"International Law and Human Rights"

Lecture #9: "International Law and Human Rights"
Brian Palmer, University of Uppsala, Social Anthropolgy

Lecture Abstract (copied from the Course Guide):
During the last 60 years, Human Rights have developed within the broader discourse of international Law as a system of common global norms, rules, laws and regulations. This process has been far from easy and several major philosophical debates have been fought over the years (e.g. economic, social and cultural vs. civil and political rights, individual vs. collective rights, universalism vs. relativism). The lecture aims to explore Human Rights and its relation to International Law while discussing HR as a process of developing global norms. A framework for analysis will be applied that rests on the assumption that HR can be seen as an interdisciplinary
field of study including ethics, politics and law.

Images of Brutality
- Professor Palmer showed the audience four images of brutality including paintings by Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso and a photograph by photojournalist, James Nachtwey.
- The bleak history behind these images probably explains why you are enrolled in this program.
- Everyone here wants to say no to brutality.
- We want to answer the question: How is it that we live in a world of other peoples’ suffering?
- French philosopher, Voltaire, tried to explain what it is like to live in a world of other peoples’ suffering when he reflected on a massive earthquake in Lisbon. Voltaire believed that it was difficult to care. He wrote, “Lisbon lies in ruins and here, in Paris, we dance.”
- American author and political activist, Susan Sontag, wrote that what Voltaire describes is a frustration shared by all when faced with the simultaneity of wildly contrasting human fates.
- Our discussion of human rights is a way of engaging with a world of brutality and suffering.
- I (Brian Palmer) join you in this endeavor as a fellow concerned citizen.
- However, I (Brian Palmer) make a confession. I don’t believe that a language of rights is necessarily the best way to capture what is sacred in human beings.
A Language of Rights
- French philosopher, Simone Weil who died in 1943 said that the notion of rights “has a commercial flavor.” “Rights evoke a latent war.” “One cannot imagine St Francis of Assisi talking about rights.”
- What is the alternative?
o The alternative may be a language of caring.
o This alternative would be essentially feminine in contrast to the inherently masculine language of rights.

Conceptions of Rights
- Elaine Scarry of Harvard University contends that we injure others because we have difficulty imaging others.
o We fail to know others.
o This idiom is not incompatible with human rights.
- Lynn Hunt, an American historian and author of Inventing Human Rights: A History, argues that the spread of empathy provided nourishment to the great strides in human rights in the late 1700s. The key here is empathy or learning to appreciate the reality of others.
- Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, says that there is no place for human rights in his utilitarian philosophy but he is still willing to use the term.
- A vocabulary of human rights is practical in many situations.
- Micheline Ishay, author of The History of Human Rights (2003), underscores the contributions made by the world’s religious and ethical traditions to the development of human rights. She believes that one sees these contributions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b1udhr.htm
- The declaration was adopted on December 10, 1948 in Paris, France.
- The declaration pulled together a conception of rights from the world’s religions and translated them into secular language.
- According to Michael Ignatieff , the declaration provided international legal recognition of the rights of individuals for the first time.
- French scholar, Rene Cassin, argued that there are three generations of rights present in the declaration: liberty, equality and solidarity.
o Liberty: Liberty is represented in Articles 3-19. Conceptions of liberty emerged from struggles beginning in the time of Enlightenment.
o Equality: Equality is represented in Articles 20-26. Questions of equality emerged from the Industrial Revolution.
o Solidarity: Solidarity is represented in Articles 27-28. These social and cultural rights began emerging in the late 1800s as well as the colonial and post-colonial periods.

1st Generation Rights, Liberty
- Liberty is represented in core, political, democratic rights
- Conceptions of these rights emerged during the Enlightenment (late 1600s- 1789)
- The birth of a secular and universalistic way of thinking began with the Reformation and the Peace of Westphalia--- this was the first crucial period.
- The second crucial period centered around the English Civil Wars and the Commonwealth period.
- The third crucial period took place during the American Revolution (1775-1783).
- The fourth crucial period occurred during the French Revolution (1789-1799).
- These periods led to the development of a range of political rights.
- Throughout these periods, many groups were still excluded. Colonized people, women, Jews, slaves, other nationalities, etc. were not allowed to enjoy these political rights.
- Rights developed at this time are often referred to as classically liberal rights.
- Notions of political rights were expanded in the period after World War I as the League of Nations was founded.
o The League of Nations recognized inequality between states.
o The League also sought to counter-balance that inequality.
- The foundation of international labor organizations further helped to expand notions of political rights.
- The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 also played a role.
o The Lenin period was marked by internationalism and concern with the mechanisms of international rights
o The Soviet constitution of 1936 guaranteed an astonishing array of political rights although these rights were mostly non-existent in practice.
- Key Questions:
o What is the role of the state?
o Can citizens rely on states to guard their rights?
o What is the role of markets?
o Is there such a thing as a just war?

2nd Generation Rights, Equality
- This generation of rights is not concerned with political oppression but the failure of the state to provide systems for adequate economic sustenance.
- Conceptions of equality were formed with contributions for social, communist and labor movements—although these movements are often not given enough credit.
- According to Ishay, while liberals maintained their pre-occuption with liberty, champions of labor began to question whether that liberty was hollow without equality.
- These rights began to emerge as people asked broader questions about who is included in the political process.
- Both Robert Owen and Karl Marx called for the provision of free education for children.
- Members of the labor movement called for limited working hours, protections for work-related illnesses and injuries, freedom of association and protection for women and children.
- Garrison Keillor explained the philosophy behind equality and the general welfare state when he said, “The gains in life come slowly…the losses suddenly.”

3rd Generation Rights, Solidarity
- This generation of rights deals with cultural rights and the right to national self-determination.
- Conceptions of these rights were present in Europe in the late 1800s
- These rights were given increased importance by Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations.
- These rights helped to define the concept of ethnic groups.
- These rights are tied to colonization.
- During World War II, the U.S. had no real colonies on the scale of many European powers. This gave President Franklin Roosevelt the chance to be more critical of colonization. The British, however, were not equally enthusiastic.
- Strides towards solidarity were made when the initial proposals for the formation of the United Nations were greeted with protest by many who felt it overlooked colonialism and human rights. These protestors won and plans for the United Nations were rewritten to include a strong language of human rights. The United Nations, however, left the enforcement of human rights to individual member states.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Question of Universality
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b3ccpr.htm
- This covenant was written in 1966.
- It guarantees the right to self-determination.
- Ishay expresses skepticism when she asks, who should be favored when claims to self-determination conflict?
- Thus we must ask ourselves, does the language of universal human rights build on real commonalities?
- Swedish philosopher and author of Common Values, Sissela Bok, argues that people in all parts of the world share at least some values in common especially the rejection of force and fraud which are commonly considered liberal values.

What are we to do?
- American linguist and philosopher, Noam Chomsky, tried to define the responsibilities of the writer in his essay, “Writers and Intellectual Responsibility.”
o He wrote that it is a responsibility to tell the truth about matters of human significance.
o This is, essentially, the job description of those enrolled in this masters program.
- Lithuanian philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, states that humans have “infinite responsibility but limited capacity.”
- The questions remains, how do we live with that contradiction?