What about OUR rights?
Making the Universal Declaration a reality in the UK
On 10 December 2008 – Human Rights Day – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turns 60. The UDHR sets out the basic rights and freedoms to which every human being is entitled, and is generally considered to be the cornerstone of international human rights protection. The Declaration has inspired over 80 legally-binding international and regional human rights treaties, including the UN’s eight core conventions and every country in the world has signed up to one or more of them. Yet despite its success, the UDHR’s message of ‘human rights for all’ is still a long way from being implemented.
How does the UN work to make the rights contained in the UDHR a reality?
The UN has a three-pronged approach to implementing the Universal Declaration. It helps set human rights standards by developing norms and legislation. It promotes and protects rights through international law and education. And it is at the forefront of delivering rights such as the right to food or shelter through the work of the World Food Programme and UNHCR.
How are rights protected in each country?
Human rights are protected in the first instance by the UN’s core treaties, which governments commit to voluntarily. By ratifying a treaty, a government pledges to make the rights contained in it a reality. To achieve this, a government is supposed to take legislative and administrative measures to incorporate the rights into domestic law and national policy. This obliges public bodies and service-providers to respect rights, and also enables people whose rights have been violated to seek help, if necessary via the courts.
How does the UN monitor to what extent rights are protected in a country?
All eight treaties have a committee of independent experts to monitor their implementation. States are required to submit regular reports to these so-called ‘treaty-monitoring bodies’ which then issue recommendations on how a state can improve. As states can choose whether or not they ratify a treaty, there is no punishment for not submitting a report. However, where a state does not submit a report, treaty-monitoring bodies may examine reports produced by civil society or other parts of the UN system.
Improved monitoring through Universal Periodic Review
The new UN Human Rights Council introduced the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. Under UPR, the human rights records of all UN member states are regularly scrutinised. Reviews are based on a short report prepared by the state, a summary of comments made by treaty monitoring bodies, and information provided by relevant stakeholders such as NGOs or academics.
How well is the UK doing in terms of its international human rights obligations?
The UK has ratified all UN human rights treaties except the Migrant Workers Convention. So how well is the UK doing in terms of fulfilling these obligations?
The UK’s performance was reviewed earlier this year UPR. During the review session, the UK was praised for its overall commitment to international human rights standards and for the positive measures it is taking to make rights a reality in the UK. But several issues of concern were also raised, three of which are featured below.
It is vital that these issues are recognised as human rights concerns to:
ensure the British public is aware of the UK’s human rights obligations and methods of redress available to them
counter the false assumption that human rights are only relevant to people in the developing world
combat the narrow association – championed virulently by certain sections of the media - of human rights with paedophiles, terrorists and other criminals
foster a culture of human rights in the UK that will make it less likely that rights abuses occur in the first place
As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, this 60th anniversary year is a chance to ensure that every person knows that the UDHR exists – and that it exists for them.
The issue: 30% of children in the UK – over 3.9 million are poor, despite Britain being the fifth richest country in the world
The rights: every child has the right to an adequate standard of living – including food, shelter, and education
The UHDR: Article 25 affirms that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance
The UK has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the industrialised world. In 1997, the new government pledged to end child poverty by 2020 and halve it by 2010. But alarmingly, even though 600,000 children have been lifted out of poverty since then, the proportion of children living in poverty has increased from one in ten in the late 1970s, to one in three today. This increase has not occurred evenly across the country. A girl in Manchester can expect to die six years earlier than a girl in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Poverty shapes all aspects of a child’s life: from lower birth weight and higher chances of infant death to slower emotional and educational development. The UK was ranked last in a UNICEF study on child-well being in rich countries, which included happiness and a sense of self-worth as criteria. 12% of lone parents cannot afford to celebrate special occasions or buy presents. Children from unskilled families are even 15 times more likely to die in a fire. |
The issue: in the UK an average of 167 women are raped and 2 women die as a result of domestic violence every week
The rights: nobody should be subjected to any form of violence
The UHDR: Article 3 affirms the right to life and security of person, and Article 5 prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
One in four women has experienced rape or attempted rape. Most are unreported. This is partly because a large number of these incidents occur within the home. According to UK Government statistics, domestic violence and sexual abuse accounts for nearly a quarter of all recorded violent crime in England and Wales. A recent study by Amnesty International UK suggested that 74% of British men would report a dog being beaten to the RSPCA or police, but only 53% would report domestic violence. And of those cases that do make it to court, just over 5% result in convictions. During its UPR session, the UK was praised for adopting measures such as the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004) and for dedicating £14 million to this issue. But despite this, the lack of sustainable funding and oversight of the national plan of action on violence against women means that the situation remains precarious. Earlier this year, 69% of Rape Crises centres in England and Wales identified their funding as ‘unsustainable’. |
The issue: over two million older people cannot afford to heat their homes and a high proportion experience abuse
The rights: everybody is entitled to all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for her or his dignity
The UHDR: Article 2 affirms that everyone is entitled to all rights without distinction of any kind
Unlike children and women, older people are often left out of the human rights debate. There is no binding international convention dedicated to protecting their rights and no agreed definition of who is ‘old’. This is part of the problem. In the UK, the ‘over 60s’ group is extremely diverse, encompassing those in work and retirees; carers – supporting disabled children for example – and the cared for. Human rights issues affecting older people are just as diverse and important because many of them rely heavily on public services. Poverty, discrimination and abuse are rife in both the public and private sphere. Women continue to be penalised for time spent caring for children or in low-paid part-time jobs with nearly four million older women not entitled to receive a full pension. Benefits such as Disability Living Allowance and even medical treatments like breast cancer screening have age limits. Most alarmingly, at any one time, an estimated 500,000 older people experience physical, emotional, mental or sexual abuse. Two-thirds of this abuse is committed at home by someone in a position of trust. |
Natalie Samarasinghe
