.

Human Rights
.1. Concept/ Definition
2. History
3. Modern Developments
4. HR abuse- world wide
5. HR abuse - Pak
6. Hurdles
7. Suggestions
What are Human Rights??
• All people are born free and have equal rights and dignity.
• Moral principles which form the basis of human conduct
• They are called human rights because they are universal
• The rights you have simply because you are human.
• It is something to which you are entitled by virtue of being human.
• Every person has right to life, liberty & freedom
• each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with
dignity.

• a right which is believed to belong to every person.

.
• Human rights are moral principles or norms, that describe certain
standards of human behavior, and are regularly protected as legal
rights in municipal and international law
• They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of
being universal, and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the
same for everyone. They require empathy and the rule of law and
impose an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of
others.
.
• Many of the basic ideas that animated the human rights
movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and
the atrocities of The Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris by the United
Nations General Assembly in 1948
.
• rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of
residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or
any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights
without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated,
interdependent and indivisible.
•. Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in
the forms;
• of treaties,
• customary international law ,
• general principles and other sources of international law.
• International human rights law lays down obligations of
Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in
order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental
freedoms of individuals or groups.
.
• Universal and inalienable
• The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international
human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration
on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated in numerous international human
rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World
Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to
promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of
their political, economic and cultural systems.
• All States have ratified at least one, and 80% of States have ratified four or more,
of the core human rights treaties, reflecting consent of States which creates legal
obligations for them and giving concrete expression to universality. Some
fundamental human rights norms enjoy universal protection by customary
international law across all boundaries and civilizations.
• Human rights are inalienable. They should not be taken away, except in specific
situations and according to due process. For example, the right to liberty may be
restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime by a court of law.
.
• Interdependent and indivisible
• All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political
rights, such as the right to life, equality before the law and freedom of
expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to
work, social security and education , or collective rights, such as the
rights to development and self-determination, are indivisible,
interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right
facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of
one right adversely affects the others.
.
• Equal and non-discriminatory
• Non-discrimination is a cross-cutting principle in international human rights
law. The principle is present in all the major human rights treaties and
provides the central theme of some of international human rights
conventions such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women.
• The principle applies to everyone in relation to all human rights and
freedoms and it prohibits discrimination on the basis of a list of non-
exhaustive categories such as sex, race, colour and so on. The principle of
non-discrimination is complemented by the principle of equality, as stated
in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
.
• Both Rights and Obligations
• Human rights entail both rights and obligations.
• States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect,
to protect and to fulfill human rights. The obligation to respect means that
States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of
human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect
individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfill
means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of
basic human rights.

• At the individual level, while we are entitled our human rights, we should
also respect the human rights of others.
.
• BACKGROUND/ History
• History
• Human rights are a modern concept, yet they are an integral part of human
history.
The idea of human rights originally evolved from being members of a group, such as a family. Human rights imply to the basic
social, civil, economic, political and social rights and freedom of an individual.

Human rights are basically privileges provided to any man regardless of his belonging and any legal provision that may or may not
exist for them, and they may not be forbidden certain things by the Government.

It was in539 BC when Cyrus the Great revived history by doing something extraordinary; after conquering
Babylon he set all the captured slaves, free.

He also declared that people should be free to choose their own religion. Some other important reforms were recorded in his time
that were inscribed on a clay cylinder which came to be known as the Cyrus Cylinder. It has been termed as the first
Charter of Human Rights.
• The significance of the Cyrus Cylinder is its translation into 6 official
languages of the USA and its provisions are parallel to the first four
articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• These ideas of Human Rights then spread from Babylon to India, Rome
and Greece. People followed what was called the ‘natural law’ which was
a method of following an unwritten set of rules by the people. Roman law
was rational, based on the nature of things as they were observed.

• Thereafter came many laws, constitutions, The English Magna Carta

which was considered the first written constitution, however, according
to Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah, the Charter of Madina.
 The Charter of Madina- History -2
• Mankind’s First Written Constitution.
• 622 AD.
• The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated to Madina with his followers after an invitation from the Arab tribes of
Madina.
• Madina was a pluralistic society, consisting of many tribes and a large population of Jews. These tribes
constantly quarreled amongst themselves and there was continuous anarchy.
• The Charter was made by the Prophet (PBUH) in order to address a few important needs.
• Determining the rights and responsibilities of the local population as well as the immigrants from
Makah.

• Making agreements with the non-Muslim population of Madina, especially the Jews, to ensure peace
and harmony.

• Creating a strategy and plan to defend the city against invasions

• Making resources available for the immigrants to make a living

• The Charter contains 47 clauses, which laid the foundations of a sovereign nation-state comprising
of Muslims, Jews and Pagans, having equal rights and responsibilities under a common citizenship.
 Salient Features of the Charter of Madina
• All parties included in the charter, i.e. Muslims, people of the book (Jews and Christians) and pagans, had freedom to practice
their religion.
• All citizens of the state had equal rights and responsibilities and were protected against oppression.
• A system of financial aid was developed within each tribe and between tribes. Communal funds were set up which were used in
times of financial need such as to pay ransom or blood-money.
• In the event of a war or hostile attack from outsiders on one tribe, all tribes of Madina (signatories of the charter) were required
to come to the aid of the defending tribe.
• In the event of a dispute among the signatories, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the final authority for settling the dispute.
• The Quraish of Makah were to be boycotted commercially by all signatories and nobody was to extend any support to them.
 Significance of the Charter
• It is a landmark not only in the Islamic world but in the Constitutional history of the world.
• The Charter transformed the political, religious and social life of Madina.
• It brought all the tribes to form a polity and enabled them to live in peace on a long-term basis.
• It ended all anarchy, and protected the life, property and honor of the various tribes and people living in the city.
• It created equal rights, and responsibilities for all the citizens.
• The Charter replaced the traditional tribal kinship with a new social order and created the idea of a nation state.
 The Magna Carta- 1215
• "The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It
was written in Magna Carta."
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural address
• Magna Carta meaning the great charter
• Issued by King John of England, it was a practical solution to political crisis faced by the King in 1215,
and it established the principle for the very first time, that everyone was accountable to
the law, even the King.
• it still remains an important document in the British constitution.
• A majority of the clauses from the 63, deal with the special grievances of King John in his rule. However, these
rules actually carried fundamental values which questioned the King’s autocracy and also would prove to be highly
adaptable in the future centuries.
• The 39th clause gave all ‘free men’ the right to justice and going through a fair trial.
• Magna Carta stated that no taxes could be demanded without the ‘general consent of the realm’, meaning the
leading barons and churchmen.
• It re-established privileges which had been lost, and it linked fines to the severity of the offence so as not to
threaten an individual’s livelihood.
• It also confirmed that a widow could not be forced to remarry against her wishes.

• Some of the clauses of the Magna Carta are present in;

• the United States Bill of Rights (1791);
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• European Convention on Human Rights (1950).
 History of Human Rights
• In Britain the idea that human beings possess a set of inherent and inalienable rights has deep roots which can be
traced back over centuries.
• KEY DATES IN THE HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE UK:

