Human Rights Declaration by United Nations - Essay Example

Introduction Human rights involve fundamental rights that are possessed by human due to the fact that they are human beings where these fundamental rights are neither abrogated nor created by the government and are supported by various international treaties and conventions such as the 1948 universal human rights declaration by United Nations1. Human rights are applicable everywhere and are also the same for everyone thus, are referred to as universal and egalitarian. In addition, these rights do not bind to any country, but they are employed as people’s standards of concern and they are the basis of every country’s national constitution. Human rights’ existence may be as legal or natural rights in both international and national law2. Human rights doctrine in international practice within regional and global institutions, international law, state policies and non-governmental organisations has been the public’s cornerstone throughout the world. The need for human rights protection in international perspective started after the Second World War atrocities’ where the law of international human rights has been used to describe an interlocking system of international treaties, political bodies, international organisations, domestic law and non-binding conventions. The development of the protection of human rights got its base from the United Nations charter which aims at reaffirming the faith in the fundamental rights of human through equal rights of both men and women. The rights that were promoted in the United Nations charter was later defined and codified in human rights international bill which composed of the human rights universal declaration, the civil and political rights international covenant, and the social, economic and cultural rights international covenant3. Understanding of human rights is made possible through having adequate knowledge in the principles of human rights. The key principles of human rights include inalienability and universality, indivisibility, inter-relatedness an interdependence, non-discrimination and equality, participation and inclusion, and rule of law and accountability. Human rights are inalienable and universal in a way that every human in any part of the world is entitled to these rights; a human cannot give up these rights voluntarily and other human cannot take these rights away from you. Human rights cannot also be divided and whether they are social, cultural, political, economic, civil or cultural in nature, they are inbuilt to every human’s dignity. As rights, they cannot be ranked as they are all equal in status. By being inter-dependence and inter-relatedness, one human right realisation will partially or wholly depend upon other rights realisation. As human beings, all individuals are equal and any individual is entitled to human rights without discrimination in matters of colour, race, sex, religion, language, ethnicity, political or any other status as explained by treaty bodies on human rights. Every individual is entitled to free, meaningful and active participation in enjoyment and contribution to cultural, political, social, civil, economic and social development where there is realisation of fundamental freedom and human rights. Duty bearers and states are responsible for human rights observance thus; they must comply with the standards and legal norms that are preserved in the instruments of human rights4. Substantive rights include right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from slavery, freedom of speech, right to fair trial, and freedom of conscience, thought and religion. All human beings have an inbuilt right to life which is liable to protection by the law as no one shall be deprived of his life. Life to life has always been creating central debate mostly on issues of war, abortion, self defence and capital punishment5. For a long time, torture has been used for political interrogation, re-education, coercion and punishment. Individuals or groups may also become motivated to torture others for the same motive as that of states. Thus, the domestic laws in various countries and international law prohibits torture as they consider it to be a human right violation and it is unacceptable, impractical as well as immoral6. Freedom from slavery is a human right that is recognised internationally where law states that slave trade and slavery in all forms is prohibited and no one should be held servitude or slavery7. Right to fair trial has been the most litigated right which has led to development of substantial law to interpret the right in order to ensure that there is administration of justice. Every human is entitled to a public hearing that is fair , in reasonable time and in full equality, a tribunal that is impartial and independent in the process of determining the individual’s rights and obligations in case of any charge against him or her8. Freedom of speech gives everyone the freedom to speak in a free manner with no censorship. In many countries this right is subject to various limitations such as incitement for commission of a crime, libel, obscenity and slander. Every human is entitled to freedom of expression which includes the right to receive, seek and impact ideas and information of any kind irrespective of frontiers either in writing, orally or in print through any individual’s choice of media in form of art. Freedom of religion, conscience and thought are related very closely and protect the community’s or individual’s freedom both privately and publicly to hold freely and think conscientious beliefs and also to manifest belief or religion in practice, teaching, observance and worship which also comprises the freedom to follow or change any religion9. Violation of human rights occurs when the state or non-state actors’ action ignore, abuse or deny individuals their basic human rights which include economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights. Violation of these rights is brought about by breaching of any humanitarian law or international human rights or any other treaty. Efforts for elimination of human rights violation, protests on treatment that is inhumane and building awareness have resulted to calls for taking action and improvement of the conditions10. Internationally, human rights have been categorized into political and civil rights and social, economic and cultural rights. The treaties that preserve the civil and political rights are human rights universal declaration (UDHR) and in political and civil rights international covenant (ICCPR) while social, economic and cultural rights are preserved in UDHR and social, economic and cultural international covenant (ICESCR). Economic, cultural and social rights are argued to be resource intensive which makes them difficult and expensive to provide, positive requiring states’ active entitlements provisions, progressive as they take time for implementation, vague as they cannot be measured quantitatively, divisive ideologically as there is no consensus what is required to be provided or not as a right, socialist, not justiciable in a way that the judgement on their breach is not applicable in a court of law and finally they are argued to be aspirations which is opposed to legal rights. Political or civil rights are argued to be negative as state can protect these rights without taking action, cost free, immediate as if the state decides, they can be provided immediately, non-political, capitalist, real legal rights and justiciable11. This article focuses on whether leaving the human rights enforcement to the states will lead to oppression of human rights by the state. To examine whether the state can oppress their residences when left to enforce human right, I will into the case of Palestine which has been faced by challenges in addressing human rights within the state and also due to its relations with Israel. Human rights in Palestine From the surveys on civil liberties and political rights in Palestine, it was reported a decline in civil liberties as a result o shooting deaths of civilians in Palestine by the security personnel in the same country, the executions and summary trials of the alleged collaborators by the authority of Palestine, extrajudicial killings by militia of suspected collaborators, official encouragement of youths in Palestine to confront soldiers from Israeli which places these youth in a direct harm way. The groups monitoring human rights in Palestine faces clashes and disagreements every day between them different political factions, cities and families. These divisions led to increased violence with the human rights groups in the country12. Individual rights and freedoms Freedom of speech The Palestinian authority granted its population the freedom of assembly but in case of the demonstrations to oppose the regime and policies of the Palestinian authorities, their rights for demonstrations were subjected to restrictions through police control which has been a major concern for human rights groups. In addition, the minister for planning in the Palestinian authority received threats of death when he attended a conference with the Israeli’s foreign minister. The Martyrs Brigade declared that they would sentence the minister to death when he came back to Palestine as the groups called upon the minister’s bodyguards to abandon him in order to save their lives. In another incident, a former information minister, a member of the cabinet and also Palestinian legislative council member was shot publicly by gunmen who were masked after the former minister criticised the reforms made by the president in Palestinian authority through an interview in television. A council in Palestine’s west bank came under criticism internationally as it barred an open air dance and music festival in 2005 on the grounds that it was against Islam13. All these instances show cases where the state intervenes with its citizens’ freedom of speech on the grounds of sovereignty. Freedom of press Reports also show that armed groups in Palestine and Palestinian security forces have killed or wounded more than sixteen journalists in Palestine. The Palestinian authority also detained an editor and a publisher in Palestine in July 2006 over publication of a story for theft of money from a foreign minister in Palestine during his visit in Kuwait. This story focused how the Palestinian authority was enjoying living with large amount of money while the people in Palestine were poverty stricken. The Palestinian authorities accused the journalist for interfering with the Palestinian territory freedom of press. This resulted into various attacks in the publishing offices where masked men threatened to kill the staffs and owners of these publishing offices14. Martyrs Brigades has also been on the blame for attacking various journalists in Gaza and West Bank and attacking the television station in West Bank. Palestinian leader, Arafat in September 2001 kidnapped a cameraman of Palestinian origin who shot a film that showed citizens and police of Palestinian authorities celebrating the September 11 attacks in the United States. The leader threatened to kill the man if the film happened to be shown on air. Also in September 2006, several journalists were beaten severely and all the equipment in their office was transferred to the Palestinian authorities. The news agency was destroyed where the foreign minister in Palestinian authority accused the agency for planning a campaign that was politically motivated through incitement against the minister. This raised criticism from various international bodies saying that the move showed