Human Rights Monitoring
Human Rights Monitoring
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Date
2015-05-03
Authors
Yahia Abdalla ElMobasher, Tahani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UOFK
Abstract
Human rights law is an increasing and evolving concept in the international,
regional, and national systems and because of using human rights in politics,
it is becoming a famous phrase that need to be discussed thoroughly and to
know how the international, regional and national systems for human rights
work in cases of violations. In Chapter I I discussed the concept of human
rights and I traced the historical development of that concept since the natural
law thinking and I also discussed the modern international human rights
system which started with the United Nations Charter and the influence of
the Universalism and Cultural Relativisms theories on the development of
human rights. The development of human rights at the international level was
also accompanied by another development at the regional level, and these
necessitate discussing those systems mainly, the European, Inter –American
and African system for the promotion and protection of human rights.
Chapter II discussed the applicable international human rights and
humanitarian law. Sometimes we find misunderstanding in differentiating
between the two branches of law, and in order to understand the two systems
well, there is a need to know the bodies empowered with observing human
rights realization such as the General Assembly, the Security Council,
International Court of Justice, General Assembly and the main human rights
treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Convention
on the rights of the Child among others and also the relevant treaties relating
to humanitarian law.
It is not enough to know the relevant human rights treaties, we need to know
the relevant machineries responsible of monitoring the realizations of the
rights mentioned in those treaties and to see if they are effective or not, and
this is discussed in details in Chapter III. The Seven Committees established
by the Seven main human rights treaties are: the Human Rights Committee,
The Economic, Social and Cultural Committee, Child Rights Committee,
Committee Against Torture, Committee on Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women and the Committee on the Protection of Migrant Workers and their
Families. The mandate and functions of these different Committees are
mentioned in detail. These treaty-based mechanisms are in real need for
reform especially the reporting system and in relation to this point the
experience of the International Labour Organization is also discussed.
Another important legal development is the establishment of the International
Criminal Court.
Human rights system is developed at the conventional level and also at the
Charter- based level and there are also important mechanisms that monitor
the realization and enjoyment of these different rights for all human beings
all over the world. These mechanisms are established by the United Nations
Charter and they are the General Assembly, the Security Council, The
International Court of Justice, and most importantly the Commission on
Human Rights. This Commission has different methods of monitoring human
rights issues; these are the public 1235 procedure of 1967 and the 1503
procedure of 1970. Recently the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights started playing a major role in human rights issues especially
in human rights education, technical cooperation programmes and in
establishing national human rights institutions. These different mechanisms
are using the same methods of monitoring mainly, gathering information,
interviewing, visits to persons in detention and reporting. These mechanisms
are political bodies, which are considered as one of the main defects in
Charter-based monitoring system. Chapter V looks at the most developed
regional system, which is the European system for human rights. I discussed
the different treaties and mechanisms established to promote and protect
human rights in the European countries. In Chapters VI and VII, I have
discussed the Inter-American and the African systems respectively.
Sudan has been scrutinized since the early 1990s for its bad human rights
records. So Chapter VIII discusses the international and regional obligations
of Sudan and the national monitoring system for human rights violations.
Under international law any state party to any international treaty has the
obligation to harmonize its national laws with its obligations and is also
obliged to realize the different rights enumerated in those treaties and to do
that Sudan has the duty to establish machineries that protect the individual’s
rights under its territory. This Chapter includes the most important
mechanisms that is, the Constitutional Court, Advisory Council for Human
Rights, regular courts, and the Committee on the Eradication of Abduction of
Women and Children.
The final Chapter IX is on conclusions and recommendations which will
ensure an effective, functioning and reliable system for the promotion and
protection of human rights at all levels whether international, regional or
national level. Finally, there are four schedules.
Description
Keywords
Optional Protocol, Women's Rights,Human Rights Monitoring