• 1186 The earliest ancestor of contemporary human rights protection was the Assize of Clarendon, passed by Henry
II in 1166. A precursor to trial by jury, the Assize paved the way for the abolition of trial by combat and trial by
ordeal.
• 1215 Another of the earliest and most commonly cited milestones in the history of human rights in the UK is the
Magna Carta – an English Charter issued in 1215 which contained the writ of habeas corpus, allowing people to
appeal against imprisonment without trial.
• 1647 The next milestone in the development of a set of protected rights came in the autumn of 1647, when a group
of English political activists, the ‘Levelers’, produced “An Agreement of the People”, which set forth a collection of
constitutional principles discussed at the famous Putney debates. The Levelers called for liberty of conscience in
matters of religion, freedom from conscription and asked that laws “apply equally to everyone: there must be no
discrimination on grounds of tenure, estate, charter, degree, birth or place”.
• 1689 While the demands of the Levellers were not immediately met, the next landmark is one of the most
important documents in the political history of Britain: the Bill of Rights (1689), which put the notion of inalienable
rights beyond doubt. An Act of Parliament after the ‘Glorious Revolution’, the Bill included: the freedom to petition
the Monarch (a precursor to political protest rights); the freedom from cruel and unusual punishments (the
forerunner to the ban on torture contained in our Human Rights Act) and the freedom from being fined without trial.
• 1774 In a victory for public information and the free press the Parliamentary Register was
launched in 1774, following campaigning by Radical MP John Wilkes and others. The
Register reported the details of parliamentary debates which had previously been
restricted.
• 1832/3 The 1832 Reform Act increased the electorate from around 366,000 to 650,000
people, about 18 per cent of the total adult-male population in England and Wales. It
excluded women and working class men, and votes were still cast in public, but it was a
landmark on the road towards universal suffrage. Another important law in the history of
human rights was passed in 1833: the Slavery Abolition Act, which outlawed the slave
trade throughout the British Empire.
• 1918 At the end of the First World War the Representation of the People Act gave the vote
to all women over 30, enfranchising over eight million women. Shortly afterwards women
were also allowed to stand for Parliament, although it took another decade for the vote to
be extended to all adult women.
• 1934 Liberty was founded, as the National Council for Civil Liberties, and 80 years later
we’re still going strong. Find out more about our history.
• 1948 As the world reeled from the horrors of the Second World War, there came an
important realization that although fundamental rights should be respected as a matter of
course, without formal protection human rights concepts are of little use to those facing
persecution. The result was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most
important agreements in the history of human rights.
• 1950 The European Convention on Human Rights was agreed in the
aftermath of the Second World War. British lawyers played an
instrumental role in the development of the Convention, and the UK
signed up in 1951. Find out more about international laws protecting
human rights.
• 1957 The Wolfenden Report was published, marking a turning point
in official attitudes towards homosexuality in Western countries.
Male homosexuality was finally decriminalized a decade later in the
Sexual Offences Act.
• 1975/6 In 1975 and 1976 respectively the Sex Discrimination Act
and the Race Relations Act made it illegal to discriminate against
anyone on grounds of their gender or ethnicity, and introduced the
concept of indirect discrimination.
• 1998 Enacted by a youthful Labor Government in 1998, the Human
Rights Act (HRA) contains a set of civil and political rights considered
fundamental to any liberal democracy. Since it came into force, the
HRA has been used as a political football as the Government and the
Opposition engage in political positioning, both seeking to seem the
toughest on crime and terror by creating a false distinction between
liberty and security. But the Human Rights Act is rooted in British
culture and history and, as you can see, it has a proud, 800 year old
family tree.
 The Enlightenment
• With overarching resistance to religious intolerance, political and social
injustice and economic servitude beginning to increase, the foundations of
Human rights was laid.

• The Protestant Reformation (16th Century European Movement)

• , The American Reformation (17th Century),
• The U.S Constitution and Bill of Rights (1791),
• The French Revolution (19th Century),
• The Mexican Revolution (early 20th Century),
• The Russian Revolution (20th Century) and
• The Chinese Revolution (20th Century)
• are the many stages of what developed the concept of Human Rights.

• Various incidents of the 19th Century sparked International Humanitarianism.

..
.

•Following on the Magna Carta, which set limits on the powers of royal
government in the thirteenth century England,
• the 1776 American Declaration of Independence and
•the 1789 French Declaration des droits de l’Homme et de du citoyen
(Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen) were landmarks of how
revolutionary visions could be transformed into national law and made into
justiciable guarantees against future abuse.
.
.

Human rights refer to the classification of rights that emerged after the formation of the
United Nations following World War II. The United Nations was founded in 1945, but it took
another few years for the new member states to agree to a comprehensive body of rights
and to pledge the United Nations efforts to ensure that all people could enjoy these rights.
This agreement took the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948
. In 1966, the UN General Assembly produced two treaties that were meant to be the legally binding version
of the UDHR; predictably, these were:
i. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and
. ii. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
These two treaties are the bedrock of today’s human rights structure. Together with the UDHR, they are
sometimes referred to as the International Bill of Rights. (It should be noted that although the UDHR was
not framed as a binding legal document, it is so widely accepted and used that it has attained the status of
customary law and is binding as such). These Rights can be put into three categories:
1. Civil and political rights (which is called first generation rights). These are “liberty-orientated” and
include the rights to life, liberty and security of the individual; freedom from torture and slavery; political
participation; freedom of opinion, expression, thought, conscience and religion; freedom of association
and assembly.
2. Economic and social rights (also called second generation rights). These are “security-orientated” rights,
for example the rights to work; education; a reasonable standard of living; food; shelter and health care.
3. Environmental, cultural and developmental rights (also called third generation rights). These include the
rights to live in an environment that is clean and protected from destruction and rights to cultural, political
and economic development.
• One major problem facing human rights the world over today is that people and countries have a different
understanding of the term and its protection. In some countries political and civil rights are not given or
guaranteed to all its citizens. In some other countries, economic and social rights are not enforced,
therefore, the basic idea behind stressing human rights is that all governments should try to maintain these
fundamental rights and see that all types of discrimination in this respect are rooted out.
• Human rights is a commitment and a vision that is constantly developing in theory and in practice, as we see
that the core principles originally set out in the UDHR 1948 have survived years of different threats. Despite
the obstacles and setbacks, the trends over the decades have consistently been to seek to achieve greater
universality and extension of the scope and application of these rights.
• It is our hope that the world comes to term with the issues of impunity by those who commit violations
because they know they can get away with it. There should also be a strong stance to proactively make
education of human rights a persistent concern and the development of skills for building peace, learning
how to practice respect and tolerance worldwide. There is the need for countries around the world to
embrace the universality of these rights. These distinctions and categorisations of rights into three
generations of human rights though important should not be seen as merely academic distinctions, but
distinctions that must be ultimately blurred and fused together by all nations of the world. Human rights are
innately and intrinsically connected to the existence of every human being and a right, be it first, second or
third generation must be seen to be actualised in the life of every human being.
as three generations of human rights, used in both national and international human rights circles,
traces the chronological evolution of human rights as an echo to the cry of the French revolution: Liberté
(freedoms, “civil and political” or “first generation” rights), Egalité (equality, “socio-economic” or “second
generation” rights), and Fraternité (solidarity, “collective” or “third generation” rights).
•In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the struggle for rights focused on the liberation from authoritarian
oppression and the corresponding rights of free speech, association and religion and the right to vote.
• With the changed view of the State role in an industrializing world and against the background of growing
inequalities, the importance of socio-economic rights became more clearly articulated.
•With growing globalization and a heightened awareness of overlapping global concerns, especially due to
extreme poverty in some parts of the world, “third generation” rights, such as the rights to a healthy
environment, to self-determination and to development, have been adopted.
First-generation human rights, deal essentially with liberty
and participation in political life. They are fundamentally civil
and political in nature, as well as strongly individualistic. They
serve negatively to protect the individual from the excesses of
the state. First-generation rights include, among other things,
freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion
and voting rights. These rights were enshrined at the global level
and given status in international law first by Articles 3 to 21 of
the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later in the
1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
During the period of the cold war, “first generation” rights were prioritized in western
democracies, while second generation rights were resisted as socialist notions. In the
developing world, economic growth and development were often regarded as goals
able to trump “civil and political” rights. The discrepancy between the two sets of
rights was also emphasized: “civil and political” rights were said to be of immediate
application, while “second generation” rights were understood to be implemented
only in the long term or progressively. Another axis of division was the supposed
notion that “first generation” rights place negative obligations on States while “second
generation” rights place positive obligations on States. After the fall of the Berlin Wall,
it became generally accepted that such a dichotomy does not do justice to the extent
to which these rights are interrelated and interdependent. The dichotomy of
positive/negative obligations no longer holds water. It seems much more useful to
regard all rights as interdependent and indivisible and as potentially entailing a variety
of obligations on the State. These obligations may be categorized as the duty to
respect, protect, promote and fulfil.
Those demands for rights in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a demand against the existing States,
authorities, despotism, arbitrariness and the political disenfranchisement of those who held different opinions. The
first generation of civil and political rights derives primarily from the seventeenth and eighteenth century reformist
theories which were associated with English, French and American revolutions.
These rights as mentioned earlier includes the right to life, liberty, the security of person, freedom from slavery or
involuntary servitude, freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman degrading treatment or punishment, freedom from
arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. The rights also include the right to a fair and public trial, freedom from interference
in privacy and correspondence, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
freedom of opinion and of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the right to participate in
government directly or through elections and the right to own property and not to be arbitrarily deprived of one’s
property.
The Second-generation human rights are related to equality and
began to be recognized by various governments after World War II. They are
fundamentally economic, social and cultural in nature. They guarantee different
members of the community equal conditions and treatment. Secondary rights
would include a right to be employed, rights to housing and health care, as well as
social security and unemployment benefits. Like first-generation rights, they were
also covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and were further
entrenched in Articles 23 to 29 of the Universal Declaration and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
It is not geared towards immediate implementation, in that State parties having
agreed only to take steps towards achieving progressively the full realization of the
rights recognised in the Covenant and then subject to the extent of their available
resources. In the circumstance, one can say that the covenant is fundamentally
and essentially a promotional covenant stipulating objectives more than standards
and requiring implementation over time rather than at once.
These rights are sometimes referred to as “red” rights. They impose upon the
government the duty to respect and promote and fulfil them, but then this depends on
the availability of resources. This duty is imposed on the State because it controls its
own resources. No one has the direct right to housing and right to education. In South
Africa, for instance, the right is not, per se, to housing, but rather “to have access to
adequate housing,” realised on a progressive basis. The duty of government is in the
realisation of these rights as a positive one. Second generation rights have generally
been considered as rights that require affirmative government action for their
realization. They are often styled as group rights or ‘collective rights’ in that they
pertain to the well being of the whole society.
Some have argued that contrary to western conceptions, the substance of human rights
is not universal, that economic, social and cultural factors determine the applicability of
particular rights in different countries. The Vienna Declaration of 1993 viewed
differently disclaiming any priority of rights. It declared that ‘’while development
facilitates the enjoyment of all human rights, the lack of development may not be
invoked to justify the abridgement of internationally recognized human rights’’.
The third generation human rights or ‘solidarity rights’ is the
more recently recognized category of human rights. This category is
distinguished from the first and second generation of human rights in
that its realization is predicated not only upon both the affirmative
and negative duties of the State, but also upon the behaviour of each
individual. In much of the world, conditions such as extreme poverty,
war, ecological and natural disasters have meant that there has been
only very limited progress in respect for human rights. For that reason,
many people have felt that the recognition of a new category of
human rights is necessary. These rights would ensure the appropriate
conditions for societies, particularly in the developing world, to be
able to provide the first and second generation rights that have
already been recognised.
Third generation rights can be realized only through the concerted efforts of
all actors on the social scene, i.e. the individual, public and private bodies,
the State and the international community. These rights include self
determination as well as a host of normative expressions like the right to
development, to peace and a healthy environment.
• Economic stagnation and popular radicalism after the French
Wars – industries collapsed and there was much political unrest
and riots, hence people marched out for their rights and to settle
the chaos.
• The Peterloo Massacre- after the incident reportedly a million
people marched to the St. Peter’s Field to speak for the rights of
the poor and for political reforms in the country.
• Abolition of Slavery- formation of the Anti-Slavery Society 1823,
to argue on the abolition of slavery. This, with the Sheffield
Female Society was the first to call for the emancipation of
slaves. Slaves themselves resisted slavery from the period of the
18th and 19th centuries which became an important part of the
abolition movement.
.
• 20th century
• The World Wars, and the huge losses of life and gross abuses of
human rights that took place during them, were a driving force
behind the development of modern human rights instruments.
The League of Nations was established in 1919 following the end
of World War I. The League's charter was a mandate to promote
many of the rights later included in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
• The European Declaration on Human Rights, drafted 1950 and enforced 1953, marked a turning
point in history towards diplomacy and peace.
• The last half of the 20th century marked the birth of international and universal recognition of Human
Rights.

