Bernas Public International Law – INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Part 1

CHAPTER 12: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Part 1

FROM ALIEN RIGHTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS

Early concern about human rights was about specific classes of people, e.g. slaves, minorities, and certain nationalities
It was not until the birth of the United Nations that human rights of all people became the subject of legislation
Human Rights – those inalienable and fundamental rights which are essential for life as human beings
3 generations of human rights:

1. Traditional civil and fundamental rights

2. Social and economic rights

3. Right to peace, clean environment, self-determination, common heritage of mankind, development, minority rights

AN EMERGING INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The UN became the cradle for the development of the new international law on human rights
Key obligations assumed by the Organization and its Members:

1. Higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions for economic and social progress and development

2. Solutions for international related problems

3. Universal respect for, and observance of, human rights

These, however, do not provide for the definitions of human rights

THE COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

The following are substantive rights:

1. Life, Liberty and Property, and Equality

This, however, does not say when protected life begins, whereas the Philippines protects ―the life of the unborn from conception‖
There is also no provision on the right to property

On the right to life, the Covenant’s Article 6(2) expresses a bias for the abolition of the death penalty and allows its imposition, in countries which still have death penalty, only after conviction for the most serious crimes

In Article 14, it is more restrictive in the matter of publicity of criminal proceedings ―where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern matrimonial disputes or the guardianship of children
2 provisions on Right to Compensation:

1. Anyone who has been a victim of unlawful arrest or detention

2. Any person who has been a victim of miscarriage of justice unless the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him

2. Torture, ill-treatment and Prison Conditions

Proscription on torture and other forms of ill-treatment that offend not only against bodily integrity but also against personal dignity
Imprisonment in conditions seriously detrimental to a prisoner’s health constitutes a violation of Articles 7 and 10(1) of the Covenant

3. Freedom of Movement

Right to travel within the country, right to leave the country, right to return to one’s country, the right to change one’s residence and the right of the aliens not to be expelled without due process
Limitations:

a. Those provided for by law

b. Necessary to protect national security, public order, public health or morals

The separation between the right to leave and right to return to one’s country is to make the limitation more narrow than for the right to leave the country since exile is now prohibited by customary law and may even be jus cogens

4. Legal Personality, Privacy and the Family