Militär, Rüstungsdynamik und Frieden

BackgroundAlthough attention to human rights in Indonesia has been improving over the past decade, the human rights situation of persons with mental disorders is still far from satisfactory. The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal framework for protection of human rights of persons with mental disorder and the extent to which Indonesia's international obligations concerning the right to health are being met.MethodsWe examined the Indonesian constitution, Indonesian laws relevant to the right to health, the structure and operation of the National Human Rights Commission, and what is known about violations of the human rights of persons with mental illness from research and the media.ResultsThe focus of the Indonesian Constitution on rights pre-dated the Universal Declaration, Indonesia has ratified relevant international covenants and domestic law provides an adequate legal framework for human rights protections. However, human rights abuses persist, are widespread, and go essentially unremarked and unchallenged. The National Human Rights Commission has only recently become engaged in the issue of protection of the rights of persons with mental illness.ConclusionMore than legislation is needed to protect the human rights of persons with mental illness. Improving the human rights situation for persons with mental illness in Indonesia will require action by governments at national, provincial and district levels, substantial increases in the level of investment in mental health services, coordinated action by mental health professionals and consumer and carer organisations, and a central role for the National Human Rights Commission in protecting the rights of persons with mental illness.

Though migrant workers like all human beings are entitled to fundamental human rights, including non-discrimination, equality of treatment, and the right to a safe and healthy working condition, Bangladeshi Migrant workers in informal sector of Saudi Arabia labour market are facing right violations. The purpose of this study is to understand the human rights situation of Bangladeshi migrant workers, the human rights challenges faced by them and the role of labour attaché in protecting human rights of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. In this regard, qualitative research approach is deemed suitable to have a detailed understanding of the existing phenomenon. Thus, this research has incorporated three (03) FGDs (Focus Group Discussions) with returnee Bangladeshi migrant workers and recruiting agents and thirty (30) IDIs (In-depth Interviews) with returnee Bangladeshi migrant workers from Saudi Arabia, labour migration experts, academicians, government and non-government officials, labour attaché and recruiting agents of Bangladesh. This research finds that Bangladeshi migrant workers are facing discrimination, deprivation, exploitation and forced labour in both pre and post migration stage. The migrant workers’ low socio-economic background, unawareness of recruitment process and legal support, dependency on labour intermediaries, lack of adequate policy measures and insufficient enforcement mechanisms are contributing to human right violation. In this regard, the role of labour attaché is crucial to ensure humane labour migration that upholds migrant workers’ rights and privilege. This study contributes to academic and policy discourses by providing critical insights on migrant human rights situation and the human rights challenges with adequate empirical evidence supported by experts’ opinions and existing national and international legal documents.

