Human Rights and the Paris Agreement’s Implementation Guidelines: Opportunities to Develop a Rights-based Approach

The obligations arising from investment protection regimes can impede states’ power to pursue legitimate human rights policy objectives. This raises unique obligatory challenges for a host state in balancing human rights obligations and investment protection. Will the emergence of the new Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) investment chapter provide the much-needed regulatory balance between investment protection and human rights obligations of host states and promote investors’ human rights responsibility? This paper raises this question through the analytical lens of the asymmetrical relationship between investment protection and human rights and x-rays Africa’s structural responses to this relational imbalance. The paper recognizes the obligatory potentials of the reform models in Africa’s treaty-making practices towards expanding regulatory space of the host states for human rights and promoting investors’ human rights responsibility. The paper, however, highlights the limitations inherent in the existing models. The paper identifies normative human rights disparity and human rights deficit in Africa as a major hindrance in measuring realizable investors’ human rights obligations in investment treaties. By introducing the human rights integration model, the paper offers new insights and approaches that harmonize Africa’s human rights landscape for determining and measuring investors’ human rights obligations under the emerging AfCFTA’s investment chapter.

The opening statement of the Maastricht Principles laments the fact that, ‘despite the universality of human rights, many States still interpret their human rights obligations as being applicable only within their own borders’. Concurring with the Maastricht Principles’ observation, this chapter discusses how two States have redrawn their borders in order to escape or lessen their legal, human and refugee rights obligations. This chapter is concerned with the protection that States owe to individuals located within their geographical boundaries, on pieces of land declared extra-territorial. The term ‘nowhere countries’ aptly describes these spaces deemed extra-territorial for non-citizens categorized as undesirable. Nowhere countries can be established and thrive on any part of a State territory, but international zones at airports and islands have been spaces of choice for these zones of exclusion.

UBS, headquartered in Switzerland, is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, offering international wealth and asset management as well as investment banking services. UBS is fully committed to corporate responsibility. This commitment is incorporated in the principles and standards set out in the bank’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. These apply to all aspects of UBS’ business and the ways in which the firm engages with its stakeholders—from the products and services offered to its clients, its management of environmental and social risks, to the way UBS protects the well-being of its employees and society at large. As part of this, and in line with the firm’s endorsement of the UN Global Compact, UBS adopted the ‘UBS Statement on Human Rights’ in 2006, setting out the firm’s position on human rights issues with regard to its employees, suppliers and clients. This chapter explains how the UBS environmental and social risk framework developed over time with regard to incorporating aspects of human rights when vetting prospective corporate clients and executing their transactions. In particular, it illustrates how the UN ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework for Business and Human Rights, together with discourse between committed universal banks convened as the Thun Group, contributed to the successful integration of human rights into UBS’ due diligence process.

Human rights queryfalse are typically presented in terms of entitlements, correlative duties, claims, “trumps,” and remedies. 1 These framings, which draw principally on law and philosophy, emphasi...

The African human rights system encompasses two major instruments: the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. The enforcement and monitoring mechanisms for both the Charter and the Protocol are the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Court has power to give advisory opinions on an issue relevant to the African Charter or any other relevant human rights instrument. The advisory opinion may be requested by African Union States, the African Union or any of its organs or any African organisation recognised by the African Union. The effectiveness of the Commission and the Court will depend on the extent to which sufficient resources are provided for them to carry out their mandates. Keywords: African Charter; African human rights system; human rights instrument; monitoring mechanisms

Concretely, the state's obligations regarding Human Rights (HAM) are realized by protecting the human rights of every individual from abuse of state power, guaranteeing the existence of every individual's human rights in legal provisions and in their implementation and fulfilling the human rights of every individual, the state must make legal regulations that prohibit these practices. torture to protect every individual from acts of torture. The state must also ensure that every individual is truly free from acts of torture. The state must also truly fulfill the right not to be subjected to actual torture. What is the relevance of human rights from a positive legal perspective in Indonesia? and How is the government's obligations and responsibilities implemented in pholding human rights in Indonesia at this time? The aim is to find out and analyze the relevance of human rights from a positive legal perspective in Indonesia and the implementation of the government's obligations and responsibilities in upholding human rights in Indonesia today. Normative Juridical research methods. Human rights are rights that cannot be separated from one individual to another. Protection and law enforcement in Indonesia need to be considered so that Indonesian people feel safe under the umbrella of law. In state life, human rights are regulated and protected by the laws of the Republic of Indonesia, where every form of human rights violation whether committed by a person, group or agency or even a country will be tried in the implementation of human rights justice, the human rights court takes the trial process through the human rights court procedural law as stated in contained in the Human Rights Courts Act.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights

