Activities
Activity
1
(5 minutes)
Introduce the session objectives using Overhead Transparency 5.1.
Activity 2
(60 minutes)
With the help of Overhead Transparencies 5.2 to 5.7, explain
the following:
Human rights yesterday
and today
The
idea of rights dates back to pre-Second World War domestic constitutions,
but in modern time and for our purposes it starts with the UN Charter,
which in its preamble declares as a primary purpose of the United Nations:
"promoting and encouraging
respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to race, sex, language or religion."
(Overhead Transparencies
5.2 et 5.3)
The human rights instruments
and context have developed a great deal since the end of the Second
World War. Human rights are no longer within the domestic jurisdiction
of the state because of the fact that states have signed onto a large
number of legal instruments where they give up their sovereignty to
a certain extent. In this way, human rights have become a legitimate
concern to the international community. They are being discussed in
political fora all the time, and states are reporting on their efforts
to respect and implement human rights to various bodies. In signing
on to international human rights treaties, states give away some of
their sovereignty and make themselves vulnerable to be scrutinized by
the international community.
The idea of international
human rights was to internationalize human rights and make them known
to all people. It was not to replace domestic protection of individuals,
but to make the protection of human rights more effective within national
systems. When a state has ratified a treaty, it is obliged to adopt
appropriate measures to ensure that the treaty is implemented at
national level. This can be done either through implementing legislation
which corresponds to the subject matter dealt with in the treaty, or
through making the treaty directly applicable in the domestic legal
system. This is important to note because if the domestic legal system
has implemented and made applicable international human rights law,
then remedies can be sought through the domestic system.
(Overhead Transparency
5.4)
The International Bill
of Human Rights
The International Bill of
Human Rights contains the following instruments:
-
The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948
-
The International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), 1966
-
The International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), 1966
(Overhead Transparency
5.4; refer back to Session 3 on International Law, in particular
Reading 3.1 which mentions the CCPR)
The first development on
the international arena was the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide. Antecedents to these important instruments
were minority treaties adhered to on bilateral or multilateral bases,
the Charter of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, as
well as international humanitarian law which was developed much earlier.
Although the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights was not intended to contribute to legal developments
but was adopted by the UN General Assembly as a "common standard
of achievement", it was a giant step forward in terms of bringing
human rights onto the international arena. It is important to remember
that the UDHR is not a treaty. However, today, many of its provisions
have become part of international customary law. The Universal Declaration
was then codified with the adoption of two Covenants in 1966: the CCPR,
and the CESCR. It is interesting to note that while the UDHR covered
the whole range of rights, it was not possible to agree on one instrument
when the rights were to be codified into legally binding law.
The two covenants are different
in nature because of the different type of rights that each addresses.
Some refer to the CCPR as having "negative" rights and the
CESCR as having "positive" rights. The terms "positive"
and "negative" are not value statements, but indicate that
as far as negative rights go, states have to refrain from certain actions,
and with regard to positive rights, they have to take certain (positive)
action. The CCPR contains rights such as freedom of movement and expression,
religion and conscience. The CESCR contains rights which should be progressively
achieved by the contracting states, for example the right to work, social
security, adequate food, clothing and housing.
(Overhead Transparency
5.5)
Other major human rights
instruments
It is important to be aware
of the different human rights instruments that exist as a prerequisite
for being able to draw upon the provisions that can be found in these
instruments. For our purposes it is particularly important to know,
apart from the International Bill of Human Rights, the instruments that
have a monitoring body in form of a Committee:
-
The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), 1965
-
The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
1979
-
The Convention against
Torture (CAT), 1984
-
The Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989
In this context it is also
important to remember the following instrument, for which the "monitoring
body" is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
- The Convention
relating to the Status of Refugees and its Protocol, 1951 and 1967
(Overhead Transparency
5.7)
Distribute Handout 5.1:
"International human rights instruments" and Handout 5.2:
"International protection of human rights". Explain that these
handouts contain the information you just covered in your presentation.
Activity 3
(20 minutes)
Ask participants to turn to page 4 of the handout. Give them five minutes
to complete the exercise individually.