a state of lawlessness and anarchy in the areas where the Palestinian authorities controlled. The developing conflicts between Hamas and Fatah limited the freedom of press further in the Palestinian territories authorities. In a move to distribute newspapers of pro-Fatah origin, Hamas blocked the distribution of these papers to Gaza. The move to restrict newspaper distribution to Gaza was under criticism from human rights groups15. The above incidences depict the effect of interfering with the freedom of press by the state with an aim of maintaining its sovereignty. Freedom of religion In Palestinian authority, to sell a land to a Jew is a crime that is punishable through death. This is also the state’s interference with the freedom of ownership of property. Freedom of religion is also one of the major challenges of human rights in Palestine. According to Oslo accords, Israel and Palestinians agreed to protect and respect Christians, Muslims, Jewish and Samaritan religious rights by protection of their holy sites, free access to their holy sites and freedom of practice and worship. However, the Palestinian authorities have failed to abide to these commitments as explained below. A leader from the Christian community claimed various incidences of persecution and abuse in areas that were run by the Palestinian authorities. There were also anti-Christian riots in the towns of Gaza strip, Ramallah and the villages around these towns. In 2006, the organisations of Muslims requested the Palestinian authority’s interior minister to shut down the Christian association of young men that had been operating since 2001. In realization that there was no action taken, the Muslim leaders warned that the group was there to convert Muslims in the city to Christians. In September 2006, they gave their final warning for the closure of Christian association where later; assailants who are well known by the government which included Islamic jihad and Hamas broke in to the Christian building and torched it. In 2007, Christian and Western targets were attacked in Gaza and West Bank by the local gangs destroyed and blew up institutions which were linked to the culture of western people such as church libraries, American schools and internet cafes. These destructions were ignored largely by media in the Palestinian authority16. Report produced by Religious Freedom from the US state department in 2000 showed that the Christians who converted from Muslim were mistreated and threatened. As the Palestinian draft forbids discrimination of individuals on the grounds of their religion, the Palestinian authority did not act upon receiving information of harassment of people on religious beliefs. After US senator stressed the case of harassment of the Christian converted from Muslim, the Palestinian authority charged the person falsely that he had sold a land to the Jews, arrested him, beat and tortured him then held the person for a period of eight months without any trial. Although the person was later released through bribes, his father was held by the Palestinian authorities in order to serve as a silencer to the case. In addition, the Jewish sites such as the tomb of Joseph encountered clashes between Palestinians and Jews. Later the Israeli army withdrew from the site and agreed with Palestinians that Palestinian police would protect the site but the Palestinian police allowed mod to destroy the site and burn the holy books. Prominent members of the Palestinian authorities including Yasser Arafat denied historical connection to these holy sites for the Jewish and claimed that these sites are supposed to be the property of Muslim community17. According to the information gained from the incidences of violation of the freedom of religion, it is evident that a state cannot be entrusted the rights of its citizens. Freedom of association Freedom of association is also another issue that needs to be addressed in Palestine. In 2000as the first Palestinian labour law was ratified by its president, experts confirmed the law lacked teeth. The trade union law incorporated in the Palestinian authority lacked transparency and democracy and the control of this law was dominated by Fateh where the internal election has not been held for a period of more than 25 years. Thus the trade union had been dominated by politics and in turn, it failed to perform its intended purpose of workers presentation effectively. The management of the trade union discussed on how to forcefully run the union using the Haman rules. Upon refusal for these negotiations, the secretary general has faced three attempts of assassination18. This shows that the state cannot enforce the freedom of association to its citizens as it will be focused to maintenance of the state’s sovereignty. Right to education The ministry of education which is run by Hamas made a move to impose ideals of Islamists into the system of education. This move has been criticised by outside observers and the Palestinians. In 2007, the ministry pulled the anthological folktales that were narrated by women in Palestine from the institution’s curriculum, removed these books from the library and destroyed around 1,500 copies of books narrated by Palestinian women. The minister for education claimed that these books clearly contained sexual expressions. The minister reported that the story that was narrated had a mention on private parts while the authors claim that the bird in the story was a femininity symbol. This case clearly depicted the role of the state in violating the right to education on the grounds of maintaining its sovereignty19. Freedom from torture In Palestinian authority, it is legal to practice capital punishment. In 2005, the capital executions that were enacted by Palestinian authorities summed up to 5. Palestinian authority arrests many civilians