Human Rights, Globalization and the role of the
individual in International Law
Lecture 1
Today’s class
Human rights, globalization?
Practical information
History and development of human rights law
Special character of human rights law
What we will be asking our self during this course, when we look to globalization and the impact of
globalization on human dignity, is whether Human Rights Law is fit for purpose. Is it able to/ does it
have an adequate answer to the challenges posed by globalization. Globalization also offers
opportunities as we will be discussing. How does Human Rights Law seize the opportunities in a
globalized world? One of the main threads running through the whole course is to question whether
Human Rights Law has become redundant in the phase of globalization or has it actually required
new importance and other new opportunities out there. Keep this in the back of your mind when we
go through all the different topics that we will be discussing in the weeks to come.
Human rights
Identify a human rights issue/ concern in the country that you are from
Does the situation only concern individuals or are group-rights involved?
What different actors play a role?
What (legal) steps (if any) are taken to influence or force the state (or other actors) to end
violations?
The teacher is asking everyone’s origins and the students are from all over the world. Even though
we have this claim that human rights is universal, it actually means different things in different
countries. It Is really enriching to have debates among our self what human rights mean in the
context of where you come from.
The teacher asks everyone an example of a human rights concern that they discussed with
their neighbour. Someone from Italy says that the immigrants are an issue in Italy but also
the length of proceedings and the overcrowded prisons, in Holland the lack of teachers at the
primary school or the burqa prohibition, in Uganda the freedom of speech, in America the
police brutality and in Pakistan the honour killings.
o There will be a guest speaker discussing the effect of culture on human rights and
cultural rights. It is very interesting to attend the lecture of the guest speaker.
The teacher says the examples given so far are civil and political rights and some cultural
rights.
The example of police violence in America is basically an issue of discrimination. Discrimination,
equality and non-discrimination is the very foundation of human rights law. If we claim that human
rights are equally applicable to everyone then it has to start with non-discrimination. We will spend a
whole class discussing the concept non-discrimination and equality.
The Netherlands also has its fair share of human rights concerns. The thing about human rights is
that every country in the world and every politician really likes to tell other countries that everything
,is wrong when it comes to human rights and that nothing is wrong back at home. Same here in the
Netherlands we love to tell other countries that they have to improve their human rights situation.
The teacher says that she is confronted with human rights concerns in the Netherlands while working
for the National Human Rights Institute. Of course there is no civil war or any war going on here and
thus we don’t have gross killings and disappearances. But if you have a disability and want to go an
ordinary school or if you are a refugee or undocumented, you are in a very vulnerable situation. We
have big issues with discrimination on the labour market. So plenty of issues in the Netherlands too.
As we can see (from this very random and quick round) human rights situation differ vastly all over
the world. We have this system which is supposed to address this at a global/universal level. You can
see that we have some issues there. Enough for us to talk about in the months to come.
Human rights?
The definition of human rights is: Rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of
being human. (so by being born you have human rights). They refer to wide continual values
which are universal in character and in some sense equally claimed for all human beings.
If we look to the definition of human rights, there are 3 elements:
1. Rights belong to an individual as a consequence of being human.
2. Claim: universal values
3. Equally claimed for all human beings
Role of the State
Most of us are lawyers so we love definitions. How would you define human rights? Invisible, for any
human, at any time, every each individual has these rights, fundamental rights as we say in the EU (is
basically the same as human rights). Fundamental rights are fundamental for your human dignity
(you need it in order to protect your human dignity) and therefor everyone has these rights for the
mere fact of being human. You have these rights because you are human.
Even though we have this claim to universality, not everyone enjoys his/her human rights to the
same extend. The most clear example of that is the people who do not have a nationality. If you
don’t have a nationality you are stateless. If you are stateless you can’t enjoy any human rights
basically. The right to nationality is a gateway right. You can all enjoy your human rights because
those are states that are working together in this international system of human rights protection
and they sign and ratify treaties. If you are in a unfortunate position and do not have any nationality,
a whole range of human rights might very well be applicable to you, but you cannot ring any claim
and there are no remedies available for you. So statelessness (the lack of a nationality) is
fundamental.
In the second part of this course we are going to have a lecture by Dr. Laura van Waas. She is
the co-director of the Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion (we have a NGO in our faculty
and this is our inhouse NGO). They work to contribute to ending statelessness. She will be
talking about statelessness and all the problems. There is also an internship available and the
text will be on Canvas.