Reviewed by: The Twilight of Human Rights Law by Eric A. Posner Hurst Hannum (bio) Eric A. Posner, The Twilight of Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press 2014), 185pages, ISBN 978-0-19-931344-0. Professor Eric A. Posner is a prolific writer and the Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. From his CV, it appears that he has spent essentially his entire career in academia. This provocative book is thus primarily a philosophical, quasi-social science critique of international human rights law based on theory, not practice or experience. This very brief biographical summary is necessary because The Twilight of Human Rights Law is based on fundamental misunderstandings of the human rights project, which began in the 1940s, gained political traction in the 1970s, and today influences the rhetoric of practically every government in the world. These misunderstandings are both conceptual and analytical, and they undermine the attention that should be given to a number of difficult questions that Posner raises. The conceptual misunderstanding emerges from the first sentence of Chapter 1: “The animating idea behind human rights is the moral obligation not to harm strangers, and possibly the moral obligation to help them if they are in need.”1 This view of human rights as a legal-moral obligation on outsiders to impose their will or sense of justice on “strangers” leads fairly easily to Posner’s ultimate conclusion that “human rights law has failed to accomplish its objectives,” as discussed more fully below.2 The analytical misunderstanding is shared by many of the new “quantifiers” of human rights compliance, whether they are critical or supportive of human rights in general. It is the assumption that attempting to measure the impact of human rights treaties is a useful means of measuring the impact of human rights. A corollary is that the weakness of legally binding or other enforcement mechanisms is a measure of their failure. In reality, those who draft international human rights texts and who work to implement human rights norms have much more modest goals. Human rights law was not created to justify outside intervention (whether by force or otherwise); it was “animated” by the simple proposition that every human being has rights simply by being human, and that these rights belong to each person equally. While concepts of justice, fairness, and equality have appeared within societies since the beginning of time, the revolution wrought by international human rights was to expand these notions to include those who had been excluded from protection in any given society due to race, caste, gender, religion, or similar characteristics. A second important feature of international human rights law is its origin in the mid-twentieth century, a time when the state was becoming more powerful and increasingly ubiquitous. Human rights focuses on the relationship between the government and the individual (and occasionally groups), both to protect the individual from the power of the state and to identify the positive responsibility of the state to concern itself with the socioeconomic welfare of its population. The changes in government behavior envisaged by human rights are potentially [End Page 1105] extensive and long-term. Thus, Posner’s focus on the recent (twenty years or so) impact of human rights treaties largely misses the point. The goal has always been to persuade governments to change laws and policies through domestic processes, not to impose human rights law primarily through courts, economic sanctions, or military campaigns led by “foreigners.” Posner first offers a superficial overview of human rights history and institutions. The latter discussion is marred by a number of minor errors or overstatements that reflect Posner’s lack of familiarity with the way in which human rights institutions actually work. For example, the book frequently refers to the UN “Council on Human Rights” rather than the Human Rights Council. The description of the work of the UN human rights treaty bodies with respect to individual complaints refers to their attempts to “mediate”3 solutions or to enter into a “dialogue”4 with the country concerned. There is no mention of the committees’ often blunt criticism of specific human rights situations in a country or their published “views...

As states become parties to international human rights treaties, they undertake the obligation to provide periodic state reports to UN human rights treaty bodies. Officially, state reports are paramount vehicles of factual information of a given state’s human rights situation. Unofficially their status may be contested and their data reduced to state propaganda. This article examines this transformation through the submission of China’s first state report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The article shows how human rights documents of diverse genres join together in a continual ceremony of dialogue. It connects minute details of treaty body proceedings to more general developments in the international human rights field, and argues that beneath the veneer of diplomatic conduct accompanying human rights dialogue lays an intense struggle for representation and legitimacy. It further discusses how this struggle reflects the recent rise of Kantian theories of international law. These theories seek to re-evaluate the foundational concept of international law, namely ‘sovereign equality’, and, thus continue the mission civilisatrice that has characterized elements of international collaboration for centuries.

Human Rights Promotion, Protection and Respect in Maguindanao

In the recent years, there has been a considerable growth in the name of arrest without warrant and the inhuman torture of the person arrested in the name of interrogation while under the police custody. This paper has examined the impact of making arrest without warrant and the sufferings of the arrested person without trial which give rise to the question of violation of human rights. The central focus of this research is to explore the role of the police to protect the human rights in Bangladesh and to find out the problems faced by the police while performing their duties. It also aims to go through the existing human rights situation in Bangladesh as well as to find out the ways by making effective recommendations to improve the situation through positive role played by the police in this regard.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR), one of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Council) mechanisms, aims to monitor the human rights situation globally through recommendations addressed to States. The creation of the UPR, brought about in the wake of the reform of the extinct United Nations Commission on Human Rights (Commission), brought institutional innovations in an attempt to overcome the problems of selectivity and inefficiency, indicated as the main critical points of operation of the organism in monitoring the international human rights. Besides the particularities of monitoring human rights through the UPR, this mechanism introduces two virtually unprecedented elements for the universal system of human rights: a tendency to circumscribe international human rights dynamics confined to States and the experimentation with decisions of a purely recommendatory nature. The literature that traces the historical origins of international human rights regimes points out that human rights systems were created to hold States accountable for human rights violations and abuses through international norms and institutions created specifically for that purpose. Alongside these internationally authorized control systems, civil society organizations independently exercise scrutiny of both state behavior and the functioning of international organizations. This means that, in practice, human rights systems, although arising from a purely intergovernmental decision, bring together the participation of civil society organizations in a more or less institutionalized manner, with different capacities for action. Based on the assumption that social organizations play crucial roles in international human rights systems, this dissertation seeks to understand how these limitations apply to the international mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review in order to identify the ways in which civil society organizations have organized themselves to circumvent the restrictions imposed on social participation in these dynamics, which is carried out through semi-structured interviews conducted with a sample of ten civil society organizations operating in the UPR of Brazil.