detain them without charge. Most of the detentions were based on political dissidents most likely to the authorities of Palestine. Torture that was done by the Palestinian authorities among the detainees was very significant as reported by Amnesty International. Among the 400 detainees in one year, seven of them died while in custody. There was also high reporting on unlawful killings which included the possibility of extrajudicial executions20. In the military operations, exposure of civilian targets has been very significant. In 2006, the Haman radio appealed to the Palestinian women to act as shields in the war between the Palestinian gunmen and the Israeli soldiers. These women responded and in turn they acted as a cover against the soldiers from Israeli which gave way to the men who were occupying the mosque for escaping. During this event, two Palestinian women were killed by the forces from Israel. In another two instances in November 2006, the Palestinian authorities called civilians to protect the targeted sites for attack by the Israel defence forces where the calls were broadcasted from local Palestinian mosque. This was condemned by various human rights watch saying that this action was unlawful. In addition, the authorities in Palestine have also been using their civilians either through their property or as human shields such a using the civilian houses for smuggling of arms, rocket launching sites, the ammunitions factories which exposes these civilians to harm from the operations of the Israeli military. The Palestinian authority’s action to use their civilians which has led to deaths that they in turn use them to widely publicise it in the media in order to create a positive opinion on Palestinian authorities and a negative one against Israel21. This report also presents another case on violation of the citizen’s freedom from torture. It shows that the state can never be trusted to enforce the freedom from torture o its citizens as it will be more biased to maintain its power. Status of women In matters relating to personal issues, women status has been a challenging issue in Palestine as much of their rights are violated. Women in Palestine consisted of 47 percent of the voters that registered in 2006 elections. Before this election, there was a quota that was introduced and led up to 22 per cent of women as candidate in national list. But the ineffectiveness of this quota was evidenced in the district level where it did not exist and led to 15 women candidates only out of more than 400 candidates. There are also Islamic standards of dressing for women which was enforced by Hamas in the Palestinian authorities. In the buildings of the ministry of education, women must have headscarves in order to have access. Public smoking of hookah was banned for women by Hamas as they claimed that this was to the increasing rate of divorces22. Hamas government is in support of honour killings in the authorities of Palestine and instead it fosters the structures for honour killings participation. In 2005, the human rights in Palestine reported ii deaths of Palestinian women from honour killings. There is also a question on security violence against girls and women in Palestine as a big number of violence victims through members of the family and intimate partners have been recorded. As Palestinian authorities claim to recognize this problem with their official showing their support for a response, they are taking a very little action to address these abuses seriously. It is evidenced that this level of violence is becoming worse as the Palestinian authorities fail to respond to violence due to presence of Palestinian laws that are discriminatory and lack of policies to assist victims, to prevent violence and hold the responsible perpetrators accountable. In addition laws in Gaza reduce the penalties to men who attack and kill female that commit adultery, relieve the rapists that on agreement that they will marry the victims from criminal prosecutions. However, the Palestinian authorities fail to act in prevention, investigation and punishing those who violate the rights of women. This puts the live and the health of Palestinian women in jeopardy. Most of women murders in different circumstances such as family honor are buried in a secret manner by their families and to make these matters worse, the deaths are not officially reported. The media in Palestine also keep off from reporting these deaths on the grounds of family honour23. From the studies conducted on the status of women in Palestine, it is clear that the state cannot be relied on addressing the rights of women. From the Palestinian case, it is evident that most of states do not exercise their legal obligation to promote a universal protection, observance and respect for the fundamental freedoms and all the human rights for all. The Palestinian authority has been in the forefront in practising a selective, relative observance, protection and respect of human rights in a non-universal way. This has been seen through violation of most if not all fundamental freedoms and human rights for its citizens and its neighbourhood. It should be known that international human rights that are universal are not meant for imposing a unit cultural standard but to maintain a unit legal standard in order to attain the necessary minimum protection for the dignity of human. Adoption of minimum standards In order to attain a minimum standard of universal human rights, there is a need to observe flexibility in order to protect, respect the cultural integrity and diversity. This may seem to be the main challenge of obtaining the human rights minimum standards. However, this is one of the most efficient ways of preventing the states to violate the human rights with an aim of maintaining its sovereignty. The flexibility of