The UNs Legal and Institutional Framework for the Protection of Human Rights - Essay Example

? Critically evaluate the UN’s legal and al framework for the protection of human rights. Introduction Human rightsare activities which are entitled to all human beings despite physical or national differences in virtue of their humanity. These rights are inalienable and thus need protection from national and international governments. The United Nations (UN) being the strongest international force for imposing laws and policies has therefore set up a global framework issuing legal and institutional protection to the human rights of the human beings. The framework is set to protect the civil, political, economic and social rights of the people around the globe. The UN through its framework ensures that every state allows its citizens to enjoy these rights freely. This framework is based on its Charter, non-binding declarations, treaties that are legally binding and activities that advance the democracy and practice of human rights all over the globe. This paper analyses the different sources and bodies in the framework which work to protect the human rights through various different agendas, and how they are successful in their implications. The UN deals with a number of member states that vary in culture, politics and social histories thus it becomes difficult for it to apply a framework of protection policies which are suitable for all. In order to manage the diverse group of member states and to apply the mechanisms of the human rights protection, the UN takes a cautious approach for these methods. In result, these methods may prove to be less strict than the regional policies and methods of protection. A broad protection method allows the UN to respect the viewpoints of the diverse member states (O'Flaherty, 2007, p. 56). The structure of the human rights protection is based on three components. Firstly, the Charter, non-binding declarations, legally binding treaties, agreements and documents establish international standards. Secondly, special experts are chosen to work as groups, treaty bodies and committees to apply different methods of protecting and promoting the human rights. Thirdly, Voluntary Fund for Advisory Services and Technical Assistance is provided to offer technical assistance to flourish the field of human rights (Ramcharan, 2002, p. 122). The UN protection and promotion for the human rights is based on the Charter or treaty based mechanisms. These mechanisms include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is known as the first documents which focused on the idea of human rights for all human beings. Before this, the declarations were focused on ideas of positivism and rights were only identified for the national legislation. Thus the UDHR was written in order to promote the world peace by promoting and protecting the measures of the human rights granted to everyone. UDHR is not a legally binding document, but it has played an important role in establishing the international human rights standards. UDHRS contains a total of 30 articles and the main aim is to grant the basic rights to each individual. Some of the points covered are the universal equality amongst all humans, economic rights for social security, and social rights for the adequate health standard, living opportunities and educational facilities and so on (Mares, 2011, p. 165). The Commission on Human Rights consists of 53 member states and is a Charter-based mechanism which directly deals with the human rights. The commission is assisted by the experts and representatives of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. The commission holds meetings and sessions every year to discuss and deal with the human rights abuses. The commission monitors the situations themselves or requests the outer body to do so in order to get a clearer picture of the abuse. The commission has successfully protected and influenced the human rights standards across the globe. With the combined mechanism of the UDHR, the commission formed standards of rights to development, civil, economic, social, political and cultural rights and the eliminated the discrimination and torture. The commission also played an important role in monitoring the practice and implementation of the human rights standards across the globe. It examined the particular areas of a human rights standard and carried out number of procedures to monitor the application. Some of the procedures were confidential while others were not. The commission would receive reports regarding the human rights violation and cases of abuse, torture, discrimination etc. The commission did not need the permission from the state to conduct the investigations (Schutter, 2010, p. 398). The Commission on Human Rights established the Sub-Commission in the first meeting that was held in 1947. Its initial name was Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and protection of Minorities. It serves as the major subsidiary body to the Commission. The sub-commission consists of 26 experts who work regardless of their geographic or cultural background. They are elected by the commission. The sessions are held every year and their mission is to take guidance from the UDHR and recommend the Commission on Human Rights for the discrimination cases and human rights granted to the minorities in terms of religion, racial or linguistics. Treaty-Based mechanisms for the Human Rights Protection and Promotion establish treaties which are legally binding on the state laws. These treaties that are signed are backed by the international law and thus they are dominated over the domestic state laws and the Charter based mechanisms which often need permission and are not legally binding. Treaty based mechanisms are however legally binding and superior to the other laws of states. The international law provisions for the protection of the human rights are therefore instrumented in the form of treaties passed by the UN institutional framework (Ramcharan, 2009, p. 148). These treaties are signed after detailed negotiations and once they are signed, they are considered as authentic and binding for the states. However, these states present consent to take the treaty as