scholarly journals Socio-environmental rights and the riddle of history

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-158
Author(s):  
Bruce Gilbert

Abstract: Broadly speaking, this paper is about the relationship of the human rights tradition to substantive issues of social justice, including class exploitation and environmental destruction.  These themes I take to be of global concern, but I will examine them today as they arise from conflicts and struggles situated in Brazil.   The key to the argument is to show that the human rights tradition recognizes necessary features of self-determination, and that claims for socio-environmental rights in Brazil and elsewhere derive their legitimacy from the same kind of argument that justifies individual rights, such as the 1948 United Nations Declaration, and collective rights, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007.  That is, I will try to show that individual, collective and socio-environmental rights are each necessary conditions but, on their own, insufficient conditions for the possibility of self-determination.  The need for such rights emerges in the history of the struggle for justice.  This this paper will also defend the claim that the universality of rights necessarily emerges from the historicity of social life and solves what Marx calls the “riddle of history.” Keywords : Socio-enviromental rights; riddle of history.     Resumo: De um modo geral, este artigo trata da relação da tradição dos direitos humanos com questões substantivas de justiça social, incluindo a exploração de classes e a destruição ambiental. Esses temas são de interesse global, mas vou examiná-los hoje, pois eles surgem de conflitos e lutas no Brasil. A chave do argumento é mostrar que a tradição dos direitos humanos reconhece as características necessárias à autodeterminação, e que as reivindicações por direitos socioambientais no Brasil e em outros lugares derivam sua legitimidade do mesmo tipo de argumento que justifica os direitos individuais, como o Declaração das Nações Unidas de 1948, e direitos coletivos, como o Pacto Internacional sobre Direitos Econômicos, Sociais e Culturais de 1966 e a Declaração dos Direitos dos Povos Indígenas das Nações Unidas de 2007. Ou seja, tentarei mostrar que os direitos individuais, coletivos e Direitos socioambientais são, cada um, condições necessárias, mas, por si só, condições insuficientes para a possibilidade de autodeterminação. A necessidade de tais direitos surge na história da luta pela justiça. Este artigo também defenderá a afirmação de que a universalidade dos direitos surge necessariamente da historicidade da vida social e resolve o que Marx chama de "enigma da história".

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Barelli

AbstractThe right of peoples to self-determination represents one of the most controversial norms of international law. In particular, two questions connected with the meaning and scope of this right have been traditionally contentious: first, who constitutes a ‘people’ for the purposes of self-determination, and, secondly, what does the right of self-determination actually imply for its legitimate holders. Against this unsettled background, the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) affirmed, in a straightforward manner, that indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. In light of the uncertainties that were mentioned above, it becomes necessary to clarify the actual implications of this important recognition. This article will seek to do so by discussing the drafting history of the provision on self-determination contained in the UNDRIP and positioning it within the broader normative framework of the instrument.


Author(s):  
Enyinna Sodienye Nwauche

This paper explores the protection of expressions of folklore within the right to culture in Africa by considering three issues, which are the increased understanding of the right to culture in national constitutions and the recognition that customary law is a manifestation of the right to culture; an expanded understanding of the substantive content of the article 15(1) of the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as part of the right to culture; and the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples marked significantly by the 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. The paper demonstrates how a human rights regime may assist in overcoming some of the deficiencies in the national protection of expressions of folklore in Africa.


Author(s):  
Maya Hertig Randall

Translating the UDHR into a binding treaty ‘with teeth’ was an acid test for the international community. This chapter places the genesis of the ICESCR and the ICCPR in its political context. It highlights the interlocking challenges of the Cold War and of decolonization and also underscores disagreement among allied nations as well as attempts to ‘export’ the domestic conception of human rights. Three issues central to completing the International Bill of Human Rights are analysed: (1) identification of the rights to be included; (2) States’ obligations to give effect to human rights on the domestic level; and (3) international supervision mechanisms. These issues are closely related to the decision to divide human rights into two Covenants. In tracing the major controversies and decisions reached, light is also cast on the relationship and characteristics of civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights, as understood at the time.


