INTD 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Forced Pregnancy, United Nations Convention Against Torture
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16 Dec 2012
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Lecture 9: Expansion of Human Rights
12/16/12 9:22 AM
Recap: Human rights, contrary to legal right and civil rights, are rights with
are inherent to every human being. No matter where they are born, their
background, religion…etc… they have these rights as human beings. They
cannot be given or taken away by anyone. They can be recognized and
abused, but not given. The first universal recognition was in the Charter of
the UN in 1945. Stated that human rights were one of the purposes of the
UN. Set up the UN commission on Human Rights who then drafted the
UDHR.
Human Rights Instruments
International Bill of Rights: UDHR, ICCP, ICECS
• This doesn’t cover everything
• Some rights are still left out
• Disagreements on the interpretation of some articles
o Everyone is equal. ! blacks and whites in the US; men and
women
Genocide Convention
• Genocide: killing members of the group, causing serious body or
mental harm on a group, calculating to bring on physical
destruction within a group, force ably moving children from group
to group
• Article 2
• 1948
• Result of WW2
• 1993: Rwanda ! 800,000 killed
o made people want to do something about enforcing these
conventions
UN charter outlaws aggressive war
1951: Convention on Refugees
1971: Convention Against Apartheid
1981: Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women
1984: Convention Against Torture
1989: Convention on The rights of the child
Treaty on the International Criminal Court
• Provided a way of enforcing the CAA
• Crimes against humanity
Conventions on forced disappearances, disabilities, right to food, the right to
water
These came about as a way to define these things more precisely and in
detail. They try to deal with the interpretation and ambiguity problems. As
you expand these, enforcing them becomes more difficult.
Nuremburg Charter
• Trials on the Nazis
• Since these trials, there was a pressure to set up an international
criminal court to deal with crimes against humanity
• Nothing was done about it during the cold war
International Criminal Court
• Needed 60 ratifications
• Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity
Geneva Conventions
• Treatment of the Wounded and Sick on the Battlefield
• Treatment of The Shipwrecked at Sea
• Treatment of Prisoners of War
• Treatment of Civilians in War
Declaration on Violence Against Women
• Rape became recognized as a war crime with the Geneva
Convention
• Rape and forced pregnancy and marriage are crimes against
humanity
• Extreme forms of abuse
• 1987
Universal Jurisdiction: if you have committed torture, you can be arrested in
any country that has ratified the treaty and you can be charged by any
country that has ratified the treaty
• Treaty on torture
Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Proceeded by a declaration
• 1990, only took on year
• most widely ratified human rights treaty in existence
• 192 states have ratified
• someone under 18 years of age
• Protocol: outlaws child soldiers