Human rights apply to each and every human, so at the moment that you are born you have human
rights. But this is also a controversial issue because when does a human life start? Some will say after
birth, some will say after conception. And what about the 9 month period between conception and
birth? Is that a human being? And what about the end of life, do you have a right to euthanasia? The
question what human rights are, is a very tricky question. Does it have anything to do with culture
and religion? One of the never-ending discussions in human rights is the universalism versus the
,cultural relativism debate, which we will also be discussing after two weeks. If you are from Oman or
New Zeeland, you might have very different idea of what human rights are. How does that imply to
the definition that human rights are universal in character? There is this claim in every treaty or book
about human rights (in very beautifully written phrases) that it is universal, indivisible, inalienable
and that no one can take your human rights away. But human rights also excludes people because
you have to be a citizen of a nation in order to enjoy the right of education, if you are stateless you
won’t be having the right to education. Other criticism is that human rights are fundamentally
western and actually neo-colonial, that we are putting these western ideas onto developing states.
The teacher does not want that we end up being very sceptical about human rights but (since
we study at the university) we should criticize and question everything including human
rights law. Because Human Rights are not intrinsically good. Not bad either, but not
intrinsically good!
Essential is the role of the state. Human rights are about using the effectiveness of
state power. The state is a very effective and powerful entity and its using that power
of the state to protect against that same state. That is a very strange relationship
between the state being the protector of human beings and at the same time being
the violator of human rights, which leads to this peculiar character/nature of human
rights.
Globalization?
Definition: Globalization is a process (or a set of processes) which embodies transformation
in the spatial organisation of social relations and transactions- assessed in terms of their
extensity, intensity, velocity and impact- generating transcontinental or interregional flows
and network of activity, interaction and exercise of power.
The second definition in the title of this course is globalization. What is globalization about? When
we talk about globalization, most people focus the economic globalization like the export of goods
around the world and the multinational organizations. But globalization is a whole complex of many
different processes like technological globalization, globalization of governance (UN/WTO etc.),
globalization of culture (McDonalds or everyone wearing jeans), globalization of music and the
globalization of language (we talk English during this course). Because of globalization states become
more interdependent.
Globalization is changes, developments, processes in the economic sphere, cultural sphere, political
sphere and technological innovations which in combination with economic liberalization (bringing
down all these trade barriers) have made the world a much more alike. But some of these
developments we have seen before. For example if we look to the Dutch history, the East-
IndianCompany and the West-India-Company which sailed from the Netherlands to the other part of
the world is also globalization.
So this is huge because it’s not just the economic globalization but a whole set of processes which
has caused concern and anxiety about what this implies for protection of human dignity and the
protection of individuals. Economic globalization has resulted in fundamental changes in power of
states. Some states are still very powerful but next to these states we have multinational
corporations like google and Apple that operate across the whole world, across borders and have a
huge impact on the lives of people. We have this global supply chain where individuals are living but
are also exploited while working on the fields for the goods which are shipped all over the world.
, We also have the Wold Trade Organization (WTO) as the eliminator of trade barriers. But what are
the consequences of that process for the rights of individuals and their culture? What happens when
a multinational corporation goes into the amazon and starts chopping down trees on grounds that
are sacred for the people who are living there? What does it do to their right of cultural identity?
These processes of globalization raises very serious questions whether human rights law, as it was
codified after the second wold war, is still fit for purpose. Globalization is creating new patterns of
inclusion and exclusion, new groups that are not profiting from this process of globalization. And
does the current Human Rights Law (which was developed on paper in a reaction to the second
world war) still provide adequate answers? This is what we will discuss during this course.
Human rights law is all about effective State power and abuse of State power. That results in some
particular … which sets human rights law apart from public international law. If you are a political
scientist or a philosopher, human rights means something else than if you are a lawyer. Human rights
LAW is a more narrow concept than if you are talking about human rights from other perspectives.
History & development of IHRL
- Human rights: reconcile effectiveness of state power with protection against state power
- Human dignity; equality and liberty, solidarity
- Early origins (natural law)
- Legal development late in history
o Freedom to rule, no intervention
o No international institution
o No general acceptance at national level
Now that we have talked about the definition of human rights, you should also know where the
human rights come from. Human rights are used and abused for political motives. If you look at the
history of human rights, people will choose different starting points depending on what it is that they
want you to hear. We will try to find some of the traces in the history and it will be giant steps. If you
look at the history of human rights law, it is a fascinating historical journey. You will come across the
most inspiring philosophers who have developed revolutionary ideas about addressing the abuse of
power. It’s a journey across revolutionary bills, charters and documents of independence. These
ideas have all come in reaction to suppression, in reaction of abuse of power, discrimination and
social injustice.
Natural Law
Traces in Ancient Greek Philosophy
Mainly duties
Change in thinking: decline of feudalism
Abuse of powers
Protection of citizens against the king
Recognition of individual and rights
Like we said human rights law is about protecting human dignity and is based on the principles of
equality, liberty and solidarity. We will be focussing on the law and that is the codification process
after the second world war, but you can find traces of human rights and these principles way back to
the ancient time.
Origins of legal development
National level:
