Human Rights Lecture

Outline prepared and written by:

Dr. Jason J. Campbell: http://jasonjcampbell.org/home.php

Youtube Playlist Link: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL23402E488C62AF64 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Burns H. Weston, "Human Rights: Concept and Content" p.17-24.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lecture Series inspired by the music of James Blackshaw --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1.0 Historical Development: p.17-18. 1. The notion of "human rights" is a consequence of its historical development. Contemporarily: a. It is a product of: (1) the founding of the United Nations in 1945, (2) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)on December 10, 1948. Historically: 2. The notion of human rights originated in the articulation of: (1) jus gentium: "the law of nations" which were "certain universal rights that extended beyond the rights of citizenship" (p.17). (2) notions of freedom, liberty, and equality were seminal in the development of "human rights" as a concept. (3) the natural law: i. Within antiquity: emphasized duties ii. During the Renaissance: shifted to rights
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"Each testified to the increasingly popular view that human beings are endowed with certain eternal and inalienable rights that never were renounce when humankind "contracted" to enter the social from the
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primitive state and never diminished by the claim of the "divine right of kings." (p.17). Role of John Locke's Two Treatises on Government: 1. " Perhaps the most central concept in Locke's political philosophy is his theory of natural law and natural rights..." 1 2. Natural Laws: are "generally applicable" 2 and Positive laws: are applicable via convention. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Locke writes, "we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions..."3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The right to revolt:
"...such revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement in public affairs...if a long train of abuses, prevarications, and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel what they lie under, and see whither they are going, it is not to be wondered that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the ends for which government was at first erected, and without which, ancient names and specious forms are so far from being better, that they are much worse than the state of Nature or pure anarchy..." 4

"the state's failure to secure these rights gives rise to a right to responsible, popular revolution." (Weston, p. 18). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Challenges to Natural Law Theory: 1. Many were concerned that a discussion of natural rights "would lead to social upheaval" (p. 18). 2. Jeremy Bentham challenged the notion of natural rights, saying:
Right is a child of law, (only positive rights). From real laws come real rights, but from imaginary laws, from the law of nature, come imaginary rights. Natural rights is simple nonsense; natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense nonsense upon stilts. 5 (emphasis added)

3. John Stuart Mill writes:

It is proper to state that I forego any advantage which could be derived to my argument from the idea of abstract right, as a thing independent of utility. I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions; but it must be utility in the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being. 6

1 2

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/#LawNat http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/#LawNat 3 Book II, Chapter II, Section 4: http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/locke/loc-202.htm 4 Book II, Chapter 19, Section 225: http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/locke/loc-219.htm 5 http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11740&page=20 6 http://www.bartleby.com/130/1.html

2.0 The Emergence of Human Rights After Nazi Germany: 1. "...it was not until the rise and fall of Nazi Germany that the idea of human rights truly came into its own." (Weston, p.19) 2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's The Four Freedom's Speech. January 6, 1941:
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world. 7 Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 7 All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

3. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948:

5 Postulates in Defining Human Rights: 1. A representation of individual and group demands: a. for respect, value, tolerance b. claims against: impediments to such values c. "standards for judging the legitimacy of laws and traditions" (p. 20). 2. Human rights pertain to fundamental claims and goods: a. needs vs. wants b. some theorists limit such rights to (1) the right to life, (2) right to equal freedom of opportunity. [Discuss educational disparities in American educational system: human rights issue?] 3. Human right pertain to BOTH legal and moral issues: a. "Human rights partake of both the legal and moral orders...They are expressive of both the "is" and the "ought".

