The Human Rights Law: Key Facts, Core Principles, IHRL, Enforced Laws, Law Council, and Violations

The Human Rights Law Overview

Human rights are the fundamental freedoms that every person has by virtue of being a member of the human race. All people have it by nature, regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, language, sex, or any other characteristic. Human rights are laws that uphold and defend the inherent worth of every person. Human rights determine how people interact with one another and with the state, as well as how they relate to the state and what duties the state has toward them. Governments are restrained from doing certain things by human rights legislation while being required to do others. 

What are Human Rights?

All people have the same fundamental legal rights, regardless of gender, color, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other distinction. Human rights cover a wide range of rights, such as freedom from slavery and torture, the right to life and liberty, the freedom of speech, the right to a job, and the right to an education, among many more. The rights to life, liberty, equality, and dignity of the person guaranteed by the Constitution or enshrined in international covenants and upheld by Indian courts are referred to as "human rights" in the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. 

What is Human Rights Law?

Human rights are the freedoms and rights of a person that serve as the cornerstone of their interaction with the state. The Human Rights Act of 1998 integrated public law, EU law, and human rights into English law. Any violations of the European Convention on Human Rights can be prosecuted in UK courts, while as a last option, claims may still be brought to Strasbourg in France.

Key Facts about Human Rights Law

The following are some of the facts related to the human rights act-

1. By recognizing health as a human right, nations are obliged by law to provide timely, decent, and inexpensive medical treatment.
2. Participation entails ensuring that all programmatic phases, including assessment, analysis, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, incorporate meaningful participation from national stakeholders, including non-state actors like non-governmental organizations.
3. States must take action to change any discriminatory laws, practices, or policies in order to uphold non-discrimination and equality.
4. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Universal Health Coverage both support the idea that a rights-based approach to health should prioritize the needs of those who are most disadvantaged first in order to promote more fairness.
5. The best possible level of health is envisioned as a fundamental human right in the WHO Constitution. 
6. The importance of meaningful involvement is another trait of rights-based strategies. Various international human rights institutions examine a state's responsibility to uphold the right to health, including via the deployment of "maximum available resources" to gradually realize this aim.
7. Without regard to color, age, ethnicity, or any other characteristic, everyone has the right to good health. 

Importance of the Human Rights Law

Tolerance, equality, and respect are values that can lessen conflict in society. The sort of society we wish to live in may be created by putting human rights principles into practice. Human rights have a significant role in how individuals relate to one another at all societal levels, including those of the family, the community, the workplace, the classroom, politics, and international relations. Therefore, it is crucial that everyone work to grasp what human rights are. Promoting justice and the welfare of society is made simpler for people when they have a greater understanding of human rights.

Core Principles of the Human Rights Law

The following is the list of the core principles of Human Rights law-

Being Universal and Unalienable

All people have inherent, unalienable rights. Everyone has a right to them, anywhere on the globe. Nobody can renounce them freely. They cannot be taken from him or her by others, either. 

Equality and Lack of Prejudice

Due to the intrinsic dignity of every human being, all people are on an equal footing. According to the human rights treaty organizations, all people have the right to exercise their human rights without being subjected to any kind of discrimination based on factors including race, color, sex, ethnicity, age, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, handicap, property, birth, or another status.

Inclusion and Participation

Every individual and every group of people have the right to actively, freely, and meaningfully take part in, contribute to, and enjoy civil, political, economic, social, and cultural development, which paves the way for the realization of human rights and basic freedoms. 

Indivisibility

Human rights cannot be divided. Civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights are all inalienable components of a person's dignity. As a result, they are all treated equally as rights. 'Small' rights don't exist. The order of human rights is not important. 

Integrity and the Rule of Law

States and other duty-bearers are required to abide by the laws and regulations outlined in human rights documents. Affected rights holders have the right to initiate legal actions for adequate reparation before a court or other adjudicator in line with the laws' rules and processes if they fail to do so. 

