Human Rights

Question 1

Dimension of Human Rights

Answer 1

1) Positive law
= legal reality: they exist because they are created by law

2) Moral Claims
= inspire creation/ rejection of legal rights & useful for interpreting legal rights in constitutions (North Korea)

3) Standards for measurement
= measuring development
= human rights as benchmark for social development

4) Political Language
= powerful tool for protest and use for agenda

Question 2

Critiques of Human Rights

Answer 2

• Supobtimality (= rule out certain forms of behaviour -> situations where infringing rights of individual would lead to better results) ->Covid curfews and freedom of movement
• Undemocratic (= 1. authorize courts to ignore democratically made legislation because it infringes individual rights; 2. Who should make decision? -> difference between human rights principles and will of the majority)
• Parochial (unfair to impose on non-western communities because they don’t lign up with their history and traditions)

Question 3

Types of Duties

Answer 3

Negative rights: demand state inaction (freedom of speech)

Positive rights: demand state action (right to health)

Question 4

State Duty

Answer 4

1. Duty to respect: state should be refrained from doing something (negative right)
2. Duty to protect: state should take action to prevent a third party from inpairing enjoyment of a right of another individual
3. Duty to fulfill: state should take action in order to ensure that somebody enjoys a right that they are currently not enjoying

Question 5

Catalogue of the Rights

Answer 5

1. Rights to integrity of a person (right to life, right to be free from torture)
2. Freedom Rights (freedom of religion, freedom of speech etc)
3. Political Rights (freedom of conscience, freedom of speech etc)
4. Welfare Rights (right to food, right to water, right to education)
5. Equality & Nondiscrimination Provisions (formal equality, material equality)
6. Fair Trial & Administration of Justice

Question 6

Limitations of Human Rights

Answer 6

1. Limitations must be provided by Law
2. Limitation must be restricted to a legitimate goal
3. Limitation must be restricted to legitimate goal
4. Limitations must be of such nature that is necessary in a democratic society

Question 7

Violation of Rights

Answer 7

1. Admissibility
2. Validity
3. Remedies

Question 8

5 Historical Landmarks in Development

Answer 8

1. Ancient Greece and Rome
   - beginning of natural law
   - natural law: above positive law, there is a higher law that protects all mankind and to which positive law should confirm
2. Enlightenment
   - decrease importance of classical natural law: science views nature as mechanical and deprived from inherent purpose meaning, humans need to decide themselves what should be done
3. US, 1789
   - first country adopts legally binding constitution with list of basic rights
4. 19th century and beginning of 20th century
   - Rise Darwinism, Marxism & Freudianism
   - mechanical view of nature could be used to explain far reaching explanations of topics which were normally thought to be beyond the reach of science
   -> rise of modern natural law
5. WWII
   - renewed interest in idea that there are universally applicable moral limits to what states are allowed to do with their subjects (=citizens)

Question 9

Human Rights

Answer 9

rights everyone has by existing