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm

4. Human rights are connected with Duties to respect those rights: a. Rights / duty connection 5. Human right are universal and generalizable: a. they are said to be "equally possessed by all human beings everywhere" (p. 20). 3.0 Three Generations of Human Rights: "The three generations are understood to be cumulative, overlapping, and, it is important to note, interdependent abd interpenetrating" (p. 21). 1. The First Generation: Civil and Political Rights (libert): a. Originated in the 17th and 18th century reformist theories b. Conceptualizes human rights in terms of "freedom from", i.e., rights are conceptualized in negative terms, rather than in positive terms, "freedom to". c. E.g., freedom from (1) discrimination, (2) slavery, (3) torture, (4) arbitrary arrest, (5) interference in privacy etc... d. These first generation rights aren't entirely understood in terms of a freedom from as opposed to a freedom to: "What is constant in this first-generation conception is the notion of liberty, a shield that safeguards the individual...against the abuse of political authority" (p. 21). 2. The Second Generation: Economic, Cultural and Social (galit): a. Originated in the socialist tradition. b. "It is a response to the abuses of capitalist developments" (p. 22). as a means of legitimizing the exploitation of the working class. c. Unlike the First Generation of Human rights, (libert) second generation rights are conceptualized in terms of a freedom to rather than a freedom from. d. E.g., Articles 22-27 of the UDHR: (1) the right to work and the right to protection against unemployment, (2) the right to rest and leisure, (3) right to education, (4) the right to protect of one's scientific, literary and artistic production. e. "With free market capitalism in ascendancy under the banner of globalization at the turn of the 21st century, it is not likely that these rights will come of age any time soon" (p. 22).
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3. The Third Generation: Solidarity Rights (fraternit): Focus on the collective rights of a global community. a. "Associated with the rise and decline of the nation-state" (p. 22). b. Typified in Article 28 of the UDHR: c. Associated with the "revolution of rising expectation" i.e., (1) the global redistribution of power and wealth, (2) political selfdetermination, (3) participate in the common heritage of mankind: shared space, resources etc... d. (1) the right to peace, (2) the right to humanitarian and disaster relief, (3) sustainable environment. Conflicts between First, Second and Third Generation Human Rights Defenders: "first-generation proponents, inspired by the natural law and laissez-faire traditions, are partial to the view that human rights are inherently independent of organized society and our individualistic. Conversely, second and third generation defenders often look upon first-generation rights, at least as commonly practiced, as insufficiently attentive to material especially "basic" human needs and, indeed, as instruments in service to unjust social orders, hence constituting a "bourgeois illusion." (p. 23). [Explain] 4.0 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Rhonda E. Howard-Hassmann. "The Second Great Transformation: Human Rights Leap-Frogging in the Era of Globalization" p. 53-63 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"[globalization is] a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements proceed in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding."8 "Globalization is the final assault of capitalism in all those areas of the world that previously escaped it." (p. 53). Human Rights and Globalization:
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Malcolm Waters, Globalization (New York: Routledge, 1995), 3.

1. there is an attempt to assess whether globalization is good or bad for human rights. (p. 53). a. This question is ill formed: [it is irrelevant] "the question is the kinds of changes that globalization will likely cause" (p. 53). 2. The process of assessing the relationship between globalization and human rights is to "remedy some of the dangers of the global economic system" (p.54). 3. Role of Karl Polanyi: a. Describe the transformation from social to an individualistic economic structure. b. "Most importantly, to Polanyi, was the newness of a society based only on gain, and very rapid end of the "social," in which previously mankind has always been embedded. A society in which all members had relations of obligation and reciprocity to all others gave way to one in which individuals and their different roles were cut off from each other, and related to each other only within the marketplace." (p. 54). c. [Explanation of the Paradigm Shift] 1780s-1940s

d. Globalization is considered to be the second great transformation. [As an expansion of the global marketplace]. ii. results in the experience of "an avalanche of social dislocation". (p.55) iii. The avalanche of social dislocation is: (1) the feeling that no one cares, (2) that no one is there to help, (3) then no one knows who you are. (p. 54).