This article examines the integration of human rights, particularly the right to freedom of movement, within Kazakhstan’s framework for ensuring law and order. The study explores how constitutional guarantees and legislative reforms interact with administrative practices to balance individual liberties and public security. It analyzes the evolution of legal instruments, including the Kazakh Constitution and the Law on Migration, alongside international human rights norms, to assess their role in promoting both free movement and societal stability. The research highlights the challenges and opportunities that arise from aligning human rights protection with the imperatives of law enforcement and public order. By comparing Kazakhstan’s legal framework with those of other jurisdictions, the article demonstrates that effective integration of freedom of movement into law-and-order systems is essential for fostering sustainable development, social cohesion, and international credibility. The findings emphasize the need for continued legal reform and administrative improvements to resolve conflicts between individual mobility and state security, thereby ensuring that the protection of human rights serves as a catalyst for a stable and progressive society.

SummaryIn Canada, as in most countries, assisted human reproduction has become accessible treatment for individuals who wish to conceive. Scientific advancements in the area of human reproduction have led to the enactment of legislation that attempts to regulate this novel field. The Canadian Assisted Human Reproduction Act (2004) identifies the health and wellbeing of children born through reproductive technologies as a paramount principle in all decisions respecting their use. On the other hand, and surprisingly, the statute restricts access by offspring to information that can lead to identification of their genitors. The disclosure of donors’ identity to the recipients of reproductive materials is quite limited. According to this article, this legislation is in violation of international human rights law on health, identity, and family relations to which Canada is a party. The first part of the article explores international human rights law on identity, health, and family relations rights that Canada has signed, ratified, or acceded to. The second part discusses whether the Canadian legal system is in line with the relevant international human rights obligations identified earlier and asserts that there is scope for judicially interpreting Canadian law in such a way that would conform to those obligations.

1. Introduction: reconsidering human rights from below Koen De Feyter and Stephan Parmentier 2. Sites of rights resistance Koen De Feyter 3. Freedom from want revisited from a local perspective: evolution and challenges ahead Felipe Gomez Isa 4. Relevance of human rights in the 'glocal' space of politics: how to enlarge democratic practice beyond state boundaries and build up a peaceful world order? Antonio Papisca 5. The local relevance of human rights: a methodological approach Gaby Ore Aguilar 6. Ensuring compliance with decisions by international and regional human rights bodies: the case of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture Michelle Farrell 7. Building rights-based health movements: lessons from the Peruvian experience Alicia Ely Yamin and J. Jaime Miranda 8. Defining human rights when economic interests are high: the case of the Western Shoshone Julie Cavanaugh-Bill 9. Struggling to localise human rights: the experience of indigenous peoples in Chile Jose Aylwin 10. Enforcing environmental rights under Nigeria's 1999 constitution: the localisation of human rights in the Niger Delta region Rhuks Temitope Ako 11. Conflict resolution through cultural rights and cultural wrongs: the Kosovo example Maria del Mar Bermudez, Manuel Calzada Pla and Lydia Vicente Marquez 12. Epilogue: widening the perspective on the local relevance of human rights George Ulrich.

This article explores efforts to integrate human rights into Swedish education during the early post-war era (1948–1966). Focusing on how human rights were conceptualized and justified, the study addresses a significant gap in the historiography of human rights education by investigating its development prior to the 1970s. By examining materials from the National Board of Education, and the first textbook on human rights for Swedish schools, we begin by discussing the conceptualization of human rights in education. Special attention is given to the relationship between human rights, the United Nations, and the pursuit of peace. Second, we explore the spatial and temporal imaginings of human rights. Considering that Swedish legal scholars viewed natural law as foreign to the Swedish legal tradition, we analyze how Swedish educators negotiated this challenge. Were human rights presented as a foreign novelty or as already realized in Swedish history? Finally, we discuss teaching practices and subject integration of human rights. The findings reveal that education about human rights was deeply intertwined with United Nations initiatives, emphasizing peace and internationalism, but often framed as relevant primarily to ‘others’ in distant countries. Education about human rights was integrated into existing subjects rather than treated as a standalone subject, with age-appropriate methods encouraging active student participation.