• The idea of human rights emerged stronger and more vivacious

after World War II.
• “The extermination by Nazi Germany of over six million Jews, Sinti and Romani (gypsies),
homosexuals, and persons with disabilities horrified the world.” Trials were held in Nuremberg and
Tokyo after World War II, and officials from the defeated countries were punished for committing war
crimes, "crimes against peace," and "crimes against humanity."
.
• Modern Developments since creation of UN
• 1945- todate
1. The United Nations and United Nations Charter-
— Article 1–3 of the United Nations Charter

• Governments then committed themselves to establishing the United Nations, with

the primary goal of strengthening international peace and preventing conflict.

• People wanted to ensure that never again would anyone be unjustly denied life,
freedom, food, shelter, and nationality.

• The calls came from across the globe for human rights standards to protect
citizens from abuses by their governments, standards against which nations could
be held accountable for the treatment of those living within their borders.

• These voices played a critical role in the San Francisco meeting that drafted
the United Nations Charter in 1945.
.
• Charter of UN
• The United Nations Human Rights Council, and
• United Nations Security Council and
• Numerous committees within the UN
.• The United Nations Security Council has the primary responsibility
for maintaining international peace and security and is the only body
of the UN that can authorize the use of force.
• 2006 the Security Council adopted resolution 1674 that reaffirmed
the responsibility to protect populations from:
HR council 2006
• genocide,
• war crimes,
• ethnic cleansing and SC

• crimes against humanity" and committed the Security Council to

action to protect civilians in armed conflict.
.
• The United Nations Human Rights Council, created at the 2005 World
Summit to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights,
has a mandate to investigate violations of human rights.
• The Human Rights Council is a subsidiary body of the General
Assembly and reports directly to it.
• It ranks below the Security Council, which is the final authority for
the interpretation of the United Nations Charter
• The Human Rights Council may request that the Security Council take
action when human rights violations occur. This action may be direct
actions, may involve sanctions, and the Security Council may also
refer cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
•. .

SC SC
UNHC 1674
2006

SC
Sanctions
Referral to ICC
 2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

(UDHR)
• 56 members.
• International Magna Carta, extended the revolution in international law
ushered in by the United Nations Charter – namely, that how a government treats its own
citizens is now a matter of legitimate international concern, and not simply a domestic
issue. It claims that all rights are interdependent and indivisible.

human rights movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and the
atrocities of The Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights in Paris by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948
 The Rights are defined as follows:
Article 1 Right to Equality
Article 2 Freedom from Discrimination
Article 3 Right to Life, Liberty, Personal Security
Article 4 Freedom from Slavery
Article 5 Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment
Article 6 Right to Recognition as a Person before the Law
Article 7 Right to Equality before the Law
Article 8 Right to Remedy by Competent Tribunal
Article 9 Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile
Article 10 Right to Fair Public Hearing
Article 11 Right to be Considered Innocent until Proven Guilty
Article 12 Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence
Article 13 Right to Free Movement in and out of the Country
Article 14 Right to Asylum in other Countries from Persecution
Article 15 Right to a Nationality and the Freedom to Change It
Article 16 Right to Marriage and Family
Article 17 Right to Own Property
Article 18 Freedom of Belief and Religion
Article 19 Freedom of Opinion and Information
Article 20 Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Article 21 Right to Participate in Government and in Free Elections
Article 22 Right to Social Security
Article 23 Right to Desirable Work and to Join Trade Unions
Article 24 Right to Rest and Leisure
Article 25 Right to Adequate Living Standard

Article 26 Right to Education

Article 27 Right to Participate in the Cultural Life of Community

Article 28 Right to a Social Order that Articulates this Document

Article 29 Community Duties Essential to Free and Full Development

Freedom from State or Personal Interference in the above

Article 30
Rights
• Following actions:

These were approved by the UN General Assembly and entered

into force and effect:

 1966- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

 1976- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural

Rights

 1979- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

 United Nations Human Rights Committee Under the
Covenant On Civil and Political Rights
• It had 18 independent experts who monitor the implementation
of the provisions by examination of compliance reports by state
parties. It also considers the complaints of the states against
each other as well as the complaints of individuals of violations
of their rights under the Covenant.
• It has limited effectiveness as enough action cannot be taken
beyond the comments that it can give on the received
complaints which are then referred back to the concerned
government to give an explanation within a time period of 6
months.
 Human Rights Agencies of UNO
• UNICEF (United Nations Children Fund).
• UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees).
• United Nations Commission on the Status for women
• ILO (International Labor Organization).
• UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization ).
 United Nations Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights
• The states are obligated to submit reports on the progress made
in achieving the rights in vogue to the ECOSOC.

• A group of 15 member states considers these reports.

• Sections of reports that relate to the competence of

organizations like ILO, WHO and UNESCO are forwarded to them
for comments and suggestions.
 3. The United Nations Council on Human Rights

• United Nations HR Council in 2006.

