Human Rights

What are they?

Basic Human Rights

• Positive and negative rights

• Economic and social rights

• Civil and political rights

• Individual and group rights

Human Rights and International Institutions

• What should be done about human rights at the international level?

– What can be done?

• The tension between liberal rights and democratic values

The UDHR

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• How universal are these rights?

– Good liberalism or cultural imperialism?

A History of International HR Treaties

• Slavery (1926) and forced labor (1930)

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

• Freedom of association and the right to organize (1948)

• Genocide (1948).

• Trafficking in prostitution (1950)

• Refugees (1951)

• Rights of Women (1953)

• Racial Discrimination (1966)

• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

• Minimum Age for Employment (1973)

• Torture (1984)

• Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (1989)

• Rights of the Child (1989)

• Rights of all Migrant Workers (1990)

• Intercountry Adoption (1993)

The UN Human Rights Machinery

• The UNHCHR

• The Human Rights Council

• The Committees

– E.g. Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; Racial Discrimination; Discrimination Against Women; Torture; Rights of the Child.

The ICC: Background

• Nurenberg trials

• ICC first mooted in 1948

• Bosnia and Rwanda tribunals

– Under the authority of the Security Council

• Rome Statute signed in 1998

• Treaty entered force 5 years ago

– 105 members

– 8 indictments

The ICC: Issues

• What crimes?

– Genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression

• Decided how?

– Court of last resort

• By whom?

– Judges and prosecutors

• What penalties?

– Imprisonment. No death penalty

• Enforced how?

US and the ICC

• Sovereignty

• Politicization

• Incompatibility with the Constitution

– Trial by jury and grand jury indictments

– Constitutional authority and foreign courts

• Moderation of the US position

Humanitarian Relief

• How much, under what circumstances, and paid for how?

• Relief in goods and relief in force

• Refugees

– Asylum, resettlement, and relief in place

– Refugees and internally displaced people

– The UNHCR and UNRWA

– Ameliorating the problem or institutionalizing the problem?