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30 December, 2016 00:00 00 AM
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The state of international human rights

It is the duty of the United Nations to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion
Md Mustakimur Rahman
The state of international human rights

Human rights have their own logic and ideology.  The idea of human rights came from the theory of natural law, where the scholars believed that rights are integrated with human being and this is because they have born naturally. In the 19th century, the idea of natural law theory has been changed into positive law theory.  The positive law theory can be seen in most of the domestic legal system where a relationship exists between state and individuals. Regarding ‘check and balance’ between state and individual, domestic legal system has a vital role to play in regulating the relationship between them. This relationship has also been globally regulating by the Charter of the United Nations which was adopted on 26th June, 1945.  

Since 1945, many international treaties have been adopted to recognize some universal human rights. Within those international treaties and documents, the most important document is the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which was adopted in 1948 by the United Nations.  It is the duty of the United Nations to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.  To achieve this goal, the UN needs cooperation from the member states. However, the only UDHR treaty is not enough to implement those human rights by the signatory states. As a result, some domestic institutions have been created by the UN to monitor and supervise the human rights issues globally.  They are in particular: Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights etc.  The idea of the Human Rights treaty is to create a binding legal instrument through ratifying those international treaties by the member states. There are two categories of rights in general: civil and political rights and economic & social rights. It can be argued that the human rights are holding the superior place in the international law due to their distinct eminence.
Beyond any reasonable doubt, human rights laws are profuse. Among them, the most important and successful treaties are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) and the International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).  To implement and improve these rights, there are two existing independent committees to monitor the upcoming problems; they are the Human Rights Committee for the CCPR and the Committee against Torture for the CAT.  However, any government has the option to accept or reject the jurisdiction of both committees; therefore, it can be argued that the option is not binding. This non-binding option creates hurdle in improving and implementing international human rights in a sense.
Regarding enforcement process of human rights, state sovereignty plays a crucial role. Although only the UN Security Council has  the power to mandate sanction in case of serious violation of human rights; however, that is also hard to achieve because of the ‘veto’ power of five permanent members of the Security Council.  The supervisory system of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is very weak; consequently, the High Commissioner faces serious challenges in monitoring the problems.  Research says that many states accepted the human rights treaty; however they do not want to engage in the monitoring system.  It can be either because of lack of facilities or may be for political reasons. Outcome of not submitting the annual reports in due time is not positive at all. Nonetheless, without state’s annual report, Commission cannot provide any guidance or recommendations to improve or implement any particular human rights issue.
In addition, there is no existing world court of human rights right now; if it was then it have jurisdiction over international human rights issues. There is an International Criminal Court (ICC) and it has criminal jurisdiction over core international crimes; such as genocide, war crimes, crime against humanity and aggression, but in strict sense, ICC does not have jurisdiction over violation of human rights.  The UN Committees have the right to hear individual complaints, but the Committees are not any form of human rights court and even the Committees’ decisions are not legally binding.  Therefore, there is a huge gap between international human rights law and the implementation process. In these circumstances, the world community might feel the necessity of a world court of human rights.

The writer is LL.B & LL.M, Nottingham Trent University, UK,
Lecturer, Department of Law, Notre Dame University Bangladesh
[email protected] 

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Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
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Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.

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