• Its biggest function: Receiving complaints from governments, NGOs, and
individuals on various issues related to Human Rights.
• It has the authority and power to raise an issue on human rights anywhere and any place in the world.
• It has the power to inspect any information that shows a violation of human rights. The commission also has the
authority of discretion, whereby investigation can be done with the help of a government without disclosure.
• However, there is little action taken due to complicated procedures, confidentiality issues, and a generally non-
cooperative government that cannot agree within its members.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations
System inter-governmental body responsible for promoting and protecting human
rights around the world. Its 47 seats are filled by member states elected for three-
year terms.
The UNHRC is the successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR,
herein CHR), and is a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly. The council
works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
and engages the United Nations' special procedures.
The General Assembly established the UNHRC by adopting a resolution
(A/RES/60/251) on 15 March 2006, in order to replace the previous CHR, which
had been heavily criticised for allowing countries with poor human rights records
to be members.[2]
The UNHRC addresses mostly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and occasionally
addresses rights-related situations in countries such as in Myanmar, Guinea, North
Korea, Côte d'Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Libya, Iran, and Sri Lanka, though with much
lesser frequency.
 Timeline of Declarations and conventions in UN:
• June 26, 1945: UN Charter is signed in San Francisco.
• December 9, 1948: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
• December 10, 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• November 4, 1950: European Convention of Human Rights (Council of Europe).
• January 12, 1951: Convention on the prevention of the crime of genocide.
• July 28, 1951: Convention relating to status of refugees.
• December 20, 1952: Convention on the political rights of women.
• October 23, 1953: Protocol amending the convention to suppress the slave trade and
slavery originally signed in Geneva, Switzerland on September 25, 1926, under the auspices
of the League of Nations.
• September 28, 1954: Convention relating to stateless persons.
• September 7, 1956: Convention on the abolition of slavery, the slave trade, and institutions
and practices of slavery.
• June 25, 1957: Convention on the abolition of forced labor.
• November 20, 1959: Declaration of the right of the child.
• December 14, 1960: Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and
people.
• November 20, 1963: Declaration on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.
• December 21, 1965: International convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. A committee
on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination established.
• December 16, 1966: International covenant on civil and political rights - Human Rights committee established.
• November 7, 1967: Declaration of the elimination of discrimination against women. Proclamation of Tehran –
International conference on human rights.
• November 26, 1968: Convention on the non-applicability of statutory limitations to war crimes against humanity.
• December 20, 1971: Declaration of the rights of the elderly.
• December 20, 1971: Declaration of the rights of mentally retarded persons.
• November 30, 1973: International convention on the suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid.
• December 9, 1975: Declaration on the rights of disabled persons. Declaration on the protection of all persons from
being subjected to torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• December 9, 1978: Convention concerning migrations in abusive conditions and the promotion of equality of
opportunity and treatment of migrant workers.
• December 18, 1979: Convention on the elimination of all kinds of discrimination against women. Committee on the
elimination of all kinds of discrimination against women established.
• June 27, 1981: African charter on hand people's rights (African Charter).
• November 25, 1981: Declaration on the elimination of all intolerance and discrimination based on religion or
belief.
• December 10, 1984: Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• May 28, 1985: Committee on economic, social and cultural rights established to monitor international convention
on economic, social and cultural rights.
• December 4, 1986: Declaration on the right to development.
• November 20, 1989: Convention on the right of the child. Committee on the right of the child
established.
• December 15, 1989: Second optional protocol to the international covenant on civil and
political rights – aimed at the abolition of death penalty.
• August 5, 1990: Cairo declaration on human rights in Islam.
• December 14, 1990: Basic principles for the treatment of prisoners.
• December 18, 1990: International convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant
workers and members of their families.
• December 18, 1992: Declaration on the protection of all persons from enforced
disappearance. Declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic or
religious or linguistic minorities.
• June 14, 1993: World conference on human rights opens in Vienna.
• December 20, 1993: Declaration on the elimination of violence against women.
• December 21, 1993: International decade of the world's indigenous peoples proclaimed.
• September 15, 1994: Declaration of the Arab charter on human rights.
• December 23, 1994: International decade for human rights education proclaimed: 1995 –
2004
• September 15, 1995: World conference on women's rights at Beijing.
• April 3, 1998: Declaration on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups
and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human
rights and fundamental freedoms.
• December 7, 2000: Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union.
• September 4-8, 2001: World conference against racism, xenophobia and all
forms of discrimination in Durban, South Africa.
• June 29, 2006: United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
• May 3, 2008: Convention on the rights of people with disabilities came into
force.
 4.

4.World Conferences on Human Rights

• 1993, Vienna, Austria

• 5000 delegates from 180 member states and 200 human rights Ngo’s attented.
• It was the first global conference being held after 25 years.
• In 1995, UN had received over 125,000 complaints about Human rights violations, that
had tripled from 1992.
AGENDA
• To get an overview of the progress made since the adoption and effect of the UDHR.
• To capture the essence of the relation between democracy, development and universal
implementation of Human rights.
• Discover and examine other ways to improve the implementation of Human rights.
• Realize the challenged regarding the rights of men and women.

 ISSUES AT THE CONFERENCE:

• To establish a link between developmental assistance and human rights.
• A third world delegate version would not accept any condition on Human rights and development assistance.
• The UNDP opposed the idea of donors and refused aid to countries that had oppressive regimes.
• Many countries denied the aid because they mistrusted their leaders.
• USA did not have a say in this and could not get the desired way over the issue.
 Outcome of the Vienna Convention
 The Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action
• The World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed the
commitment of all the states for the promotion of universal
respect and protection of human rights all over the world and
fundamental freedom for everyone.
• All peoples have the right to self-determination as the WCHR
recognizes the rights of people to take legal action in
accordance with the UN charter to realize their right to self-
determination.
• Imposition of effective measures to guarantee the
implementation of Human Rights with respect to people and on
a foreign scale legal protection must also be provided.
• All Human Rights are universal, indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. It
is the duty of all the states, irrespective of their economic, political and cultural
ways to promote and protect all human rights
• Democracy, respect and growth of human rights and fundamental freedom for
all is mutually interdependent and must be reinforced .
• It is essential for all states and international organizations to work in
cooperation with NGOs and create favorable conditions at local, regional,
national and international level.
• There is a need to combat and prevent terrorism and drug-trafficking.
• There needs to be legal and national measures taken to stop gender based
violence and sexual harassment.
• Minorities should enjoy human rights and fundamental freedom without
discrimination.
• Ratify the convention on Child rights by 1995 and implement it effectively.
• To ensure the non-discriminated and equal enjoyment of all human and
fundamental rights by disabled persons.
• Every state must have a proper administration of justice to address the
grievances of human rights and their violations.
• WCHR strongly condemns ‘Genocide’, ethnic cleansing and rape of
women in war-like conditions.
• WCHR encourages all parties to end armed combats and to observe the
international humanitarian law.
• WCHR condemns all violations of human rights in any form, all over the
world.
• Governments were to increase funds allocated to various human rights
programs.
• NGOs should be free to carry out all activities.
• Increase the involvement of media to expose any abuse of human rights.
• International non-governmental human rights organizations such as
.• Amnesty International,
• Human Rights Watch,
• International Service for Human Rights and
• FIDH monitor what they see as human rights issues around the world and
promote their views on the subject
• Human rights organizations frequently engage in lobbying and advocacy in an
effort to convince the United Nations, supranational bodies and national
governments to adopt their policies on human rights.
• Many human-rights organizations have observer status at the various UN bodies
tasked with protecting human rights.
• A new (in 2009) non-governmental human-rights conference is the Oslo Freedom
Forum, a gathering described by The Economist as "on its way to becoming a
human-rights equivalent of the Davos economic forum." The same article noted
that human-rights advocates are more and more divided amongst themselves
over how violations of human rights are to be defined, notably as regards the
Middle East
.
• Human rights defenders
• A human rights defender is someone who, individually or with others,
acts to promote or protect human rights. Human rights defenders are
those men and women who act peacefully for the promotion and
protection of those rights, and most of this activity happens within a
nation as opposed to internationally.
• Corporations
• Multinational companies play an increasingly large role in the world,
and have been responsible for numerous human rights abuses
.
• Worldwide Abuse of Human Rights
 Worldwide Abuse of Human Rights
• Nearly half the world’s population is subjected to various forms
of suffering and an outright violation of their rights in the form of
deliberate killing, torture, summary execution and rape,
detention without trial, child abuse, beating and violence by
official agencies, extreme cases of poverty, slavery and death
due to malnutrition, disease and famine.

• Today, the Global Spots of violations of human rights are

Palestine, , Burma, Kashmir, Bosnia, China, India, Sudan, Sri
Lanka, Iraq, South Africa, Burundi etc.