Ask for volunteers to share
their answers in plenary.
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Individual work
Mark if the following
statements are true or false, or answer the questions:
1. The idea of rights
started with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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True
|
False
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2. When a state has
ratified an international human rights treaty, it is supposed
to either make that treaty domestic law or implement it through
legislation.
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True
|
False
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3. Which instruments
form the International Bill of Human Rights?
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4. The Universal Declaration
covered civil and political, as well as economic, social and cultural
rights.
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True
|
False
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5. The four other
human rights instruments apart from the CCPR and the CESCR which
have treaty monitoring bodies (Committees) are as follows:
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Answer key
1. False; 2. True; 3. The
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, The Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights;
4. True; 5. The Convention against Torture, The Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, The Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
Activity 4
(10 minutes)
Distribute Reading 5.1: "Human rights instruments: limitations,
remedies, mechanisms". Give participants ten minutes for silent
reading.
Activity 5
(40 minutes)
Distribute Handout 5.3: "Exercise on human rights mechanisms".
Ask participants to reflect individually on the first part of the exercise
regarding treaties that their country has signed and ratified. Then,
request that they work in their groups to complete the group work. They
have 15 minutes.
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Individual work
It is important that
you are aware which human rights treaties and optional protocols
are applicable in the country you are working in in order to be
able to use these instruments and the treaty bodies in your advocacy
work.
- Do
you know which treaties your country has signed and ratified?
Group work
The Committee on the
Rights of the Child is the monitoring body of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, created by the treaty. The Committee
is comprised of independent experts who serve in their individual
capacity.
Article 45 of the
Convention provides for international co-operation, and appoints
UNICEF as one of the agencies which may be represented at the
considerations of state reports before the Committee. Under Article
45, UNICEF and other agencies are authorized to submit reports
on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within
the scope of their activities.
The praxis developed
by the Committee on the Rights of the Child is that it will consider
the reports received from states parties in an informal session,
called a pre-sessional working group, without the state party’s
presence, to hear the views of and comments by international organizations
and NGOs. It will then use that information in its discussions
with the state.
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Answer key
It is important to point
out that this exercise contains new and important information about
the work of one monitoring body in the international human rights system,
namely the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Refer to Reading
5.1, which contains general information about treaty-based mechanisms.
In the discussion it would be important to highlight some of the following
advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages
The Committee provides a
forum for discussion on human rights issues, in which it is possible
to raise sensitive issues with governments. As the Committee is not
an operational body with presence on the ground, asking the Committee
to raise issues on behalf of agencies that do not want to put at stake
their action on the ground may be a good option.
The Committee is a forum
that focuses very much on a human rights protection context at the national
level, and it is therefore an excellent opportunity to address issues
relating to lacking or insufficient legislative frameworks as well as
implementation of existing legislation by the judiciary.
Disadvantages
The monitoring bodies are
extremely slow in reviewing state reports as they are lacking resources
and staff. It may therefore not be the most appropriate human rights
mechanism in raising human rights concerns that urgently need to be
addressed.
The observations adopted
by the Committee are only recommendations and have little or no legally
binding force. However, states do take the recommendations seriously
and make efforts to improve the human rights situation as a result of
the deliberations before the Committee.
Type of information to
be shared with the Committee
It will generally pose no
problem to forward general information about the human rights situation
to the Committee. That is why it is so suitable to raise concerns regarding
the protection context (such as review or implementation of legislation)
rather than specific incidents or cases. Information about individual
cases could only be passed on to the Committee if you can ensure safety
and physical protection of the person(s) in question, and if raising
the individual case drives a greater interest than just that of the
individual case. For example, a specific case of a child in detention
may be raised to address the need to change detention procedures in
that country.
Activity 6
(30 minutes)
Distribute Reading 5.2: "Derogations during states of emergency"
and Handout 5.4: "Exercise on CCPR and emergencies".
Give participants five minutes to read; then ask them to turn to a neighbour
and to complete the exercise in Handout 5.3. You may also make
a presentation using overhead transparencies 5.9 to 5.12.
after you have allowed some time for reading the handout, as the issue
of derogations is rather complex.