"integration of the "rest" of the world Asia, Africa, and Central and Latin America into the global economy has been occurring since World War II, and has been dramatically speeded up by globalization." (p. 55). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1 The Development of Human Right within a Globalized World: 1. Democratic Peace Theory: [lecture notes here] i. "Modern democratic states buttressed by the rule of law and by a civic culture of activism and political freedom on more likely than any other type of political system to protect human rights." [p. 55] ii. "whether good or ill in human rights terms, social relations will change in the new global society. Societies will become more fluid; individuals will be more mobile, social norms will change, and traditional roles will give way to new ideas of how to behave." [p. 55] 2 Models of Globalization: An Optimistic and Pessimistic Model 5 Steps to an Optimistic Model of Globalization and Human Rights: 1. An Optimistic Model of Globalization: Step 1: "transnational investment in a society that is not democratic and does not respect human rights." (p. 56). 2. Step 2: transnational corporations (TNC) contribute to the development of a middle-class. 3. Step 3: the growth of the middle class leads to an increasingly educated population. 4. Step 4: educated population will "become less willing to live in an undemocratic political structure. It will establish the rudiments of a civil society, organizing to protect its own interests." (p. 56). 5. Step 5: "A more humanistic ideology develops among the more liberalized political sphere. As the market spreads and impersonal
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market relations become common or, market trust helps to build the social trust necessary for a functioning political democracy." 9 **Capitalism is a necessary, though not sufficient, prerequisite for democracy." (p. 58) "Without capitalism, democracy appears to be impossible, without democracy, human rights cannot be protected. Far more than an economic system, capitalism relies on certain presumptions about the rule of law, and capitalism creates modern citizens who demand human rights" (p.58). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.2 5 Steps to a Pessimistic Model of Globalization and Human Rights: 1. "Hot Money": The International Monetary Fund attempts to reduce capital mobility and "money that comes into and out of a country, often overnight, often little more than betting on whether a currency is going to appreciate or depreciate."10 a. Hot money does not contribute to human rights. b. It can destabilize an economy (p. 59). 2. Economic Crisis Ensues: a. Hot money is extracted from the country. b. Capital flow to businesses slow or stop. c. Unemployment spikes. 3. Government disinvestment: "as a result of capital flight, governments tax revenues overall capacity declines. Governments react by disinvesting in civil service, causing further job loss. Governments also disinvest in social services, especially in education and health. The quality of human capital declines, thereby rendering the country less attractive to future investors who might be looking for workers." 4. Growing Distrust of the Government: a. "society begins to distrust law, as becomes obvious that the law has been used to protect investment of the hot money investors ." (p. 59). b. " distrust in law and government expands into a generalized social distress." (p. 59).
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G. B. Madison, the political economy of civil society and human rights (New York: Routledge, 1998). Joseph E. Stiglitz, globalization and its discontents (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002), 7.

5. International Investors Return to a Debilitated Workforce: Investors return to: a. A weaker labor force b. A less educated labor force c. A labor force devoid or nearly devoid of union representation.
"as the world mobilizes, no positive transformation of the human rights situation ordinary people will occur without a social movement for those rights" (p. 61).

5.0: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Lisa Hajjar: "Torture and the Future" p. Trsity of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Lisa Hajjar: "Torture and the Future" p. 82-93 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------IGAAR's Affiliation with the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------"there is a popular belief that Western history constitutes a progressive move from more to less torture" (p. 82). "Torture must be practiced in secret and denied in public" (p. 83) What is Torture?: "Torture refers to purposefully harming someone who is in custody unfree to fight back or protect himself or herself and imperiled by that incapacitation" (p. 84). 2 Assumption about Torture: 1. "Civilized societies": do not rely on torture a. Those societies that refrain from torture are considered progressive. 2. "Uncivilized societies": rely on torture a. Those societies that do not refrain from torture are considered backward. The Problem of Abu Ghraib: "the public exposure of torture of Iraqi detainees by U.S. Soldiers, working in interrogation wings run by military intelligence and
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American "security contractors," at Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad as well as allegations of torture of other Iraqis by British soldiers are headline news the shocking revelation and photographs provided stark proof that torture is not a relic of our past." (p. 82). 3 Methods for Denying Torture: "No torturing regime defends or even acknowledges its own torture as torture." (p. 82). 1. Literal Denial: a. State denies that torture took place b. State accuses those claiming torture of being enemies of the state. 2. Interpretative Denial: a. "A state refute allegations by saying that what happened is not torture but "something else" (p. 82), e.g., "enhanced interrogation". b. State accuses those claiming torture of failing to understand the distinctions. 3. Implicatory Denial: a. State acknowledges instances of torture but places blame on "aberrant agents". b. State holds these agents responsible for acts of torture and denies any participation. International Law and Torture: "The international criminalization of torture is inextricable from the history of human rights." (p. 83). 1. People are subjects of states. 2. States are subjects of international law. 3. Therefore people are subjects of international law. 4. International law criminalizes torture. 5. Since states are subjects of international law, those states participating in torture are subject to international criminalization. 6. "The prohibition of torture is customary international law and therefore attaches universal jurisdiction. Universal jurisdiction means that if a perpetrator is not prosecuted in his or her own country, he or she can be prosecuted in any competent legal system anywhere in the world." (p. 84).