It is remarkable how many critiques of the approach of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to human rights include the phrase: ‘WTO should ?’. In many cases WTO actually ‘shouldn’t’ because even if it ‘would’ it ‘couldn’t’. With the exception of the Dispute Settlement Procedures (DSP) the WTO does not really have an independent institutional decision–making power. It is nevertheless true that this international forum of free trade has remained remarkably conservative regarding human rights even after the end of ‘the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) years’ and the establishing of the WTO. Many scholars accuse the WTO of organizational isolationism and advocate for overcoming this practice. Criticism focuses especially on the apparent non–responsiveness of the organization to human rights issues – despite the huge impact free trade has on such matters – and unwillingness to discuss human rights, or cooperate with international agencies that protect them. In present days, the International Bill of Rights is commonly recognized as a human rights standard. Human rights are mainstreamed in the EU body of law, as well as soft law documents such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the UN Agenda for Development. Recently, they are incorporated in the organizational statues and programme methodologies of institutions such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The WTO seems to stay away from this process. We aim to explore the reasons for this conservative attitude of the WTO towards human rights, while trying to establish historical parallels with the gradual adoption of human rights as core standards in other international entities such as the European Union. We attempt to tackle the relationship between WTO membership and the human rights situation in its Member States and the possible implications that continuing admission of non–democratic countries – e.g., Russia – might have. We also explore the understanding of some scholars that human rights are ‘seeping into the WTO system’ – and briefly analyze some examples that could illustrate this process.

This chapter describes the gist of the principal human rights components of UN Peacekeeping Operations and of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Human Rights Office in Abkhazia, Georgia (HROAG) carries out monitoring of human rights in order to help strengthen the rule of law in Abkhazia, Georgia, and to support the return of internally displaced persons under safe and dignified conditions. In addition, monitoring of the human rights situation is carried out through HROAG's office in mid-town Sukhumi and by regular visits of HROAG staff throughout Abkhazia, Georgia and in particular to the Gali district adjacent to the cease-fire line. OHCHR has operated in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of Annex 6 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace. The Human Rights Component also undertook joint human rights training activities with UNDP under its human rights and protection programme. Keywords: high commissioner; HROAG; human rights Component; OHCHR; UN peacebuilding operation; UN peacekeeping operation; UNDP

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, one of the organs of the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights, has a variety of powers with which it carries out its function. This article deals with one of these powers that results in the issuance by the Commission of reports containing an examination of the general situation of human rights in a country. The article gives a brief description of the Commission's various powers and describes the development, out of the Commission's practice, of the very important procedure to prepare and publish country reports. The remarkable flexibility of this procedure is examined in the light of the contents of many reports produced by the Commission, and particularly of the 1994 Report on El Salvador. The reaction of the OAS political organs to the country reports is also examined, as well as a modality of country reports incorporated in the Commission's Annual Reports, which purport to monitor in a shorter manner the situation of human rights in some countries.

