scholarly journals Two-Lane Blacktop: Refugees & Torture

2017 ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Jesús García Cívico
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Perverse Effect

The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right of asylum have, individually considered, an extensive field of application", but it is possible to point out some traits in common. Firsty, in both rights undelie the moral spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the same time, according to the recent reports of the main human rights organisations, both rights are in deep political crisis. Furthermore, is possible to see that sometimes they cross each other: there is a triple «zone of intersection between the right of asylum and the right not to suffer torture, inhuman or degrading treatment: one of the reasons for escaping from a country is to avoid suffering torture ("refuge after torture")  secondly, sometimes inhuman and degrading treatment occur precisely in the process of seeking asylum ("inhuman treatment in the refuge"), finally, there are countries with strong deficiencies in their immigration policies and this can produce a perverse effect: the transfer of potential asylum seekers to countries where they are at risk of torture or inhuman treatment again ("torture or inhuman and degrading treatment after asylum").

Palestine: Kan Wa-Ma Kan?

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-85
Author(s):  
Barbara Harlow
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Controversial Issue ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
Israeli Supreme Court ◽  
The Right ◽  
Article 5 ◽  
East Jerusalem

Too many memories? Difficulties of diaspora? Or lapses in memory? The spring of 1998 marked the passage of fifty years of nakba, the historic Palestinian “catastrophe.” Israel celebrated the season as an anniversary, commemorating the fifty elapsed years of its statehood. The short-lived “peace process” initiated in the preliminary if protracted negotiations in Madrid in 1990, which were abruptly concluded in their displacement to Oslo, was once again “stalled.” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to expand the boundaries of West Jerusalem, in a move clearly designed to add to the pressures on Arab East Jerusalem and predetermine the “final status” talks of the process by decisively altering both the topography and the demography of greater Jerusalem. And the Israeli Supreme Court referred the highly controversial issue of the legalized torture of Palestinian prisoners back to the Knesset for further determination. What had happened to the “human rights,” and their universal declaration, that were also being commemorated in the year 1998, in celebration of the passage in 1948 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights? According to Article 5 of the Declaration, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” And under the terms of Article 13, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” Additionally, according to Article 15, first, “Everyone has the right to a nationality,” and second, “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” What then was happening in Palestine, to the Palestinians, in the spring of 1998 when these anniversaries came up?

Tourism as a Tool for the Fulfilment of the Rights to Rest and Leisure Enshrined in Article No. 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 180-188
Author(s):  
Bianca Nicla Romano
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Title V ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Real Right ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Italian Constitution

Art. 24 of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights recognises and protects the right of the individual to rest and leisure. This right has to be fully exercised without negative consequences on the right to work and the remuneration. Tourism can be considered one of the best ways of rest and leisure because it allows to enrich the personality of the individual. Even after the reform of the Title V this area is no longer covered by the Italian Constitution, the Italian legal system protects and guarantees it as a real right, so as to get to recognize its existence and the consequent compensation of the so-called “ruined holiday damage”. This kind of damage has not a patrimonial nature, but a moral one, and the Tourist-Traveler can claim for it when he has not been able to fully enjoy his holiday - the essential fulcrum of tourism - intended as an opportunity for leisure and/or rest, essential rights of the individual.

The ICCPR as a ‘Living Instrument’: The Death Penalty as Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment

2004 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 507-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrita Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
The Right

This article examines the recent views of the UN Human Rights Committee on the issues related to the death penalty. Obligations under Articles 6 (the right to life) and 7 (the right not to be subjected to torture or other, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment) are correlated. Despite widely divergent opinions within the Committee on the issue, this human rights body is moving towards strengthening the obligations of abolitionist states and, in so doing, restricting the availability of the sanction for retentionist states. This is consistent with the object and purposes approach and the nature of the ICCPR as a living instrument.

scholarly journals The Statist Approach to the Philosophy of Immigration and the Problem of Statelessness

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E Mathis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Right