human rights is essential in order to incorporate different cultural rights. In order to establish minimum standards in political, civil, social economic and cultural rights it is required to have the maximum cultural variation room without compromising or diluting the standards that are established by law. For establishment of minimum standards in human rights, the states will have to develop high performance levels in matters of human rights. I cases like Palestine there is a great need of considering the significance of religious, cultural and historical backgrounds in addition to national and regional particularities. It should also be stressed that it is the duty of every state to protect and foster human rights regardless of various cultural systems existing in the states. If the states will significantly recognize the consideration of the culture, its obligations in human rights will not in any way be diminished. Moreover, since these states cannot be fully trusted on human rights obligations, the best way to protect and promote human rights and freedoms will be to establish minimum standards of these rights24. Upon establishment of minimum standards of human rights, there is need for mechanisms of monitoring of international human rights compliance. These mechanisms include conventional and extra conventional mechanisms such as representatives, working groups and special rapport. These mechanisms will enhance the compliance with various instruments of international human rights and also to be in a condition to investigate any alleged abuse of human rights. The conventional mechanisms include treaty bodies that consist of experts who serve purposely on their own capacity meant for monitoring the instruments of human rights. In monitoring of the implementation of obligation of the treaty at the national or state’s level, the treaty bodies requires a thorough examination of reports of party states. There is also a need to engage in dialogue with the states’ governments and then issue the body’s concluding observations while making comments on the state’s situations while at the same time suggestions and recommendations for correction and improvements should be offered. There should also be committees to hear and make considerations on various individual communications25. Using extra-conventional mechanisms requires to employment of various procedures which are established with an aim of monitoring human rights norms compliance. This procedure focuses various issues such as judiciary impartiality, intolerance in religion, freedom of expression and opinion, racial discrimination and racism and violence elimination against women. Dialogue between bodies and states are very essential and if properly utilized the result to concrete results and changing of legal systems domestically in states to the instruments of human rights. Finally, the most important bodies for promotion of international protection of human rights include the human rights universal declaration (UDHR), United Nations human right treaties, law sources according o the subject of the human right, bodies of united nation human rights, such as human rights high commission. Other bodies include other regions instruments of human rights, international humanitarian law, and international tribunals on criminals. Treaties of human rights include social, economic and cultural rights (ICESCR), political and civil rights international convention (ICCPR), all forms of racial discrimination elimination international convention (ICERD), convention against torture, other degrading, cruel or inhuman treatment (CAT), child right convention (CRC), all forms of women discrimination convention for elimination (CEDAW) and other conventions that are very essential in human rights areas26. Conclusion Human rights involve fundamental rights that are possessed by human due to the fact that they are human beings where these fundamental rights are neither abrogated nor created by the government and are supported by various international treaties and conventions. Understanding of human rights is enhanced through having adequate knowledge in the principles of human rights which include inalienability and universality, indivisibility, inter-relatedness an interdependence, non-discrimination and equality, participation and inclusion, and rule of law and accountability. Human rights have been mainly categorized into political and civil rights and social, economic and cultural rights. Substantive rights include right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from slavery, freedom of speech, right to fair trial, and freedom of conscience, thought and religion. From the Palestinian authority case study, it is evident that leaving the human rights enforcement to the state will lead to oppression of human rights by the state where the state claim to maintain its sovereignty. From this case the Palestine exercised its authority in the wrong through violation of human rights which include violation of freedom of speech, freedom of press and speech, freedom of religion, freedom from torture and violation of the entire rights of women. This shows that state cannot be entrusted to enforcement and promotion of the human rights and freedom. This calls for establishment of minimum standards of human rights which requires observance of flexibility in order to protect, respect the cultural integrity and diversity. For establishment of minimum standards in political, civil, social economic and cultural rights it is required to have the maximum cultural variation room without compromising or diluting the standards that are established by law. Upon establishment of minimum standards of human rights, there is need for mechanisms for monitoring of international human rights compliance. 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