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5.1: "Contrary to the implications of some, the forced public nakedness, forced public masturbation, and forced simulation of homosexual acts depicted in the Abu Ghraib photos do not qualify as tortureWhat was done to the Iraqi detainees was torture because the detainees were in the custody of the US military and private contractors, because they were compelled by their captors to assume humiliating positions and because they were powerless to resist their humiliation. While the detainees' cultural sensitivities were undoubtedly offended, the relevant point is that the most inalienable of their human rights was violated by their American jailers." (p. 84). Conceptual Elements Needed to Classify and Act as An Act of Torture: Necessary though not Sufficient: 1. The intentional infliction of pain, suffering, humiliation etc... 2. Public official, nonstate actors or civilians, with "the capacity to take people into custody" played some role in the torture of a detainee, either through their direct participation or authorization, for public rather than personal purposes. 3. Detainee was in the custodianship of state officials, contractors etc during the time of torture. 4. The act of torture is internally legitimized as an act of national security.11 5. Emphasis in distinguishing torture from other abuses of power primarily rests on the notion of custody. a. "For example, being beaten while being arrested changes from "cruel treatment" to "torture" only when "custody" has been achieved, obviously a very blurry and contestable line." (p. 85) b. "Violence against a person already in the custody of an authority" (p. 85). 6. Justification rests on notions of public safety ect., rather than personal retributions, vendettas, or grievances. The Accountability of Private Contractors: 1. "American media are reporting, many people are assuming, that because these private contractors are civilians, they are not subject to military or international laws ...[which is false] ...But the contractors
11

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss14/nagan.shtml

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have been hired and authorized to fulfill a public function of handling and interrogating detainees on behalf of the US government." (p. 85) 2. [Aside]: Since prisons are increasingly being privatized would incidents of torture decrease? because revelations of torture would undermine the drive to maximize profit. Torture becomes "bad for business". 5.1.1: Torture and Terror: 1. "National security is a legitimate interest of any state" (p. 85) 2. However, state do not have the right to torture terrorists, since Article II.2 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment explicitly states: a. "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."12 b. "Some of the most egregious human rights violations have been perpetrated by states in the name of counterterrorism."(p. 86). 3. The moral complication over torture and terror; a. If torturing a terrorist results in information that potentially saves countless lives, is it's use justifiable [morally, NOT legally]. b. Should terrorists have a universal moral right not to be tortured. c. How do we resolve notions of just desert [explain in detail]

