Human rights 1st lecture presentation

Human rights

introduction

Section 1

Idea of law

Law consists of a series of rules regulating behavior and reflecting to some extend the ideas and preoccupations of the society within which it functions.

Law is the set of enforced rules under which the society is governed.

Law is one of the most basic social institution and one of the most necessary.

No society could exist unless every one respects the right of the other.

Nor could a society exist if its members didn’t recognize that they also have certain obligations towards one another.

The law thus establishes the rules that define a person's rights and obligations.

The law also sets penalties for people who violate these rules and it states how government shall enforce the rules and penalties.

The idea of law is closely connected with the idea of human rights .

the main function of law is the protection of human rights , all the provisions of law intend to realize order, justice and public interest in the society and one of the best goals of the order is to protect human rights.

Section 2

The concept of human rights

since man is the only being in existence presumed

to possess rights, the source of human rights is therefore to be sought in the nature of man .

but the juridical and philosophical problem of rights is one of the most complicated and controversial in municipal and international law .

"RIGHTS" is an expression freely used by jurists and politician alike, often in the same speech, but with contradictory meaning.

Generally, we can say that: (Human rights are rights which belong to man as such, regardless of what his position in the Society happens to be).

So we can say any violation of this essential attribute of man is a violation of the nature of man , then we must respect and protect the human rights.

Thus the strict definition of a human right (in the subjective sense) might be: the right to have the possibility rights. Or else :the right to be in a position to exercise rights, and to have that position maintained.

In speaking of human rights, it has to be granted that there are certain rights which are not derived from the positive legislation of states.

In point of fact, every legislation should itself be considered in the light of human rights .

Also it is necessary to realize that the all concepts of natural rights (properly known as "the rights of man") is one of the philosophical and historical sources of the contemporary concept of human rights.

Section 3

the development of the concept of “Human Rights”

The notion that people would have some

“rights” may be traced back to the earliest civilizations, but the development of the concept of “human rights” has been rather new.

Although the twentieth century witnessed some major events that established a common notion of international human rights and human rights gained popularity there is no complete agreement on the content and domain of human rights.

The League of Nations (LON)

The LON was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I, and it was the precursor to the United Nations. The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members.

The League's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.

After a number of notable successes and

some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers ( German ,Italy, Japan) in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, soon to be followed by many other aggressive powers. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war.

The United Nations replaced it after the end of the

war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, marks a turning point, because by providing a list of human rights it defines the meaning and scope of the concept. The subsequent human rights covenants and conventions of the United Nations elaborate on the content of human rights, define states’ obligations, and establish monitoring mechanisms.

In addition to the United Nations, which has

global membership, there are several regional and other intergovernmental organizations that include the protection of human rights among their missions or common goals.

The Council of Europe, the African Union (formerly known as the Organization of African Unity), and the Organization of American States are such intergovernmental organizations that have issued human rights documents that are binding for the member states.

Other intergovernmental organizations such

as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of Islamic Conference also showed their human rights concern and commitments by adopting the Helsinki Final Act (1975) and the Cairo Declaration (1990), respectively.

Moreover, people all around the world have established national and international organizations, which are independent from their governments, with the purpose of promoting human rights, monitoring states’ behavior, publicizing the violations of human rights, or assisting the victims.

Amnesty International and Human

Rights Watch are the best-known international human rights organizations.

Despite these governmental and non governmental efforts, at both national and international levels, there are still debates about what constitutes human rights.

There are also challenges to the notion of universal human rights, and human rights continue to be violated all around the world.

End of the first lecture