本帖最后由 郭国汀 于 2/10/2018 16:37 编辑
Under the Optional Protocol, individuals claiming a violation of rights under the ICCPR, who have exhausted all available domestic remedies, may submit a statement to the Human Rights Committee.[1]
Underthe Optional Protocol, the Human Rights Committee shall then bring such claims to the attention of the state party alleged to be violating the covenant and the state party must within six months provide a written explanation or statement regarding the remedial action taken by that state. [2]
Civil and political rights consisted of entitlements to judicial and political processes, belief and expression, as well as freedom from torture, enslavement and execution-and the covenant regarding civil and political rights contained mechanisms for both investigation and enforcement.
under the Nuremberg principles, state officials can be guilty of human rights violations for their acquiescence or failures to act.
A state which consents or acquiesces to acts of genocide or torture by paramilitary death squads, for example, may be deemed to be in violation of human rights for its failure to intervene. Thus, the human right of freedom from torture in fact requires not only that the state abstain from torturing individuals, but that it act affir- matively to prohibit and prevent non-state actors from engag- ing in these practices.
Maurice Cranston. In his influential critique of the Universal Declaration, Cranston argued that the criteria for determining what constitutes hu- man rights are "practicability" and "paramount importance."[3] It is more practical to assert the existence of political rights than economic rights, he suggests: political rights "can be readily secured by legislation," whereas economic and social rights can rarely, if ever, be secured by legislation alone. Cranston points out that the legislation by which political rights are secured is more straightforward than that needed for economic rights. Often political rights can be achieved by restraining governmental conduct.[4] the Enlightenment gives us one of the fundamental notions of modern political thought: that there are such things as rights and that they are universal," inherent, self-evident and in-
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted Dec. 9, 1948, 78 U.N.T.S. 277; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, opened for signature Mar. 7, 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195; Inter- national Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, adopted Nov. 30, 1973, 1015 U.N.T.S. 245; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, opened for signature Mar. 1, 1980, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or De- grading Treatment or Punishment, opened for signature Feb. 4, 1985, S. TREATY Doc. No. 100-20 (1988), 23 I.L.M. 1027. However, what is known as "the Interna- tional Bill of Human Rights" consists of the Universal Declaration, supra note 14; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted Dec. 19, 1966, SEN. EXEC. Doc. E, 95-2, at 23 (1978), 999 U.N.T.S. 171 [hereinafter ICCPR]; Interna- tional Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted Dec. 16, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter ICESCRI; Optional Protocol to the International Cove- nant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted Dec. 16, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 302 [here- inafter Optional Protocol]; Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty, adopt- ed Dec. 15, 1989, GA. Res. 44/128, U.N. GAOR Supp. No. 49 at 206, U.N. Doc A1441824 (1989). art. 2, 999 U.N.T.S. at 302. [2] art. 4, 999 U.N.T.S. at 303. [3] MAURICE CRANSTON, WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS? 66, 67 (1973).
[5] . As has been pointed out on many occasions, the "universe" for the En- lightenment thinkers was in fact limited to white males of European descent. See, e.g., CAROL PATEMAN, THE SEXUAL CONTRACT 221 (1988) (observing that "[t]hrough the mirror of the original contract, citizens can see themselves as members of a society constituted by free relations. The political fiction reflects our political selves back to us-but who are" we'? Only men-who can create political life-can take part in the original pact."); see also DIANA H. COOLE, WOMEN IN POLITICAL THEO- RY 71-132 (1988) (discussing Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau). For a discussion of the implicit and explicit racism in the revolutionary thought of the Enlightenment, see RONALD T. TAKAKI, IRON CAGES: RACE AND CULTURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA 1-15 (1979). My interest here lies in addressing the notion of universal rights as such.
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