Securing Dignity and Freedom Through Human Rights

Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-20939-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 3, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 567 g

Reihe: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes a guarantee for everyone to the social and economic conditions and opportunities that are essential for dignity and freedom to develop as a person. This study examines the text, context, and origins of the article that conveys the entitlement of everyone to realization of their indispensable economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights through national effort and international cooperation. The rights-oriented relationship involving the individual, community, and State provides an operational approach to social justice. By using legal rights to establish objective conditions for defining socially just conduct in relation to human dignity, article 22 reorients the conceptualization of social justice and its processes and results in philosophical theory. It also establishes that indispensable ESC rights must be implemented as a whole, not selectively, in order to secure dignity and personal development. Recognizing the indivisibility of ESC rights serves a practical purpose since the realization of each of the rights is largely dependent on the others in operation. In light of the tendency in practice to fragment the rights into selective and uncoordinated initiatives, the study draws implications for adjusting the methods used by the United Nations to promote and report on human rights and the activities affecting human rights conducted by other international organizations and the business sector.

The debate over a human rights-based approach to development is reshaping international development cooperation, in the context of the Millennium Development Goals and practice within international financial institutions and between countries. Targeting minimum levels of development, regardless of who benefits and how it is achieved, has proven insufficient to achieve human rights and social justice. Development success is being redefined in terms of eliminating inequality among people and assisting the most vulnerable and marginalized. The process is becoming an integral part of the outcome: participatory, informative, and accountable for human rights impact in the country concerned. However, much remains to be done to ensure the indivisibility of human rights in concrete terms as well as theoretically. More empirical knowledge of experiences in harvesting the synergies between rights is called for to avoid the trend toward “trade-offs” among human rights allegedly needed to meet limited resources. While the participatory process can help to clarify rights indispensable to particular development goals, democratic processes are surely no guarantee that ESC rights will be taken seriously; nor do they necessarily lead to full elimination of economic and social inequality. Respect for human rights engages more than democratic processes; judicial enforcement and other means, including solidarity among private actors, are all important to ensure ESC rights for all.

The recognition of human rights in article 22 of the Declaration acts as a compass in the pursuit of social justice by giving definition to the goals underlying ESC rights and to the means for their implementation. ESC rights reach beyond mere assets and material comforts to be received or enjoyed, and beyond quantitative assessments of equality and non-discrimination, critical as these are. Focusing only on minimum levels of selective rights across certain populations endangers the vital principle of the indivisibility of all ESC rights, first declared internationally in article 22. Rather, progress toward social justice realized through ESC rights is measured by assessing whether the opportunities, resources and freedoms one has, and one’s interaction with society, function in a way sufficient to facilitate one’s full and free development as a human being with dignity. In the end, the Declaration through article 22 is an affirmation of the freedom of the human personality, a guarantee of human dignity

Autoren/Hrsg.

Diller, Janelle M

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Internationales Recht und Europarecht Internationales Recht Internationale Menschen- und Minderheitenrechte, Kinderrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

I Introduction;
II Legal Context: A. Article 22 in relation to the UN Charter; B. Role of article 22 within the text of the Declaration;
III The textual elements and drafting origins of article 22: A. The drafting process leading up to the Declaration; B. The idea for an umbrella article on implementation of ESC rights; C. Ordinary meaning, context, and drafting history of the article;
IV Understanding the entitlement to security through ESC rights: A. “. The right to social security”; B. “Everyone, as a member of society”; C. ESC rights “indispensable for. Dignity and free development of. Personality”;
V Realizing the entitlement through national effort and international cooperation: A. “Entitled to realization”; B. “through national effort and international co-operation”; C. “ in accordance with the organization and resources of each State”;
VI Conclusions and Recommendations: A. Security for human dignity and freedom through ESC rights; B. Everyone as a member of society: shared responsibility; C. Claiming the entitlement to ESC rights; D. National effort and international cooperation: emerging frameworks; E. Enhancing accountability for conduct affecting ESC rights;
F. Beyond development: human rights as a compass for social justice.

Über Autor(innen)

Janelle M. Diller has extensive experience in international law in both public and private practice and has taught international human rights law, including at Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Virginia law School. Her writings focus on topical issues in the conceptualization of international law, particularly in areas that concern human rights and social justice, and in relation to domestic legal systems as well as international organizations and non-state actors. She is the Deputy Legal Adviser of the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The views in the book are presented solely in her personal capacity and do not represent the policy of the International Labour Organization.