H UMAN R IGHTS L AW Dr Maurice Mullard 20 February 2009

U NIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Adopted by United Nations 10 December 1948 a milestone in the history of human rights acquistion of human dignity and worth’ Two covenants International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICCPR International Convenant on Economic Social and Social Rights Rights ICESCR) Together formulate International Bill of Rights

A RTICLES OF THE DECLARATION Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood Article 2 Everyone is entitled to rights without discrimination of race colour sex language religion Rights are therefore inalienable Article 3 right to life liberty and the security of the person Articles 4 and 5 prohibit slavery Article 13 – 15 freedom of movement and residence right to seek asylum

Articles 7 – 11 rights against detention rights to a fair trial Article rights to privacy Article freedom of thought conscience, freedom of assembly and association Article 21 secure democracy right of participation Articles 22 – 27 standards of living health, right to work rest leisure education Article 29 reciprocity duties to community

L IMITS OF UDHR Lack of legal status not enforceable states cannot interfere in the context of other states signatory are voluntary United nations Charter all states to publicize UDHR Declaration now available in 300 languages – universal language of rights Human Rights Commission at the UN role of the rapporteur

How do you classify these episodes in history Holocaust 6 million ‘[t]he implementation of the ‘Final Solution’, in the sense of total extermination, is to a certain extent connected with the cessation of emigration of Jews from territories under German influence’Eichmann acquitted of genocide for pre-1941 acts Soviet Union Stalin Gulags approx 30 million MAO Cultural Revolution 8 million Pol Pot Khmer Rouge 2 million Bosnia Kosvar War crimes not attempt to destroy protected group but remove culture Rwanda Darfur Palestinians ,00 displaced H ISTORIES OF G ENOICIDE AND C RIMES AGAINST H UMANITY

D EFINITION OF THE C RIME OF G ENOCIDE For the Statute, genocide mean acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

US Sterilsation programme of women with special needs 1934 to 1970 files kept secret Children of the disppeared in Argentina and Chile adopted by Military Elite. Rape of Muslim Women by Serb Forces. Removal of Palestinians 1948 Loss of Land Rights aboriginals Australia and Native Indians in USA C ONTRAVERISAL I SSUES

Menas Rea to destroy how to prove the case Hitler no one paper exists on the Final Solution only a conference No policy statement no plan Crime Tribunals Yugoslavia and Rwanda proving war crimes as opposed to crimes against humanity ICC makes a hierarchy of crimes G ENOCIDE C RIME OF C RIMES

M ENS REA ‘with intent to destroy…’ specific intent, or dolus specialis relationship between art. 6 and art. 30? related issue of motive addressed in words ‘as such’ (Niyitegaka, ICTR AC, July 2004) synonymous with ‘discriminatory intent’ (relevant to crime against humanity of persecution) cultural genocide not involving physical destruction e.g., ‘ethnic cleansing’ cultural genocide rejected by drafters (with exception of forcibly transferring children) Syrian amendment is defeated in 1948: ‘Imposing measures intended to oblige members of a group to abandon their homes in order to escape the threat of subsequent ill- treatment