Human rights handbook for parliamentarians (Nº 8 - 2005) [EN/AR]

Author:

The Handbook was written by Mr. Manfred Nowak, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights at the University of Vienna and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, with contributions from Mr. Jeroen Klok (OHCHR) and Ms. Ingeborg Schwarz (IPU).

Foreword

Human rights have pervaded much of the political discourse since the Second World War. While the struggle for freedom from oppression and misery is probably as old as humanity itself, it was the massive affront to human dignity perpetrated during that War, and the need felt to prevent such horror in the future, which put the human being back at the centre and led to the codification at the international level of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations declares “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion” as one of the purposes of the Organization.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, was the first step towards achieving this objective. It is seen as the authoritative interpretation of the term “human rights” in the Charter of the United Nations. The Universal Declaration together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both adopted in 1966, constitute what has become known as the International Bill of Human Rights. Since 1948, human rights and fundamental freedoms have indeed been codified in hundreds of universal and regional, binding and non-binding instruments, touching almost every aspect of human life and covering a broad range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the codification of human rights has largely been completed. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has recently pointed out, today’s main challenge is to implement the adopted standards.

In previous years, attention has increasingly turned towards the parliament as the State institution through which people exercise their right, enshrined in article 21 of the Universal Declaration, to participate in the conduct of the public affairs of the country. Indeed, if human rights are to become a reality for everyone, parliaments must fully play their role and exercise to this effect the specific powers they have, namely legislating, adopting the budget and overseeing the Government.

As an organization that shares the United Nations concern for human rights, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) seeks to strengthen the role of parliaments as guardians of human rights. The activities it has undertaken over the years to this end have shown that all too often parliamentarians know little about the international legal human rights framework, the obligations their countries have entered into by signing human rights treaties, and the various international and regional human rights bodies and mechanisms that exist to monitor their implementation. Indeed, parliamentarians could do a lot more in favour of human rights.

Hence, the suggestion that IPU and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations body specifically mandated to promote and protect the effective enjoyment by all of all civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, should publish a handbook with basic information about human rights and the international and regional systems designed to promote and protect them.

The task of drawing up the Handbook was entrusted to a renowned human rights expert, Mr. Manfred Nowak, currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. In carrying out this task he drew on the input and guidance of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians and officials of both OHCHR and IPU.

It is not difficult to see that, in spite of the human rights norms, standards and principles that have been established by the international community, we are far from living in a world “free from fear and want” to which the founders of the United Nations had aspired. It is therefore the hope of both organizations that the Handbook will become a major tool for parliamentarians all over the world to gauge their legislative, oversight and representative activities against the human rights obligations their countries have entered into, and will assist them in playing the important role they have for the promotion and protection of human rights at home, and worldwide.

Louise Arbour
United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights

Anders B. Johnsson
Secretary General
Inter-Parliamentary Union

WHAT DOES THE HANDBOOK CONTAIN?

• Part I provides an overview of the general principles governing human rights law and the obligations States have entered into under international human rights law. It presents the international and regional legal framework in the field of human rights and explains the functioning of the different international and regional human rights bodies, including those that monitor the implementation of the major international human rights treaties.

• In Part II, Chapter 11 is devoted to parliamentary action to promote and protect human rights. It gives concrete examples of what parliaments and their members can do in this area. “What you can do” boxes provide a checklist for such action.

• Chapters 12 and 13 aim to describe the core content of each right guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and answer questions such as “What does the right to fair trial mean?” or “What is the right to an adequate standard of living?” The chapters deal only with the fundamental rights that were further elaborated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and do not include the right to property.