• The lack of Freedom of Speech in Saudi Arabia is an apparent

violation of Human Rights.
……By America
• The position of the United States is: "human rights have been a cornerstone of
American values since the country's birth and the United States is committed to
support the work of the UN Commission in promoting the principles embodied in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Carpet bombing in Afghanistan
• Guantanamo (Cuba)-
• Gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the U.S. Government in the name of
fighting terrorism. At Guantanamo, the U.S. government sought to hold
detainees in a place neither U.S. nor international law applied.
• A few Guantánamo detainees face trial under a military commission system that
does not meet international fair trial standards. Of the almost 800 detainees who
have been held there
• The continued operation of the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is a
prime example of the USA’s double standard on human rights, Amnesty
International said today, almost five years after President Barack Obama signed
an executive order to close the facility.
Man Raped More
Than 20 raped in
prison by 20 inmates
.
• Bagram abuse- Afghanistan
• Bagram Theater Internment Facility (also Bagram Collection
Point or B.C.P.)
• The Salt Pit is the codename of an isolated clandestine CIA black
site prison and interrogation center in Afghanistan. Another
codename of the same site is Cobalt. It is located north of Kabul and
was the location of a brick factory prior to theAfghanistan War. The
CIA adapted it for extrajudicial detention.
• detainees held in isolation and without access to the International
Red Cross
.
• Mr. Bush and his top advisers that they were not going to follow
the Geneva Conventions, or indeed American law, for prisoners taken
in antiterrorist operations.The investigative file on Bagram, obtained
by The Times, showed that the mistreatment of prisoners was routine:
shackling them to the ceilings of their cells, depriving them of sleep,
kicking and hitting them, sexually humiliating them and threatening
them with guard dogs -- the very same behavior later repeated in Iraq
.
• McCain Amendment 1977. The amendment prohibited inhumane
treatment of prisoners.
• The Amendment was introduced by Senator John McCain. On
October 5, 2005, the United States Senate voted 90-9 to support the
amendment
.
• Bush Administration Found Guilty of War Crimes
• In March of 2004, a citizens' tribunal in Tokyo found U.S. President George
W. Bush guilty of war crimes in the attack on Afghanistan. The tribunal,
consisting of five judges, reached a unanimous conclusion. The judges are
all professors of international law, and represent four nationalities, with
one from each of India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and
two from Japan.
• The British lawyer who served on the tribunal, Robert Akroyd, described
some of the ways in which the U.S. military ran afoul of international law.
He noted that Bush, who claimed the military actions were in self-defense,
failed to discriminate between legitimate objects and civilians, using
"indiscriminate weapons such as the Daisy Cutter (a huge conventional
bomb), cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells."
.
• Abu-ghraib (Central jail Baghdad, Iraq)- During the war in Iraq that
began in March 2003, personnel of the United States Army and the
Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights
violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These
violations included physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy,
and murder.
• naked prisoners piled on top of each other, others hooded and wired
with electrodes
.
• Dec 2014- summary of an extensive Senate report on CIA torture
released in December is a first step toward addressing serious abuses
committed in the years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, but
the Obama administration has failed to bring those responsible for
torture to justice
• The US Senate Intelligence Committee’s report summary on the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention and interrogation program
is a powerful denunciation of the agency’s extensive and systematic
use of torture, Human Rights Watch said today.
.
• The August 2014 police killing of an unarmed teenager, Michael
Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and the subsequent police crackdown
on protesters, underscored the gulf between respect for equal rights
and law enforcement’s treatment of racial minorities
• The repressive US response to a surge in unauthorized migrants
crossing the border from Mexico and Central America highlights the
urgent need for US immigration policy reform.
• US national security policies, including mass surveillance programs,
are eroding freedoms of the press, expression, and association.
Discriminatory and unfair investigations and prosecutions of
American Muslims
.
• 2005 onwards…- Drones & America
Oct 2015-
Air strike at a hospital,
Kunduz
.
• Jan 2017
• Trump & Human rights
.
• Trump suspends entire us refugee admissions system
• 7 countries
• Ban on dual nationals from above countries
 . 2017- Unprecedented Number of US Drone and Air Strikes
• Mar
• US pounds al Qaeda in Yemen with more than 20 strikes- 10 children
dead

• Yemenis protest…
April 2017
…By Russia
• a range of problems, including LGBT discrimination; the crackdown on
freedom of expression; and the methods used to quash the Islamic
insurgency in the North Caucasus (Dagestan and Chechnya)
• Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the subsequent war in Eastern Ukraine.
• “As the crisis in Ukraine escalated, Russian policymakers adopted laws
imposing further, severe restrictions on media and independent groups,”
the report notes. An example of these regulations is the “blogger law” that
requires sites with more than 3,000 visitors a day to register with the
government as mass media, which triggers government censorship.
• Another law criminalized s0-called “separatist” calls, which Denber says
“can just be anything,” even stating that Russia is occupying Crimea, which
she called a “legal fact.” Private TV channels have also been restricted, as
has foreign ownership of Russian media.
 EU
• Greece, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania are the worst European Union
countries at delivering justice through criminal trials
• UK Involvement in Rendition and Torture
• EU’s migration policy
UK
• 2016-7 Sexist employee practices are on the rise. Employers in the
UK are telling female workers that they must have plunging
necklines and wear high heels.
• One black female employee was denied a job at the Harrods
department store in London because she refused to wear a wig.
• High Heels and Workplace Dress Codes into the case of a British
woman who was sacked for not wearing high heels to work.

Nicola Thorp
.• Arab Spring

• …& HR violations- 2011

Syria
Up to 13,000 secretly hanged in Syrian jail, (20011- 20015) says Amnesty
Thousands of other opponents of Assad died from torture and starvation at Saydnaya
prison,

Human Slaughterhouse, details allegations of state-sanctioned abuse that are

unprecedented in Syria’s civil war, a conflict that has consistently broken new ground in
depravity, leaving at least 400,000 people dead and nearly half the country’s
population displaced.

Use of chemical weapons & America’s missile strike in Syria (Apr 2017)
Massacre at Ghouta (2018)
Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabia has always battled with the idea of free speech. The Al
Saud family, the family that has ruled the country for generations has
succeeded in enforcing their monarchy “through a skillful
combination of distribution, penetration, and coercion, with a
legitimating dose of ideology.”
• In 2013, the U.S. State Department listed the reports of the "worst"
human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, which included
o "citizens’ lack of the right and legal means to change their
government
o pervasive restrictions on universal rights such as freedom of
expression, including on the Internet, and freedom of assembly,
association, movement, and religion
oand a lack of equal rights for women, children, and noncitizen
workers.“
oWomen can't get driving licenses, hence legally, they cannot drive.
oHuman rights groups say the Shiites face discrimination based on their
faith – in 2014,, the sentencing of one prominent Shiite cleric to
death sparked international criticism.
oOther non-Islamic religious minorities have also complained of
discrimination.
oHuman rights groups say that Saudi judges often hand out executions for
relatively minor crimes. Any execution is appalling, but executions for
crimes such as drug smuggling or sorcery that result in no loss of life are
particularly egregious.
oWhen President Obama traveled to Riyadh in 2014 to pay his respects,
reporters were told that he did not bring up Raif Badawi's flogging, despite
its high profile. That fits into a pattern for the United States, which rarely
brings up specific concerns about Saudi human rights.
oPersecution of 47 terrorists including Sheikh Nimr (Jan 2016)
 Yemen- Saudia
bombards a wedding
ceremony (Oct 2015)

Not ISIS – Saudi Arabia Prepares

to Execute and Publicly Display
Beheaded Body of Political
Activist

Thousands of children dying

in Yemen due to diarrhea &
Saudia has blocked the drugs Turning a Wedding Into a Funeral
for them
Raif Badawi blogger
Arrested in 2012
Death by torture
His supposed crime was to argue for
secularism, democracy and HRs
website Free Saudi Liberals.
10 years in prison, 1000 lashes
.
• BAE (UK) sold cyber-surveillance (& communication) technology to 6
Arab countries including repressive govts (June 17)
• PALESTINE

• Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups committed serious violations of the
laws of war during fighting in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014.
• Israeli military operations in Gaza, including indiscriminate and
disproportionate attacks, caused the vast majority of civilian casualties and
destruction of civilian infrastructure.
• Palestinian armed groups carried out indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks
on Israeli population centers, and sometimes fired from or near civilian areas,
endangering the civilian population.
• Israel’s blockade of Gaza, supported by Egypt, amounts to collective
punishment, while its settlement and other policies violated international law
and harmed Palestinians.
• The Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and Israeli forces conducted arbitrary
arrests and suppressed freedom of association and assembly.
• The masses of Palestinians killed points out more to genocide than simple war-
like combat.
• China
• China remains a one-party authoritarian state that systematically
curbs fundamental rights.
• Since President Xi Jinping and a new leadership team assumed
power in March 2013, the government has unleashed an
extraordinary assault on activists and human rights defenders with a
ferocity unseen in recent years.
• The government has moved to tighten control over key pillars of civil
society including nongovernmental organizations and the media.
• The “Great Firewall” used to censor the Internet has been expanded,
while the ruling Communist Party has returned to acting as “thought
police” by issuing directives warning against the perils of “universal
values” and human rights and insisting on “correct” ideology,
including Communist Party supremacy.
• Despite recent legislation to end torture in custody, police and
interrogators have found ways to evade the law.
The poet and human rights defender was sentenced to 11
years in prison after a long history of dissident writing and
peaceful protest. He was initially detained in 2008, as the
leading author of Charter ‘08, a manifesto calling for
democratic and human rights reform in China

Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo released

from Chinese prison with late-stage
cancer
2017
India
• After the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won the 2014
elections, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
committed to protecting women from violence and providing better
access to health care and sanitation.
• The government has conducted harassment and arbitrary arrests of
activists, particularly those organizing protests against development
projects, and placed increased restrictions on funding of NGOs.
• However, caste and religion-based discrimination is rampant, as is
longstanding impunity for abuses by security forces.
• The government has expressed a commitment to freedom of speech but
Internet censorship is on the rise, as is state censorship of controversial
publications and films.
• The government has failed to take strong action against ultranationalist
or extremist groups that threaten violence.
Burma
“Ethnic cleansing,” though not a formal legal term, has been defined as a purposeful policy by an ethnic
or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another
ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

• Burmese authorities and members of Arakanese groups have committed crimes against
humanity in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State since
June 2012.
• The Burmese government and local authorities have caused forcible displacement of more
than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims and the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
• Burmese officials, community leaders, and Buddhist monks organized and encouraged ethnic
Arakanese backed by state security forces to conduct coordinated attacks on Muslim
neighborhoods and villages in October 2012 to terrorize and forcibly relocate the population.
• The tens of thousands of displaced have been denied access to humanitarian aid and been
unable to return home.
• Following sectarian violence between Arakanese and Rohingya in June 2012, government
authorities destroyed mosques, conducted violent mass arrests, and blocked aid to
displacedMuslims.
• On October 23, after months of meetings and public statements promoting ethnic cleansing,
Arakanese mobs attacked Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing
residents while security forces stood aside or assisted the assailants.
• Cutting the body parts of alive kids
1.1 mn

Aug
2017
• Some of the dead were buried in mass graves, further impeding accountability.
• All of the state security forces operating in Arakan State are implicated in failing
to prevent atrocities or directly participating in them, including local police, Lon
Thein riot police, the inter-agency border control force called Nasaka, and the
army and navy.
• Satellite images obtained by Human Rights Watch from just 5 of the 13
townships that experienced violence since June show 27 unique zones of
destruction, including the destruction of 4,862 structures covering 348 acres of
mostly Muslim-owned residential property.
• Considerable local organizing preceded and backed October’s attacks were 70
Rohingya Mslims were killed in a day long massacre. The two groups most
influential in organizing anti-Rohingya activities were the local order of Buddhist
monks (the sangha) and the regionally powerful Rakhine Nationalities
Development Party (RNDP), which was founded in 2010 by Arakanese
nationalists.
• By leaving the bodies near a camp for displaced Rohingya, the soldiers were
sending a message – consistent with a policy of ethnic cleansing – that the
Rohingya should leave permanently.
• Lacking aid, protection, and facing violence and abuses, tens of thousands of
Rohingya have fled the country by sea since June with hopes of
reaching Bangladesh, Malaysia, or Thailand, and many thousands more appear
ready to do the same – several hundred people have already died at sea.
• Under international law, crimes against humanity are crimes committed as part
of a widespread or systematic attack by a government or organization on a
civilian population. Among the crimes against humanity committed against the
Rohingya since June were murder, deportation and forcible transfer of the
population, and persecution.
• The government and Burmese society openly consider the Rohingya to be illegal
immigrants from what is now Bangladesh and not a distinct “national race” of
Burma, denying them consideration for full citizenship. Official government
statements refer to them as “Bengali,” “so-called Rohingya,” or the pejorative
“kalar.”
• Human Rights Watch urged the Burmese government to urgently amend the
1982 Citizenship Act to eliminate discriminatory provisions and to ensure that
Rohingya children have the right to acquire a nationality where otherwise they
would be stateless.
 Sudan
• Armed conflicts in several Sudanese states continue with devastating
effects on civilians, particularly in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue
Nile states.
• These conflicts have been characterized by unnecessary and avoidable
civilian deaths and injuries; sexual violence against women and girls;
unlawful destruction of civilian property, and have forced hundreds of
thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
• In the capital and other main towns, Sudanese security forces have
repeatedly and violently suppressed protesters demonstrating against
government policies, killing more than 170 people in September 2013.
• Authorities regularly detain political activists, suppress civil society
groups, and censor the media.
• President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal
Court for crimes in Darfur, was re-elected in 2015 in a poll that did not
meet standards for free and fair elections.
 Darfur region in western Sudan. The conflict began in 2003 when
rebels launched an insurrection to protest what they contended was
the Sudanese government’s disregard for the western region and its
non-Arab population. In response, the government equipped and
supported Arab militias—which came to be known as Janjaweed —to
fight against the rebels in Darfur
Sudan
Events of 2016
Darfur- Government forces killed civilians, raped women and girls, and destroyed
hundreds of villages. In September, the United Nations found the violence had
displaced up to 190,000 people
Elsewhere in Darfur, attacks on civilians by government forces and inter-
communal fighting over land and resources also resulted in deaths, destruction
and displacement.
Amnesty International alleged that the government used chemical weapons
against civilians