The issue of statelessness poses problems for the statist (or nationalist) approach to the philosophy of immigration. Despite the fact that the statist approach claims to constrain the state’s right to exclude with human rights considerations, the arguments statists offer for the right of states to determine their own immigration policies would also justify citizenship rules that would render some children stateless. Insofar as rendering a child stateless is best characterized as a violation of human rights and insofar as some states have direct responsibility for causing such harm, the problem of non-refugee stateless children points to greater constraints than most statists accept on states’ right to determine their own rules for membership. While statists can ultimately account for the right not to be rendered stateless, recognizing these additional human rights constraints ultimately weakens the core of the statist position.

scholarly journals Rescuing Asylum-Seeker Stranded at Sea: Malaysia’s Duty under International Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.30) ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Syafiq Sulaiman ◽  
Salawati Mat Basir ◽  
Mohd Zamre Mohd Zahir
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

The protection of the right to life and the duty to rescue persons in distress at sea are the fundamental obligations under two specialized international law regimes which are the international human rights law and the law of the sea. These rules when read together form a strong protection of the human rights of the asylum-seekers stranded at sea. However, often states failed to honour this obligation for various reasons ranging from national security to economic reasons. This article will analyse Malaysia’s responsibilities as regards the right to life and the duty to rescue of these asylum-seekers. It will also identify the existing international and domestic legal framework relevant to the application of these obligations upon Malaysia and whether it has acted in breach of such obligations. The article then proceeded with suggestions for further improvement that Malaysia can adopt in order to better perform its obligations. This study is a pure doctrinal legal research which is qualitative in nature. The data used in this research is collected from library-based resources. These data were then analyzed by using methods of content analysis as well as critical analysis. The article found that Malaysia has a duty to protect the right to life under international human rights law. Additionally, Malaysia is also bound under the law of the sea to perform its duty to rescue. In view of Malaysia’s failure to perform these duties in two occasions in the past consequently had resulted in a violation of international law. Therefore, it is suggested that Malaysia should initiate a revision of its national laws and policies regarding treatment of asylum-seekers stranded at sea to be in line with Malaysia’s duty under international law. Besides, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency is call upon to comply with the international standards of treatment of persons in distress at sea which includes the asylum-seekers.  

scholarly journals Declaration as Disavowal: The Politics of Race and Empire in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Stone Mackinnon
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The World ◽  
Imperial Politics ◽  
Racial Domination ◽  
Politics Of Race ◽  
The Right

This article argues that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), by claiming certain inheritances from eighteenth-century American and French rights declarations, simultaneously disavowed others, reshaping the genre of the rights declaration in ways amenable to forms of imperial and racial domination. I begin by considering the rights declaration as genre, arguing that later participants can both inherit and disavow aspects of what came before. Then, drawing on original archival research, I consider the drafting of the UDHR, using as an entry point the reception of the NAACP’s Appeal to the World petition, edited by W.E.B. DuBois. I reconstruct conversations within the drafting committee about the right to petition, self-determination, and the right to rebellion, and the separation of the Declaration from the rights covenants, to illustrate the allegiances between US racial politics and French imperial politics, and their legacies for our contemporary conceptions of human rights.

Part VI Refugee Rights and Realities, Ch.53 The Right to Work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costello Cathryn ◽  
O’Cinnéide Colm
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Right ◽  
European Regional

This chapter analyses the application of the right to work to asylum seekers and refugees, examining the right under international human rights law of global scope, in particular under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. While that instrument is often perceived as being normatively weak, due in part to a misunderstanding about the ‘progressive realization’ standard, the chapter highlights States’ immediate ‘minimum core’ obligations under the right to work. It also assesses the right under African, Inter-American, and European regional human rights mechanisms. Some deprivations of the right to work may entail breaches of regional treaties, directly or indirectly. Restrictions on the right to work may also contribute to violations of absolute rights, such as the prohibitions on inhuman and degrading treatment, or forced labour. The chapter then looks at two possible means of securing the right to work, namely domestic litigation and transnational political processes.

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