12

http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html

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5.2: The Landau Commission Report: UN Committee Against Torture and the Landau Commission "... in 1987, for reasons unconnected to the interrogation of Palestinians, the Israeli government established an official commission of inquiry to investigate the general security services [GSS]. The report produced by the Landau commission was path breaking in a number of ways. It confirmed that, in fact, GSS agents had used violent interrogation methods routinely on Palestinian detainees since at least 1971, and that they had routinely lied about such practices when confessions were challenged in court on the grounds that they had been coerced. The Landau commission was harsh in its criticism of GSS perjury, but adopted the GSS's own position that coercive interrogation tactics were necessary in the struggle against "hostile terrorists activity." The Landau commission accepted the broad definition of "terrorism" utilized by the GSS, which encompass not only acts or threats of violence, but virtually all activities related to Palestinian nationalism." (p. 87) National security requires the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques. Enhanced interrogation is markedly different from "torture" The "Five Techniques"13 of torture viz. (1) wall-standing, (2) hooding, (3) subjection of noise, (4) deprivation of sleep, (5) deprivation of food and drink, do not constitute torture, under the GSS's interpretation, but rather "inhumane and degrading treatment" or "moderate physical pressure". "The Landau commission has adopted an apocalyptic view of the world where nothing less than survival of the Israeli state and the Jewish nation deemed to be at stake in the interrogation of "hostile terrorists." It concluded that survival and security trump other valued considerations, including due process and the right not to be tortured. Read on its own terms, the Landau commission report is a blue print for "absolute security" in a war on terror." (p. 87).

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http://books.google.com/books?id=PqPo03h_FrIC&pg=PA198#v=onepage&q&f=false

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The Priest and Gellman Article: "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations" 14 Accusations: The article challenges the notion of "stress and duress" techniques. Alleges that "stress and duress" techniques are the same as torture. Accuses the U.S. government of participating and condoning act of torture at Bagram air base in Afghanistan In contrast to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, where military lawyers, news reporters and the Red Cross received occasional access to monitor prisoner conditions and treatment, the CIA's overseas interrogation facilities are off-limits to outsiders, and often even to other government agencies.15 Defense: "U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack... said: The United States is treating enemy combatants in U.S. government control, wherever held, humanely and in a manner consistent with the principles of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949."16 Torture produces unreliable information from people who are desperate to stop the pain.17 David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey denied that "stress and duress" techniques constitute torture, in their article titled: "It's Not Torture, and They Aren't Lawful Combatants" "The United States has not granted the rights of honorable prisoners of war to the
Guantanamo Bay detainees because they are neither legally nor morally entitled to those rights. Only lawful combatants, those who at a minimum conduct their operations in accordance with the laws of war, are entitled to POW status under the Geneva Convention. By repudiating the most basic requirements of the laws of war -- first and foremost the prohibition on deliberately attacking civilians -- al Qaeda and the Taliban put themselves beyond Geneva's protections. Article 17 of that treaty...is inapplicable to the Guantanamo detainees and does not limit the United States' right to interrogate them." 18

The use of sleep or sensory deprivation, uncomfortable or painful postures, and even a level of physical abuse, does not meet this test. Indeed, to say these practices do ultimately trivializes the torture that does take place in so many areas of the world.

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Dana Priest and Barton Gellman. Washington Post Staff Writers. Thursday, December 26, 2002 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060901356_2.html 16 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060901356_2.html 17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060901356_2.html 18 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A408192003Jan10&notFound=true

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5.3: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Maryellen Fullerton, "The International and National Protection of Refugees" p. 136-145. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nuremberg Trial Proceedings: 1. Charter of the International Military Tribunal: II. JURISDICTION AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES: Article 6: (b) WAR CRIMES, (c)CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: 19
(b) WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; (c)CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

4 Factors Resulting in Mass Deportation of Internally Displaced People [IDP]: 1. Genocide 2. Ethnic, Religious, Racial, Cultural, Social, Political violence a. Manifestations: i. Ethnic Cleansing ii. Racial "purification" iii. Politicide 3. Resource Competition 4. Armed Conflict [without the expressed intent to destroy]