ethnic cleansing, as Black Arab militias carry out systematic massacres of tribes
people in the Darfur region. The government has a close knowledge of what's
going on - and influence the Arab militia
o Blood Diamonds
• The illicit trade in diamonds has funded brutal wars and human rights
abuses for decades. Despite significant progress, the problem has not
gone away.
• Global Witness first exposed the problem of blood diamonds in 1998
and played a key role in establishing the Kimberley Process (KP), a
government-led certification scheme, initiated in a bid to clean up the
diamond trade. The scheme was launched in 2003 and requires
member states to set up an import and export control system for
rough diamonds. Over 75 of the world's diamond producing, trading
and manufacturing countries participate in the scheme.
• Not long ago, Zimbabwe’s diamond fields were the site of torture,
forced labor, child labor, sexual violence, and murder. Diamond
mining in Zimbabwe continues to be plagued by human rights abuses
and corruption. There also has never been a criminal investigation
into a massacre that claimed the lives of 200 diamond miners.
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s military, controlled by President Robert
Mugabe’s political party, violently took over diamond fields in Zimbabwe
last year and has used the illicit revenues to buy the loyalty of restive
soldiers and enrich party leaders, Human Rights Watch charged in a
report released
• Unsurprisingly, the lifting of the export ban did not lead to an
improvement in Zimbabwe’s diamond mining practices. Diamond mining
companies have been polluting the air and water. They have failed to
provide adequate compensation or even food to the hundreds of families
that were evicted to make way for diamond mining. Although violence has
declined since 2008, trespassers continue to be beaten, tortured,
and killed. Furthermore, nobody has been held criminally responsible for
the massacre in 2008.
• Most of the country’s diamonds are exported to major trading hubs
and cutting and polishing centers where they are mixed into the general
diamond supply, their origins lost. From there, the gems are legally
brought to the United States.
• Only a small percentage of diamonds are traceable to an origin by the
time they reach the consumer.
 South Africa
• Despite South Africa’s strong constitutional protections for human rights
and its relative success at providing basic services, the government
continues to struggle to meet demands for economic and social rights.
• Issues such as unemployment, corruption, and threats to freedom of
expression remain a concern for many South Africans.
• Excessive force by police is a persistent problem.
• Concerns remain about the treatment of migrants, refugees, and asylum
seekers, and the government has done little to address the root causes of
outbreaks of xenophobia violence.
• South Africa continues to play an important but inconsistent role in
advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
.
• Mendez report complied by UN on torture in 2015 indicates there
are at least 10 Mn children living in orphanages, residential homes,
psychiatric hospitals & other institutions around the world
.
• Human Rights in Pakistan
.
• Constitutional of Pakistan 1973
• Chapter 1: "Fundamental Rights" of Part II
• article 9 of constitution of pakistan
• articles 8 to article 28 of the 1973 constitution
.
• 2012, President Asif Ali Zardari signed the National Commission for
Human Rights Bill 2012 for the promotion of the protection of human
rights in the country. However, it remains to be seen if any positive
effects will be derived from this.
• Sindh passes bill to establish minorities' rights commission
• 2016- Call for early establishment of minority rights commission -
Pakistan ...
.• Human Rights NGOs in Pakistan
• Pakistan Council for Social Welfare and Human Rights
• Pakistan International Peace and Human Rights Organisation
• Pakistan International Human Rights Organization
• Human Rights Council of Pakistan
• Asian Human Rights Development Organization ·
• Association for the Development of Pakistan ·
• Aurat Foundation ·
• Aga Khan .
• .Eidi foundation
• Sahara Life Welfare Trust
• Islamic science organization
• The Citizens Foundation
• The Fred Hollows Foundation
•
 Human Rights in Pakistan
• Growth in value of the Human Development Index (HDI) for Pakistan has almost stagnated over
the last five years, according to a study carried out by a UN agency.
• Pakistan’s HDI for 2013 is 0.537 — which is in the low index category — placing the country at
the 146th position out of 187 countries and territories.
• Other South Asian countries, which are similar to Pakistan in terms of the HDI and to some
extent population size, are India and Bangladesh, which have been ranked 135th and 142nd
respectively.
• Despite the first-ever transfer of power from one civilian government to another in Pakistan, the
army and its associated agencies have regained primacy in governance.
• Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture take place with impunity. Violent
attacks by extremist Islamist groups or mobs on religious minorities, fostered in part by
draconian “blasphemy laws,” are frequent.
• Sectarian violence and the government’s confrontation with militant groups continue to feed
instability.
• In response to massacres by the Pakistani Taliban, overly broad counterterrorism legislation was
passed in 2014 that created a legal pretext for abuses by the security forces without
accountability.
• Despite the long moratorium on the death penalty imposed by the previous government, the
Nawaz Sharif government has engaged in numerous executions of those on death row for
political reasons.
• Freedom of the press is complicated, in general freedom of the press is allowed
but any reports critical of the government policy or critical of the military is
censored. Journalists face widespread threats and violence making Pakistan
one of the worst countries to be a journalist in, with 61 being killed since
September 2001 and at least 6 murdered in 2013 alone.
• Security forces routinely violate the human rights in the course of counter
terrorism operations in Baluchistan and elsewhere. Suspects are frequently
detained without charge and or convicted without a fair trial. Thousands of
people rounded up as suspected terrorists continue to languish in illegal
military detention without being produced in court or being prosecuted. The
army continues to deny independent monitors, lawyers, relatives or
humanitarian agencies access to the prisoners
• Domestic violence in Pakistan is an endemic social problem. According to a
study carried out in 2009 by Human Rights Watch, it is estimated that between
70 and 90 percent of women and girls in Pakistan have suffered some form of
abuse.
• Honor killing
• Gradual progress is being made in uplifting the people of the country and trying
to overcome the problems of poverty, education, crime and lawlessness
however it requires time and adequate security before these measures can be
fully looked at.
• Balochistan
.
• Sialkot murder/
• Mishal Khan
• Zainab case
• Model town carnage
• Imran Khan’s sit-in
• 5 bloggers kidnapped
• Fake police encounters
• Qandil Baloch
• Tayyaba
• My feudal lord
.
• Frontier crimes regulation (FCR) in tribal area.
.
• Hurdles in Promoting Human Rights
 Hurdles in Promoting Human Rights
• Double standards
• HRs & security issues
• Encroachment of territories (on the pretext of national sovereignty).
• Authoritarian/ Monarchist , Military rule
• Indifference and non-cooperation of states leads to oppression and
injustice in other areas.
• United Nations imposes sanctions and embargoes against people
deserving their rights. (Iraq).
• (No action against Suu kyi)
Double standards
.
• Indifference of national governments along with their lack of
resources (Education).
• Lack of funds and means to…
• Male chauvinism
• Unequal distribution of wealth, lack of education and awareness.
• Populism….
.
• What good is international law if states don’t follow it? Should we
care about international courts if governments don’t do what they
say? One often hears such questions when it comes to human rights,
notoriously the most difficult body of law to enforce. As courts from
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to UN treaty
bodies, to the ICC struggle to ensure that states comply with a key
rule of law principle
.
• state’s human rights obligations extend to all branches and level of governments, but
implementation itself depends on specific institutions. While one decision might call upon
legislators to pass new laws and a ministry to pay damages, another might require domestic
judiciaries to reopen criminal proceedings or investigate suspected human rights violations. One
challenge for states, then, is to build the capacity of these multiple actors and strengthen the
coordination among them.
• Of course, mechanisms are not the same as political will, which remains the most important
factor for enforcing human rights. This means that while some efforts at implementation reflect a
serious commitment to the rule of law, others remain—by design or neglect—poorly resourced,
badly staffed, and politically feeble.
• For this reason, strategies are as important as structures. Where one branch of government might
prove intransigent or unwilling to comply with an international decision, other avenues of state
can help bring pressure to bear. Such strategies have proved successful even in the most difficult
of political environments, including Russia, where international litigation has led to major reforms
of the country’s guardianship laws, or Zimbabwe, where, in the face of state inaction, South
African courts have ordered the country’s national prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture
by Zimbabwean security officials.
.
• Implementing human rights has a cost. Failing to implement human
rights has a cost too. Clearly, the financial situation is impacting upon
those structures and services whose purposes are to render human
rights accessible and effective. On a recent trip to Latvia I found out
that the budget of the Ombudsperson’s Office has been slashed
significantly compared to last year creating a heavy burden on the
institution to fulfil its mandate. At a time when the UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) demands that
governments allocate resources and step up services to implement
rights, including a national monitoring mechanism (Article 33), it is
worrying that the reverse may be happening.
.
• Suggestions To Promote Human Rights
 Suggestions To Promote Human Rights
• The recommendations given in the Declaration need to be followed and all
organs and systems working for the cause need to come together and work to
promote human rights.
• There needs to be an effective system that recognizes human rights
violations.
• The United Nations can keep an emergency force or unit to react to serious
violations of human rights.
• An international criminal court can be made to counter serious violators of
human rights
• Liberal Democracy needs to be practiced and guaranteed in all countries.
• Efforts need to be made for demilitarization.
• A reasonable amount of the budget needs to be allocated for Human Rights by
the United States.
• NGOs and other helping hands need to promote and spread awareness of
human rights globally. They can take help from social media as the
fastest and one of the most efficient means of spreading awareness in
the present day.
• In Pakistan, discrimination against women is a problem however, a law
commission has been established to look into the rights and status of
women and the protection of their rights.
• Security measures- the government should also enact legislation against
domestic violence and measures to improve investigation and
prosecution of “honor” killings and acid attacks, which target women.
The government also needs to provide greater protection for journalists,
who work in a climate of fear that impedes coverage of the state security
forces and militant groups.
• To protect human rights and to make human rights a priority in
government policymaking, the government should promptly constitute
the National Human Rights Commission, for which legislation has already
been enacted.
• End Sectarian Attacks- Shia Muslims and the Hazara Community in
particular needs to be protected.
• Protect Religious Minorities; Human Rights Watch urges the
Pakistani government to implement a moratorium on the use of the
blasphemy law, which often leads to violence, as a first step towards
its repeal.
• End Abuses and Enforced Disappearances in Baluchistan; Pakistan’s
government should take all necessary measures to end enforced
disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary detentions, and
fully investigate and prosecute as appropriate all persons, regardless
of position or rank, who order or carry out such abuses.
• End Counterterrorism Abuses
• Constitute National Human Rights Commission
• Restore Moratorium on Death Penalty
Conclusion
concept of rights is inherently paradoxical, aiming to achieve a utopian
ideal,