Author(s):  
Minet Georges

This concluding chapter looks at human rights co-ordination within the UN system. For a long time, human rights in the United Nations tended to be treated as a special domain, one which might be of growing importance, but which did not necessarily need to be a consistent focus of the entire UN machinery. The importance of co-ordination and coherence for human rights promotion, however, has steadily become clearer, as the perception has grown that the human rights ‘issue area’ cannot be successfully dealt with in a vacuum or in isolation. The focus here, accordingly, is on the relationship of human rights to various relevant parts of the UN system—‘inter-regime’ co-ordination—rather than on co-ordination among human rights activities undertaken by the various members of the UN family of institutions—‘intra-regime’ co-ordination. It is the former aspect of co-ordination that has proved to be most problematic and had achieved the least progress until the recent period.


Author(s):  
Coomans Fons

This chapter discusses two human rights that belong to the category of economic, social, and cultural rights: the right to education and the right to work. It explains how the modern view of the nature of economic, social, and cultural rights can be applied to these rights. The chapter discusses the sources of the rights under international human rights law, their main features, and components; the obligations resulting from each right; and the relationship of each right with other human rights. Both rights are crucial for the ability to live a life in dignity and develop one’s personality.


Author(s):  
López-Bermúdez Francisco

This article focuses on the history of the creation and application of human rights indicators within the United Nations. It describes the economic, statistical, social, and development regimes created influential actors which have significantly influenced the narrative of human rights indicators and describes the works of human rights bodies concerned with economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights). It also discusses the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights� (OHCHR) development of the so-called illustrative indicators and some theoretical and practical proposals for the application of human rights indicators.


2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-82
Author(s):  
S. Zhirenov ◽  
◽  
А. Smanova ◽  
Zh. Nebesaeva ◽  
◽  
...  

The article considers the coding of the system of national values in Kazakh art and their linguistic expression in the linguocultural aspect. There is a linguistic representation of the place of art in the national culture, the activity of cultural values in the worldview of the ethnos. If the indicator of the culture of an ethnos is cultural values, then the value of cultural values is determined by language. Art is an indicator of cultural and social life, endowed with the ancient cultural and spiritual value of the national existence of the ethnos. Considering that different forms of art and their compositions are marked and distinguished by language, the article analyzes in detail the question of the relationship of art to language, language to art. The existence of such categories as the history of a nation and the ethics of words, culture and art of an ethnos, aesthetic cognition and taste, folk wisdom and spiritual food is considered in the existence of a language. The role of language in expressing the essence of art is described in detail.


Author(s):  
Xanthaki Alexandra

This chapter examines the rights to culture in Articles 11(1), 12, 13(1), and 34. The freedom of indigenous peoples to have their indigenous identities and cultures respected has been the main incentive for their struggle and one of the main reasons for the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The recognition of indigenous cultural rights is deeply rooted in the principle of respect of the diversity and richness of their identities, the end of historical injustices committed against them, and the principle of self-determination, all of which are incorporated in the preamble of the Declaration. Unfortunately, patterns of expropriation of indigenous religious and cultural objects and neglect, even destruction of indigenous cultural manifestations, still continue. In addition, new waves of tourism beyond ‘the beaten truck’ commodify important indigenous historical and archaeological sites. It is therefore of no surprise that the protection of culture is so important in the whole text of the Declaration.


Author(s):  
David Owen

The relationship of citizenship and human rights has become a central issue for contemporary politics. This chapter begins with a brief overview of theories of human rights, before addressing two pivotal topics for this relationship: a human right to citizenship (as membership of a state) and a human right to democracy. It then turns to consider the practical salience of the international human rights regime for citizenship and human rights, before concluding with a discussion of the relationship of human rights as cosmopolitan norms to the principle of the self-determination of peoples.


Author(s):  
Debra Parkes

Abstract This paper considers the role that litigation might play in ending the human rights crisis of solitary confinement in Canada while also examining the relationship of prisoner rights litigation to broader, anti-carceral social movements. The paper proceeds in four parts. The first section provides a brief overview of the widespread use of solitary confinement in Canada’s federal prisons and in provincial and territorial jails. Next, current litigation seeking an end to solitary confinement in the federal prisons system is located in the context of a long history of prisoner rights litigation in both the US and Canada. The third section considers the possibilities and challenges of pursuing prisoner rights litigation with broader critiques of the carceral state in mind. The paper ends with examples of anti-carceral lawyering efforts and identifies some elements of a prison abolitionist lawyering ethic.


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