be subject to the same individual-complaints procedures? This issue is now before a newly convened working group of the UN Commission on Human Rights. At its first meeting, from February 23 to March 5,2004, the Working Group debated the feasibility of elaborating an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) that would provide for the adjudication of individual and group complaints against states under that Covenant. Participating states were in sharp disagreement over the viability of the proposal, however, and the session ended in disarray. Since the Commission has recommended renewal of the Working Group’s mandate for two years, the issue remains open.

Views adopted by the Committee under article 5(4) of the Optional Protocol, concerning A.S., D.I., O.I., and G.D. V. Italy, Communication No. 3042/2017 (U.N. Hum. Rts. COMM.)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Patricia Vella De Fremeaux (Mallia) ◽  
Felicity G. Attard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Introductory Note ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
Article 5

On January 27, 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC or Committee) published two separate decisions in response to communications brought against Malta and Italy. Both decisions concerned the same incident, which occurred on October 11, 2013, where over 200 migrants drowned in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. The first complaint brought against Malta was dismissed by the Committee on procedural grounds. In the second case, A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. v. Italy, the HRC found that Italy had failed to protect the right to life of the migrants under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This introductory note discusses the significance of the Committee's findings in this decision and its ramifications with respect to the protection of human rights at sea.

The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Ayse Cebecioglu Haldız
Keyword(s):  
General Assembly ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Right

An Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 2008 and it came into force on 5 May 2013. The protocol gives individuals the right to raise complaints about violations of their rights which are enshrined by the covenant. Although, an optional protocol regulating the complaint procedure for its sister treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, was entered into force in 1976, it was postponed for ICESCR until 2013 because of the historic debate discussing whether these rights are justiciable or not. This division between the treaties left the protection of the ESCR in the background. This essay will analyse the extent to which the protocol resolved the historical concerns about the protection of economic, social and cultural rights under international human rights law.

The UN Optional Protocol on the Abolition of the Death Penalty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Bossuyt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
European Convention ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Special Rapporteur ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Social Council ◽  
History Of ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

The drafting history of the Second Optional Protocol (1989) to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, is explained by the Special Rapporteur of the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights entrusted with an analysis of the proposal to elaborate such a protocol. Special attention is given to the adoption of the text successively by the Sub-Commission and the Commission on Human Rights, the Economic and Social Council, the Third Committee, and the General Assembly. Explanations are given on the possible reservation allowing an exception for ‘a most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime’. The Second Optional Protocol is also compared with regional instruments on the abolition of the death penalty, such as the 6th (1983) and 13th (2002) Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and the American Protocol aiming at the same abolition (1990).

scholarly journals A Case for Including Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 471
Author(s):  
Joss Opie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Domestic Law

Economic, social and cultural rights are fundamental human rights, but New Zealand domestic law does not recognise them as such. This article discusses some of the difficulties this omission creates for the protection of these rights, and critiques the reasons for not including them in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. It argues that economic, social and cultural rights should have the same legal status in New Zealand as civil and political rights: that is, justiciable rights which are also directly relevant to statutory interpretation, and law and policy-making.

The Human Rights Covenants at 50

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The World ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
First And Second Generation

Half a century ago, on 16 December 1966, the UN General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). While the adoption of the twin Covenants was celebrated all over the world, their fiftieth anniversary has received very little attention from the international community. This book marks this anniversary by taking stock of the first half-century of the existence of what are probably the world’s two most important human rights treaties. It does so by reflecting on what the Covenants have achieved (or failed to achieve) in the years that have passed, determining and comparing their current influence in the various regions of the world, and assessing their potential roles in the future. The book contains papers presented during a symposium held in Zurich in 2016, which brought together experts and stakeholders from a range of disciplines and world regions. Some fundamental issues addressed by the contributors are as old as the two Covenants themselves. They concern, for example, the division of human rights into first- and second-generation rights, and the question of whether there should be one central monitoring body—possibly a world court—or more than just one. Other important questions dealt with are how the Covenants should be interpreted and who is bound by them. However, the contributors go beyond such questions, which have been explored before; they develop new answers to old questions and point to new challenges.

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