19

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/imtconst.asp

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Refugees Prior to the Welfare-State: "Although refugees are an age old phenomenon, societal responses to refugees during the past century have differed substantially from those in earlier times. Before the emergence of industrialized societies and the rise of the welfare state, rulers often welcomed refugees into their realm, anticipating that artisans would benefit the society they joined, while others seeking refugee would increase the taxpayer rolls and enlarge the pool of those who could be conscripted for military service. There was no corresponding public duty to care for refugees from another land. Private charity might sustain refugees for a short time, but quasi-permanent government supported refugee camps or unknown. Refugees became self-supporting fairly quickly or perished" (p. 137). 3 Benefits of IDPs/Refugee Acceptance Prior to the Welfare-State: 1. Refugees were welcomed 2. Refugees were seen as making viable contributions to society a. They offered their skills to strengthening the state b. They paid taxes c. They joined the military and protected the state. 3. They were expected to become independent, i.e., they weren't viewed as burdening society. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 Disadvantages of IDPs/Refugee After the Formation of the Welfare-State: 1. Challenge the notion of National Identity 2. Threaten the security of the Host-Nation 3. Disrupt the cultural cohesion of the Host-Nation a. "disease, subversive ideas, foreign traditions" (p. 137). 4. Perceived "obligation" to support refugees 5. "Compassion Fatigue"20 6. "Donor Fatigue" 5.4: International Protection of Refugees: 1. 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol [referred to as the "Convention"]
20

[HERE], [HERE], [HERE]

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a. There is a clear articulation of the Right to "seek asylum from persecution in other countries" 21 2. Defines a refugee as: "A refugee, according to the Convention, is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of (1) race, (2) religion, (3) nationality, (4) membership of a particular social group, or (5) political opinion."22 3. The Convention is a "codification of the rights of refugees at an international level." 23 a. "Such rights include access to the courts, to primary education, to work, and the provision for documentation, including a refugee travel document in passport form." 24 i. All things considered refugees should have "the most favorable treatment accorded to nationals of a foreign country, in the same circumstances" 25 ii. The right of Association [Article 15] iii. The right to free access to the courts of law [Article 16] iv. The right to choose their place of residence [Article 26] v. The right to engage in wage earning employment [Article 17]. Recognition of Refugee Status and the 5 Grounds of Persecution: 1. Race: "used in the broadest sense" (p. 139). 2. Religion: "also has a broad meaning...the active practice of religion" (p. 139) 3. Nationality: Citizenship, language, culture and ethnic background 4. A Particular Social Group: gender, sexual orientation, tribal groups, students, entrepreneurs. 5. Political Opinion: "refers to ideas not tolerated by the authorities, including opinions critical of government policies and methods." (p. 139).

21 22

http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html 23 http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html 24 http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html 25 http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html

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6.0: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Maivan Clech Lam, "Indigenous Peoples' Right to Self-Determination and Territoriality" p. 148-157. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Global capitalism runs the world, generating excessive wealth for some, comfortable sufficiency for many, and unbearable poverty for the rest, all the while rearranging natural and cultural landscapes at will or is aided by the American imperium." (p. 148). The Role of the International Labor Organization (ILO)26 : 1. The June 26, 1957 ILO Convention Number 107 (No. 107)/(ILO C107) "... performed the valuable task of inscribing for the first time in international law the category of indigenous and tribal peoples, whom it correctly represented as deserving of special attention" (p. 149) i. "there exist in various independent countries indigenous and other tribal and semitribal populations which are not yet integrated [assimilationist undertone] into the national community and whose social, economic or cultural situation hinders them from benefiting fully from the rights and advantages enjoyed by other elements of the population" [REF].