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Small group work
The fact that a state
has made an official proclamation of a state of emergency does
not always mean that the international community also treats the
situation as an emergency. Some states are using the possibility
to derogate as an excuse not to be criticized on the international
level for not being able to live up to their obligations under
the CCPR.
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Ask for volunteers to share
their answers in plenary.
Answer key
The participants may be
able to cite examples where the country has not made a proclamation,
or the criteria for derogating are not fulfilled. Focus the discussion
on how to address this dilemma. Various approaches can be taken and
participants should brainstorm on these issues.
The following are some examples:
-
Raising the issue in
the Human Rights Committee, other treaty bodies and other human
rights mechanisms.
-
Making sure that during
any high level visit, the issue is on the agenda.
-
Providing information
to the media about the situation.
-
Meeting with government
officials and exploring ways of lifting the proclamation of a state
of emergency.
Activity 7
(20 minutes)
Use Overhead Transparencies 5.13 to 5.16 to make the following
presentation:
The Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights
The broad mandate of the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
was created by the General Assembly resolution of 20 December 1993.
The responsibilities of the High Commissioner, as the current High Commissioner
Mary Robinson stated in a recent speech, are to "adopt and to foster
a rights based approach across the whole spectrum of civil, cultural,
economic, political and social rights, to promote and protect the realization
of the right to development and to specifically include women’s rights
as human rights."
The Office of the High Commissioner
is also present in a number of countries and carries out monitoring
and advocacy activities there. At the time of writing, Burundi, Rwanda,
the former Yugoslavia are the main field operations, but the Office
also has field offices in Georgia, Cambodia, Colombia, Gaza, Malawi,
Mongolia, and DR of the Congo and Sierra Leone.
It is important for UNICEF
to coordinate its work in the field of monitoring and reporting with
the Office of the High Commissioner. This because the staff of the UNHCHR
have great knowledge of the human rights framework and they are specialized
in monitoring and reporting on the situation of human rights.
(Overhead Transparencies
5.13 and 5.14)
Regional human rights
instruments
You should be aware that
there are three regional human rights treaties in addition to the international
framework. Regional human rights treaties exist in Africa, the Americas
and Europe. The respective treaties are the African Charter on Human
and Peoples’ Rights (1981), the American Convention on Human Rights
(1969) and the European Convention for the Protection of Human rights
and Fundamental Freedoms (1950). There are also a number of other human
rights instruments on the regional level covering certain groups of
people or certain issues. As far as children are concerned there are
two particularly important regional treaties, namely the African Charter
on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (adopted in 1990 but not yet
in force) and the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s
Rights (adopted in 1996 but not yet in force).
Normally, a regional treaty
will provide more specific provisions and it may therefore be more useful.
Depending on your concerns, you should check the different instruments
at your disposal as they may have different language and sometimes they
may even cover different subject matters. To exemplify the first type
of differences, it could be mentioned that the American Convention in
Article 4(1) in speaking of a right to life, grants that right "from
the moment of conception". No other human rights treaty is as far-reaching
in providing for a right to life. Another example would be Article 20
in the African Charter, which presents some strong language on the right
to self-determination and peoples’ right to existence compared to other
human rights treaties. With regard to the second type where a regional
treaty may cover a completely different subject matter, reference could
be made to Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention, which
speak of an entitlement to peaceful enjoyment of possessions.
The guiding principle in
connection to any conflicting or contradicting treaty provisions, is
that the provision which grants the greatest amount of protection to
the individual should apply.
(Overhead Transparencies
5.15 and 5.16)
Distribute Handout 5.5:
"International and regional human rights frameworks" and Handout
5.6: "The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights".
Explain that Handout 5.5 contains the information you just covered
in your presentation, and that Handout 5.6 clarifies the mandate
of the UNHCHR.
Activity 8
(5 minutes)
Refer to the session objectives on Overhead Transparency 5.1
to wrap up the session.
PowerPoint:
The human rights framework