binding. States take a new treaty as binding if it has participated in the negotiations of the treaty. States that allow the treaties to be bound can make reservations for certain articles of the treaty unless the treaty itself prohibits doing so. Each of the treaties is governed by experts who monitor the reports under the treaty. These treaties monitor the states and can also pass recommendations to them for future implementation of human rights standards. The treaty committees carry out mechanisms which deal with the human right violation complaints brought forward by individuals. These individuals can bring complaints to their respective treaties and the bodies of the treaty then monitor and examine the complaint. The four treaty committees which allow complaints are the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women and the Committee against Torture. These treaties carry out mechanisms under strict regulations. The complainant should be the citizen of one the states which are under the treaty and the individual must have gone through all domestic options of solving the violation. The complaint must be made by the victim or the representative of the victim (Kalin, Kunzli, 2009, p. 528). These several treaties have enabled the monitoring of the human rights standards to a great extent. This allows the individuals to take their complaints to the different commissions and find possible solutions. There are several treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which makes sure that all the economic, social and cultural rights of individuals are protected not only within their state’s jurisdiction but also elsewhere. Furthermore, the Human Rights Committee, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, Committee against torture and Committee on the Rights of the Child are all examples of committees that have been set out to monitor the practice and application of human rights standards. These monitoring bodies have led to the promotion and protection of the human rights across the national boundaries (Anton, Shelton, 2011, p. 295). There are some activities that take place in the legal framework that advance the democracy and practice of the human rights all over the globe. Such activities may include the advocacy, educational and training materials. The UN legal and institutional framework structures the human rights protection policies in a way that gives way to the advocates, educationists and trainers to promote the practices internationally. Many advocates have been using materials to promote the human rights program. The UN has started a movement where the activists carry out mechanisms to deal with the defense of the rights of gays, lesbians, and also people with HIV (David, 2012, p. 345). The advocates of the human rights committee have started NGOs which work for the principle understanding of the human rights work to monitor the rights efficiently. Guides have also been prepared for the assistance of the monitoring bodies. These guides carry out the practices of the protection of the human rights through several procedures. For educational promotions, the UN institutions carry out programs to educate the students about the human rights standards according to the international law system. Educationists may promote the activities for middle school and high school to enhance the understanding of the students towards the importance of their fundamental human rights. There are articles made for the children who are under eight years old so that they can understand and apply the human rights in their practices. Moreover, it increases their knowledge (Jack, 2012, p. 187). However, this legal and institutional framework set by the United Nations is aimed to protect the human rights of all the human beings. The United Nations has initiated declarations and treaties which are applicable to all the state members globally. These treaties and declarations tell the states about the human rights and their proper implementation in order to achieve the subjective goal which is to provide all the human beings a safe and just environment to live. In addition, committees are formed which carry out sessions and trainings every year to educate and enhance the practices of the human rights. These committees work efficiently with experts to ensure the abuse and violation of human rights is being treated fairly. Advocates, educationists and trainers are also doing great efforts as guided by the UN human rights system (Brown, 2002, p. 213). These programs and procedures are being carried out so that the member states of the UN impose and imply the human rights practices effectively. And if there are any violations, then the UN legal and institutional framework may cover it by their committees and treaties. The UN carried out the protection program of the human rights under legally binding treaties so that a legal structure covers the aspects. These programs and committees have successfully worked since the time they have emerged and now they are being even more recognized throughout the world. References Anton D., Shelton D. 2011. Environmental Protection and Human Rights.UK: Cambridge University Press Brown C. 2002. Sovereignty, Rights and Justice: International Political Theory Today, Cambridge: Polity Press David F. 2012. Human Rights in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Jack D. 2012. International Human Rights – Dilemmas in World Politics. Boulder CO: Westview Press Kalin W.,  Kunzli J. 2009. The Law of International Human Rights Protection. UK: Oxford University Press Mares R. 2011. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Foundations and Implementation. Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers O'Flaherty M. 2007. The Human Rights Field Operation: Law, Theory and Practice. UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Ramcharan B. 2009. The Protection Roles of UN Human Rights Special Procedures. Netherlands: BRILL Ramcharan B. 2002. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: The challenges of International Protection. Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Schutter O. 2010. International Human Rights Law: Cases, Materials, Commentary. UK: Cambridge University Press Read More