The author, however, notes: ILO C107 was "well intentioned but decidedly assimilationist" (p. 149). 2. The June 7, 1989 ILO Convention Number 169 (No. 169)/(ILO C169) "renounces the simulations of the earlier ILO C107 and also replaces it in states that have signed both, the ILO secretariat itself is a key site of activism as it proffers mechanisms for investigating indigenous peoples complaints against noncompliant states" (p. 151). i. " Article 33 1. The governmental authority responsible for the matters covered in this
Convention shall ensure that agencies or other appropriate mechanisms exist to administer the programmes affecting the peoples concerned, and shall ensure that they have the means necessary for the proper fulfilment of the functions assigned to them. 2. These programmes shall include: (a) the planning, co-ordination, execution and evaluation, in co-operation with the peoples concerned, of the measures provided for in this Convention; (b) the proposing of legislative and other measures to the competent authorities and supervision of the application of the measures taken, in co-operation with the peoples concerned." 27

26 27

Good Resource HERE http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C169

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The End of the Bretton Woods System28 : [remedy for overvaluation] "In August 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced the "temporary" suspension of the dollar's convertibility into gold."29 The par-value: A dollar amount that is assigned to a security when representing the value contributed for each share in cash or goods. 2 American Ideals: [based on the opportunities presented after the Vietnam War and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs] 1. A Full Generation of Peace: 2. Create a New Prosperity without War: i. Create more and better jobs ii. Stop the rise in the cost of living iii. We most protect the dollar from the attacks of international money speculators [hot-money "investments"]30 Requires the stabilization of the dollar through a new global economic system. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.1: The Rights of Indigenous Populations: 1. "The message indigenous peoples deliver is quite simple: their ability to survive as distinctive peoples is inextricably tied to their right to occupy their traditional territories and control their resources. Translating the rights language of the message into its political correlate, indigenous peoples are in fact claiming territoriality, and attribute normally associated with sovereign statehood to which, paradoxically, only a few of them aspire." (p. 149). 2. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Affirming that indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such Concerned that indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of, inter alia, their colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests, Article 3: Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Article 8.1: 1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/1971/2/ifdp2.pdf http://www.imf.org/external/about/histend.htm 30 See hot-money discussion eariler in this lecture series. The idea of hot-money investments is a corallary contemporary threat to the sustainability and value of the American dollar.
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Article 10: Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return. Article 18: Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making institutions.

Rise conflict between Global Capitalism and Indigenous Peoples: [Avatar as an example: Pursuit of Unobtanium]. 1. Resource acquisition is a primary objective of global-capitalism 2. Resources are tied to particular territories. 3. Tied to those territory are often indigenous populations. 4. Thus, resources are indirectly tied to the indigenous populations occupying a particular territory. 5. The attempt to excise particular resources from those territories requires global-capitalism to circumvent the concerns of indigenous populations in favor of resource acquisition. 6. Thus, emphasis is often placed on resource acquisition over the rights of indigenous populations.

Seven Step Process in the Dislocation and Exploitation of Indigenous Populations: [Me] 1. Resource Location: The resource is located w/in indigenous territory
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2. Dislocation: Indigenous population is either coerced or forcibly removed from native territorial lands to gain access to the resource, including mass extermination and genocide. 3. Resource Accessibility: Destruction of natural habitat/environment to gain access to the resource. 4. Extraction: Resource is extracted 5. Processing: Transport Raw Materials for Processing 6. Product Formation: the creation of Capital in Marxian C-M exchange [baring labor] [REPEAT] Consequences: 1. Dislocated Populations 2. Environmental Degradation 3. Unsustainable Consumption and Environmental Exploitation 4. International Human Rights Violations 7.0: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

George Kent: "Food Is a Human Right" (p. 191-200). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"The human right to adequate food is explicitly recognized as a part of the broader human right to an adequate standard of living" (p. 192). The Escalating Food Crisis: 1. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lead a task force to tackle the global food crisis. 2. The slogan "food first" reflects the international importance placed on adequate food as a human right. 3. The analysis of food rights takes place within the "broader human right to an adequate standard of living" (p. 193). Article 25 of the UDHR states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." 31

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http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

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4. The 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): says: "In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence." 32

