INTERNATIONAL and REGIONAL PROGRAMS on HUMAN RIGHTS

International human rights law is considered a post-World War II phenomenon. Although ideas of rights and liberty have existed for much of human history and protection of some human rights at international level can be traced long before World War II. But modern international conceptions of human rights were developed as a result of the monstrous violations of human rights of the Hitler era and to the necessity of creating an effective international system for the protection of human rights. The famous speech “Four Freedoms”[1] made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 became the call of the nations to found the United Nations. The UN was established on 24 October 1945 by 51 countries committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Today nearly every nation in the world belongs to this organization: membership now totals 192 countries. The United Nations has six nation organs. Five of them – the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat – are based at the Headquarters in New York. The sixth, the International Court of Justice, is located in the Hague, the Netherlands. The United Nations inaugurated a human rights program, often referred to as the international Bill of Rights. It consists of the following documents, the titles of which generally describe some of the fundamental human rights: the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the 1948 Covenant on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and etc. But the 1945 United Nations Charter is the main document which proclaimed basic principle of human rights protection as one of the principle of international law.

The Universal Declaration is the first comprehensive human rights instrument to be proclaimed by a universal international organization. It is not a treaty. The Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly as a resolution having no force of law. It wasn’t signed. Its purpose is to provide “a common understanding” of the human rights and fundamental freedoms referred to in the UN Charter and to serve “as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”. The Universal Declaration proclaims two broad categories of rights: civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. Its catalog of civil and political rights includes the right to life, liberty, and security of person; the prohibition of slavery, of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right to a fair trial in both civil and criminal matters, the presumption of innocence etc. Important political rights are proclaimed in Art.21 of the declaration, including the individual’s right “to take part in the government of his|her country, directly or through freely chosen representatives”. The Declaration then proclaims the individual’s right to work and to ” protection against unemployment”, “to rest and leisure” (Art. 24), to “a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being”(Art. 25).

Regional systems. There are several regional human rights systems of protection of human rights: in Europe, Latin America and Africa. The Council of Europe represents one of the European organization. It is an intergovernmental regional organization, which was created as a respond to a proposal of W. Churchill by 10 European countries on 5 May 1949 in London. Nowadays the Council of Europe amounts 46 member states (2007). The main aims of the Council are to protect human rights, to work towards “greater unity between its members” through “ agreements and common actions in economic, social, cultural, scientific, legal and administrative matters and in the maintenance and further realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. Among the main important legal agreements established within the framework of the Council of Europe are: the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ( the basic instrument which member states sign simultaneously with the Statute of the Council of Europe); the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the European Social Charter; the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The very important mechanism of protection of human rights was created according to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – European Court of Human Rights.

Latin American and African human rights norms are expressed in the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the American Convention on Human Rights (1978) and in the 1986 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The human rights provisions of these documents are only statements of moral principles, not specific obligations. They have no enforcement powers.

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