First, many scholars have flatly asserted that human rights do not exist, and
are
therefore an absurd policy to advocate and promote (Brown 1997;
MacIntyre 1981). In
the following essay questions regarding the metaphysical “realism” of
human rights will
not be addressed
Nevertheless, the cases reviewed
can generally be broken into five distinct categories. First, certain critics argue that
human rights are an entirely Western concept, and imposing them on other societies is
culturally hegemonic and potentially destabilizing. According to this thesis, while human
rights advocates may believe their cause to be noble, they are actually modern
emissaries
of the “white man’s burden”. Other critics are even more cynical, and argue that human
rights are merely a smokescreen for Western aggression, whether to extract natural
resources or secure more favorable trading terms. Third, there are those who combine
both views and posit human rights as a pernicious extension of the “neo-liberal project”.
3

by stressing individual autonomy and constant calls for choice, human rights
are potent tools for securing capitalism’s global expansion and systematic triumph.
Human Rights as Cultural Hegemony
Among the most prominent human rights skeptics are those who deny their
universal applicability. Such critics contend that human rights are strictly a
Western
phenomenon, and neither should nor can be imposed upon different
societies. Despite
appeals to human right’s supposed global commonality, advocates of this
view argue that
“value exists only in a given cultural context”, and to act otherwise elevates
Western
liberalism over other forms of social order (P
Human Rights and Wrongs: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Human Rights Skepticism (PDF Download Available).
Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228184419_Human_Rights_and_Wrongs_A_Critical_Overview_of_Contem
porary_Human_Rights_Skepticism [accessed Jun 28, 2017].
Human Rights as Political Hegemony
In his provocative essay “Terror in the Name of Human Rights” Tarik Kochi
takes an even more cynical view of human rights than that of Mutua, Preis, or Brown
(2006). While Kochi does not deny human rights can be beneficial, he is more
concerned
by their grave potential for abuse. According to the author, Western governments have
used human rights discourse as a smokescreen for legitimizing their own selfish
ambitions; rights are often invoked not to secure some greater social good but rather
as a
clandestine means to further specific political and economic interests. Human rights
can
thus act as an effective pretext for justifying everything from economic sanctions to
outright military intervention.
invasion of Iraq as
recent proof (2004). Although originally predicated on the search for weapons of mass
destruction, when these proved illusory human rights abuses became a frequent
justification for Saddam Hussein’s downfall. Donald Rumsfeld even declared the “War
on Terrorism…a war for human rights”, essentially couching any future U.S. aggression
as a form of rights protection (460). As Brown summarizes, it can be exceedingly
difficult “to separate human rights campaigns from legitimating liberal imperialism
Human Rights and Wrongs: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Human Rights Skepticism (PDF Download Available).
Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228184419_Human_Rights_and_Wrongs_A_Critical_Overview_of_Contemp
orary_Human_Rights_Skepticism [accessed Jun 28, 2017].
idea of liberty itself
bankrupt and in need of disposal

vague moral schemas

stick to debating how it can be most potently implemented (1993,
11)? Philosophers who fear abstractions may have a point here: Debating
whether human
15
rights are mired in a particular historical context or ideological agenda may
seem a
pressing concern, but does little to solve the seemingly endless parade of
abuses on the
ground. While the human rights movement is certainly far from perfect, I
think humanity
better served focusing on ways to improve its effectiveness rather than
delegitimate its
existence
.

•Three Generations of Human Rights

.
• First Generation (Civil and Political Rights)
• Date back to 18th Century
• Designed to protect the individual against state interference
• Right to vote
• Right to assemble
• Right to free speech
• Right to a fair trial
• Right to freedom from torture, abuse
• Right to protection of the law
.
• Second Generation (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)
• 19th Century response to widespread poverty in wake of industrial
revolution
• Prohibit government from denying access, entitle individuals to get
protection from state if third parties interfere with rights,
• oblige states to take measures to improve overall social situation
• Right to education
• Right to housing
• Right to health
• Right to employment
• Right to an adequate income
• Right to social security
.
• Third Generation (Collective Rights)
• First articulated in second half of the 20th Century
• With exception of African Charter on Human and People's rights, have
not been incorporated into human rights treaties
• yet
• Right to economic development
• Right to prosperity
• Right to benefit from economic growth
• Right to social harmony
• Right to a healthy environment, clean air and water, etc.
.
• This division of human rights into three generations was introduced in
1979 by Czech jurist Karel Vasak. The three categories align with the
three tenets of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity
Three Generations of Human Rights
.
• There are three overarching types of human rights norms: civil-
political, socio-economic, and collective-developmental (Vasek, 1977).
The first two, which represent potential claims of individual persons
against the state, are firmly accepted norms identified in international
treaties and conventions. The final type, which represents potential
claims of peoples and groups against the state, is the most debated
and lacks both legal and political recognition. Each of these types
includes two further subtypes. Scholar Sumner B. Twiss delineates a
typology:
• Civil-political human rights include two subtypes: norms pertaining to
. physical and civil security (for example, no torture, slavery, inhumane
treatment, arbitrary arrest; equality before the law) and norms pertaining
to civil-political liberties or empowerments (for example, freedom of
thought, conscience, and religion; freedom of assembly and voluntary
association; political participation in one’s society).
• Socio-economic human rights similarly include two subtypes: norms
pertaining to the provision of goods meeting social needs (for example,
nutrition, shelter, health care, education) and norms pertaining to the
provision of goods meeting economic needs (for example, work and fair
wages, an adequate living standard, a social security net).
• Finally, collective-developmental human rights also include two subtypes:
the self-determination of peoples (for example, to their political status and
their economic, social, and cultural development) and certain special rights
of ethnic and religious minorities (for example, to the enjoyment of their
own cultures, languages, and religions). (1998: 272)
• First-generation, “civil-political” rights deal with liberty and participation in political
life. They are strongly individualistic and negatively constructed to protect the
.
individual from the state. These rights draw from those articulates in the United
States Bill of Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in the 18th
century. Civil-political rights have been legitimated and given status in international
law by Articles 3 to 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• Second-generation, “socio-economic” human rights guarantee equal conditions and
treatment. They are not rights directly possessed by individuals but constitute
positive duties upon the government to respect and fulfill them. Socio-economic
rights began to be recognized by government after World War II and, like first-
generation rights, are embodied in Articles 22 to 27 of the Universal Declaration.
They are also enumerated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights.
• Third-generation, “collective-developmental” rights of peoples and groups held
against their respective states aligns with the final tenet of “fraternity.” They
constitute a broad class of rights that have gained acknowledgment in international
agreements and treaties but are more contested than the preceding types (Twiss,
2004). They have been expressed largely in documents advancing aspirational “soft
law,” such as the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the
1994 Draft Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights.
• Though traditional political theory presents liberty and fraternity as inherently
. antagonistic (and therefore would assert the incompatibility of “collective-
developmental” rights with the preceding generations), progressive scholars argue that
the three generations are in fact deeply interdependent. For example, Twiss argues that
no single generation can be emphasized to the exclusion of others without jeopardizing
personas and communities over time, including jeopardizing the very interests
represented in the type or generation of rights being privileged. (1998: 276). He offers
examples of self-defeating imbalances that would result from the excessive prioritization
of any one generation over another:
• … to emphasize civil-political rights to the exclusion of socioeconomic and collective-
developmental rights runs the risk of creating socially disadvantaged groups within a
society to the degree of triggering disruption, which, in turn, invites the counterresponse
of repression. To emphasize socioeconomic rights to the exclusion of civil-political rights
runs the risk of ironically creating a situation where, without the feedback of political
participation, the advancement of socioeconomic welfare comes to be hampered or
inequitable. To emphasize collective-developmental rights to the exclusion of other types
runs the risk of not only fomenting a backlash against civil-political repression but also of
under-cutting the equitable distribution of the socioeconomic goods needed for the
continuing solidarity of the society. (1998: 276)
.
• Twiss rejects alleged incompatibilities between the three generations of rights. He
asserts that, at worst, there may by tension between such rights in specific societies and
at periods of socio-historic transition, but this does not mean tensions cannot be solved
in a way that respects all three generations of rights. Human rights are so thoroughly
interconnected that it is difficult to conceive of them as operating properly except in an
interdependent and mutually supportive manner (1998: 276).2
• Although the three generations framework is a valuable conceptual tool for thinking
about rights, it is worth questioning some of its assumptions. Does the notion of a
progression of rights and the metaphor of age it is based on make sense? Do second
generation rights create the background conditions necessary for the exercise of first
generation rights, as certain sections of the International Bill of Rights suggest, or are it
the other way around? Should second and third generation rights be viewed as
simultaneous? Does one generation take precedence over another, or are all equally
important? Should second and third generation rights even be considered rights, or are
they something fundamentally different?
• The three generations framework contains within it room for many of the key debates
about the nature of rights. It also encourages us to take a critical approach in challenging
our own assumptions about rights as we begin to think about some of the real-world
problems involved in the application of human rights in the sections ahead.
• International treaties
.
• In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) were adopted
by the United Nations, between them making the rights contained in the UDHR binding
on all states that have signed this treaty, creating human-rights law.
• Since then numerous other treaties (pieces of legislation) have been offered at the
international level. They are generally known as human rights instruments. Some of the
most significant, referred to (with ICCPR and ICESCR) as "the seven core treaties", are:
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
(adopted 1979, entry into force: 1981)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) (adopted
1966, entry into force: 1969)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (adopted 2006, entry into
force: 2008)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (adopted 1989, entry into force: 1989)
• United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT) (adopted 1984, entry into force: 1987)
• International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of their Families (ICRMW or more often MWC) (adopted 1990, entry into
force: 2003)