5. The World Food Program33 : [WFP] Food Security Analysis is used to assess a number of factors related to food security including: (1) the most food insecure people, (2) bio-physical threats to food, (3) food consumption patterns etc... 6. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 (ICE-SCR) Article 11.2: "The States Parties to the present
Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger" 34 Subsistence/Consumption vs. Cash Crops: [Easy to Understand] 1. Emerging Market Demand [Video Link] 2. Market demand places expectation/burden on primarily 3rd world agriculturalists to convert their subsistence/consumption crops into cash crops. 3. Fields are gradually converted from subsistence/consumption crops to cash crops, which often leads to mass famine and starvation.35 Approaches to Ceasing Starvation and Malnutrition: 1. The November 16, 1974 World Food Conference: Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition
Every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties. Society today already possesses sufficient resources, organizational ability and technology and hence the competence to achieve this objective. Accordingly, the eradication of hunger is a common objective of all the countries of the international community, especially of the developed countries and others in a position to help.

2. World Food Summit: November 13-17, 1996: Rome Declaration on World Food Security: "We pledge our political will and our common and national
commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015."

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966: entry into force 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 49 33 The slogan: "You against hunger" 34 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm 35 [REF], [REF], [REF]

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3. The connection between (1) food security/supplies, (2) human rights to those supplies, (3) government obligation to provide access to those supplies. E.g., Stalin's Forced Mass Starvation of the Ukraine. Targeted the kulaks, independent farmers, with grain reserves as enemies of the state. Forced Famine and Centralized Government:

8.0: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, ed. Human Rights in the World Community. Series Editor, Bert B. Lockwood, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Paul Hunt: "The Right to Health: Key Objectives, Themes and Interventions" (p. 201-209). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Health Defined: World Health Organization: "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." 4 Jurisprudential Elements: 1. "The right to health includes, but goes beyond, the right to health care" (p. 202). a. "The right to health is an inclusive right" (p. 202)
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inclusive rights include the "underlying determents of health," i.e. those things that will lead one to get sick. i. For example, "Access to safe and portable water and adequate sanitation" (p. 202). 2. The right to health include freedoms and entitlements. a. Freedoms: The right to control one's health, which include the right to "be free from nonconsensual medical treatment and experimentation" (p. 202). b. Entitlements: the right to a "system of health protection" 3. Obligations: a. nondiscrimination and equal treatment (p. 202). b. a prepared national health strategy (p. 202). 4. International assistance and Obligation: a. Where states are incapable of satisfying the right to health for their citizens, they are obligated to seek international assistance and obligation. [question?: Though the may be obligated to seek such assistances, are the corresponding states equally obligated to help?] The Right to Health and HIV/AIDS: 1. The December 4, 200: International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [ICESCR] The right to the highest attainable standard of health:
"the Covenant proscribes any discrimination in access to health care and underlying determinants of health, as well as to means and entitlements for their procurement, on the grounds of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, physical or mental disability, health status (including HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation and civil, political, social or other status, which has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the equal enjoyment or exercise of the right to health." 36

a. international attempts are made to safeguard against discrimination against those suffering for HIV/AIDS. b. "The links between stigma, discrimination, and denial of the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health are complex and multifaceted. Together, discrimination and stigma amounts to a failure to respect human dignity and equality by devaluing those affected, often adding to the inequalities already experienced by vulnerable and marginalized groups" (p. 204).

36

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/gencomm/escgencom14.htm

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Three Categories of Neglected Diseases:37 1. Type I: Example: [Hepatitis B]: a. Communities Affected: i. Rich and Poor Alike 2. Type II: Example: [HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis]: a. Communities Affected: i. Rich and Poor Alike, but "disproportionately present in poor countries." (p. 205). 3. Type III: Example: [River Blindness, Sleeping Sickness]: a. Communities Affected: i. "Overwhelmingly or exclusively played lower-income countries." * The Doha Declaration recognizes "the gravity of the public health problems afflicting many developing and least-developed countries, especially those resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and other epidemics." (p. 207). Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: UDHR: "Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge"38

FIN
"recently, neglected diseases a problem arising from market and public policy failures have been given fresh impetus by a number of welcome developments, including adoption of the declaration on the trade related aspects of international property rights (TRIPS Agreement) and public health and the work of the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria" (p. 206). 38 http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
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