Summary The present report, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A and Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, is primarily based on interviews and briefings held with victims, civil society representatives, human rights defenders, and Palestinian officials, among others, in Amman and Cairo in September 2014. The Special Rapporteur made every effort to contact Palestinian victims and witnesses via video and teleconference. In the report, he addresses a number of concerns pertaining to the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and in particular, on their impact on children.

Upholding the highest standards of human rights enshrined and guaranteed in its Constitution, Japan has consolidated its democratic political system and has developed policies for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms as universal values. Japan firmly believes that the promotion and protection of human rights is a legitimate interest of the international community . Therefore, grave violations of human rights need to be addressed in cooperation with the international community. Japan also affirms that the human rights of all people should be respected, regardless of their country’s culture, traditions, political and economic systems and level of socio-economic development, even if there are differences in their processes and speed of achievement with regard to human rights protection. Protecting human rights is the most fundamental responsibility of any nation. Based on its commitment to dialogue and cooperation, Japan will steer efforts to resolve human rights issues of concerns to the international community and to improve human rights situations through both multilateral fora, including the United Nations (UN), and bilateral dialogues. In addition, Japan is committed to extending necessary and feasible cooperation from the viewpoint of “human security”. Japan is also committed to contributing to realize world peace, stability and prosperity more actively than ever.

At the turn of the 21st century, China emerged as a major player in Africa’s international relations. This emergence has attracted a lot of attention in literature on what it portends for Africa. Many of the past studies have maintained that China undermines human rights in its engagements with Africa. Of important note was China’s support for the Sudanese government even in the face of human rights abuses; its unconditional aid to Angola, that have helped the government to shun accountability and transparency; its support for inhuman practices meted to the citizens of Zimbabwe by the government, among others. Against this background, this paper examined China-Africa contemporary relations from the human rights perspective. It explored, among others, China’s stance on human rights issues and the rights that China undermines in Africa. The paper argued China’s stance on human rights in Africa, and possibly internationally has a link with its domestic human rights situation. Being that human rights in China are abysmal, ordinarily China would not promote human rights in Africa more than what it does at home. The author concludes that although China may not be labelled a ‘saint’ in human rights abuses in Africa, it still cannot be labelled a ‘sinner’ in many human rights abuses by African governments.

This paper attempts to show the significance of the implementation of human rights in the local community. Along with the international and national schemes for the collective guarantee of human rights, the local community should be a significant arena for the carrying out of social efforts to protect and promote human rights in practice. For improving the human rights situation at the local level, multiple approaches are suggested: the widespread promotion of a human rights culture in the community, the offering of human rights education in local schools for children and workplaces for adults, the collective efforts for implementing human rights by members of the local community such as agents of the local government and activists of nongovernmental organizations, and the introduction of local regulations for human rights. These multiple approaches aim to establish a social system for the collective guarantee of human rights at the level of the local community.

Since the year 2000, the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) has been developing a new research methodology on human rights based on a system of progress indicators about three groups of rights: access to justice, political participation and human rights education. The approach was initially applied in 6 countries of the region, and produced the Progress Maps on Human Rights. This experience set the foundations for the annual preparation of the Inter-American Report on Human Rights Education, which IIHR distributes every December 10th, since 2002. The paper explains the oldest and more widely used approaches for research on human rights: (i) the registration of violations and (ii) the analysis of human rights situations. Then, it introduces the approach of measuring progress, its tools (progress indicators), the main methodological considerations, and the application of this approach, up to date, in 19 countries of the American continent that subscribed and/or ratified the San Salvador Protocol. Such application constitutes the first two Inter-American Reports on Human Rights Education, which are part of a series of 4 reports. El main objective of the series is to investigate the variations produced regarding the incorporation of Human Rights Education in formal and non-formal education, in the selected countries, during the period 1990-2002/03. The I Report (2002) focused on the legal developments of Human Rights Education at the national level, and the II Report (2003) examined the advanced in the curriculum and the textbooks in the elementary and high school levels of the formal education system. The conclusions and recommendations of both Reports are transcribed in the appendices.