International discussions on corporate responsibility for the respect of human rights has increased significantly over the past few years culminating in the publication of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Total has been an active contributor to these discussions and, in parallel, has developed internal guidance on human rights to complement existing policies on risk evaluation and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). A range of industry guidance has, and is, being developed on the integration of human rights into impact assessments, yet there remains discussion about whether an integrated, stand-alone or mixed approach can best address these issues. Total has identified the potential human rights risks and impacts of its exploration activities in a sub-saharan African country where the human rights context is particularly complex. A dual approach was taken: human rights issues were added to the scope of the ESIA, whilst in parallel a dedicated human rights impact assessment was commissioned. A number of issues have emerged: the relation between the potential impacts of a relatively small scale exploration activity in a context of high human rights risk; the need to address risks and impacts related to a specific operation versus those that go beyond a limited geographic zone; the ‘conflict’ between confidentiality for both the company and those stakeholders consulted, and transparency. This paper presents a comparative assessment of the methodologies used to identify potential human rights risks and impacts, evaluate their severity, and to identify mitigation measures. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach in this particular context are evaluated. It is anticipated that the assessment will provide lessons and practical recommendations for the industry given: the history and current human rights context in the operational area; the two studies being carried out in parallel for the same exploration activity in the same area, the different skills and experience being provided by the two organizations.

Development of human rights and citizenship rights is based on publication of its concepts among the people in global society. This publication of concepts and introduction of the people from different nations to human rights are done through education. Media with their role in transfer of information and knowledge have educational function. Media with their educational function ensured education right as one of the human rights while informing the public thoughts with their own rights and increasing their demands through human rights and citizenship rights education. Human rights and citizenship rights education activate the people of society in normalization of the related rules and this media education which is directly and indirectly related to obligation of states to right of education binds the states to respond to increased demands of human rights and citizenship rights and take action regarding development of the human and citizenship rights in national and international level. Human rights and citizenship rights have exclusive capability which leads to increased awareness of states with human and citizenship rights and increased demands of states and international society considering high number of media addresses and diversity of their content in presentation of materials about human and citizenship rights in education for all society levels and increased demand leads states and international society to develop norms of the human and citizenship rights through legislation, codification and enactment of the conventions on human rights and this process leads to development of human and citizenship rights at local and global levels.

In this paper I analyze some conceptual difficulties associated with the demand that global institutions be made more democratically accountable. In the absence of a world state, it may seem inconsistent to insist that global institutions be accountable to all those subject to their decisions while also insisting that the members of these institutions, as representatives of states, simultaneously remain accountable to the citizens of their own countries for the special responsibilities they have toward them. This difficulty seems insurmountable in light of the widespread acceptance of a state-centric conception of human rights, according to which states and only states bear primary responsibility for the protection of their citizens’ rights. Against this conception, I argue that in light of the current structures of global governance the monistic ascription of human rights obligations to states is no longer plausible. Under current conditions, states are bound to fail in their ability to protect the human rights of their citizens whenever potential violations either stem from transnational regulations or are perpetrated by non-state actors. In order to show the plausibility of an alternative, pluralist conception of human rights obligations I turn to the current debate among scholars of international law regarding the human rights obligations of non-state actors. I document the various ways in which these obligations could be legally entrenched in global financial institutions such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank. These examples indicate feasible methods for strengthening the democratic accountability of these institutions while also respecting the accountability that participating member states owe to their own citizens. I conclude that, once the distinctions between the obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights are taken into account, no conceptual difficulty remains in holding states and non-state actors accountable for their respective human rights obligations.

Journal Article THE 'HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH' ADVOCATED BY THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND BY THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION: IS IT RELEVANT FOR WTO LAW AND POLICY? Get access Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2004, Pages 605–627, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/7.3.605 Published: 01 September 2004