Interconnectedness and Interdependence

The full or partial realization of one right frequently depends on the full or partial realization of another. For example, the realization of the right to education or the right to knowledge may be necessary for the realization of the right to health. 

Read more about the Difference Between Criminal and Civil Law.

Who is responsible for Defending Human Rights Law?

1. Through a common set of rights and obligations, human rights bind us to one another.
2. Consequently, human rights entail obligations and responsibilities to others as well as to the community.
3. Everyone has the right to a good education, for instance, according to the right to education.  
4. For Example, when exercising one's right to free speech, one should do so without violating another's right to privacy.
5. Governments are usually understood to be responsible for this, whether or not they actually do so, and citizens can hold them accountable if they don't uphold or safeguard their fundamental human rights.
6. It is the obligation of each individual to exercise their rights in a way that respects the rights of others. 
7. The exercise of one's human rights is contingent upon others upholding those rights.
8. They must create and uphold policies and programs that let individuals live lives where their rights are upheld and safeguarded.
9. This implies that governments owe their citizens access to high-quality educational resources and services.
10. To guarantee that individuals may exercise their rights, governments have a special duty. 

What is International Human Rights Law?

The branch of international legislation known as international human rights law (IHRL) aims to advance human rights at the social, regional, and national levels. International human rights law is largely composed of treaties, which are agreements established between sovereign governments and designed to have legal force between the parties that have agreed to them, as well as customary international law. 

The Human Rights Law Declaration of the United Nations

A key document in the development of human rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It is a part of the so-called International Bill of Human Rights, which also includes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, its two Optional Protocols (on the grievance procedure and on the death penalty), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

In 1976, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights became law. The following are some of the human rights that the Covenant aims to advance and defend-

1. The Right  to Freedom of Assembly
2. The Right  to Freedom of Expression
3. The Right  to Freedom of Religion or Conscience
4. The Right  to Privacy
5. The Right to Property
6. The Right to Vote

Human rights also cover Economic and Social Rights, such as-

1. The Right to an Adequate Standard of Living
2. The Right to Adequate Food, Housing, Water, and Sanitation
3. The Right to Education.
4. The Right you have at Work

Enforcing the Human Rights Law

When human rights treaties have been ratified or integrated into national law, courts are responsible for carrying out this work on a national level. However, depending on the nation, ombudsman offices, human rights committees, human rights councils, legislative committees, and other organizations may also be involved. The primary international oversight institutions are commissions, committees, and courts, all of which are made up of impartial members who are either experts or judges, and none of them are representatives of any one state.:

The Human Rights Convention Laws

Since 1945, a number of international human rights treaties and other laws have been passed, adding to the body of international human rights law. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) are a few of them.

The Human Rights Law Council

The 60-year-old UN Commission on Human Rights was superseded as the primary UN intergovernmental body in charge of human rights on March 15, 2006, when the General Assembly formed the Human Rights Council and gave it direct reporting responsibility. The Council, which is composed of 47 state members, has the responsibility of addressing instances of human rights breaches and providing recommendations on them, including reacting to human rights crises, in order to promote the promotion and protection of human rights all over the world.

Violations of the Human Rights Law on Health

The following are some of the violations of the Human Rights Act on Health-

1. Human rights abuses or disregard for them can have detrimental effects on a person's health. 
2. The risk of increased exposure to human rights abuses, such as coercive or forced treatment and procedures, is present for many people, including those with disabilities, members of indigenous populations, women living with HIV, sex workers, drug users, transgender people, and intersex people, in the health care setting.
3. Ironically, despite the high rates of violence, poverty, and social isolation that negatively impact the mental and physical health of people with mental health issues, mental health is still not given enough attention in the public health arena.
4. Mental illness frequently results in a violation of dignity and autonomy, including forced institutionalization or treatment, and contempt for each person's ability to make decisions under the law.