CIVIL/HUMAN RIGHTS DISTINCTIONS IS FLAWED; CIVIL RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

CIVIL/HUMAN RIGHTS DISTINCTIONS IS FLAWED; CIVIL RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

1. CIVIL RIGHTS DON’T UNDERMINE HUMAN RIGHTS

Henry Richardson, III, Professor of Law at Temple Law School, THE AMERICAN JOURNAL INTERNAITONAL LAW, January, 1993, p. 73-74.

As a result, a longstanding interest of black America in the United Nations is the confirmation of the human rights provisions of the Charter as a source of legal rights concurrent with or wider than those in American law. This objective produces a concomitant interest in more flexible procedures for invoking and applying those rights through the Human Rights Commission and various subcommissions and working groups, and then back into U.S. courts. Amounting to a civil rights strategy under international law, this strategy has been periodically attempted in American courts with only limited success. Nonetheless, it remains important insofar as international human rights continues to develop into the "new natural law."

Frances Lee Ansley, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee Law School, CORNELL LAW REVIEW, September 1989, p. 1074.

An approach that would move "beyond civil rights toward a human rights agenda," beyond a struggle for minority rights and toward a multiracial struggle for guarantees of basic human needs, faces many obstacles. Two of the greatest obstacles are anti-communism and white racism. White racism has proved its staying power, its ability to thwart coalitions and to breed distrust. Throughout American history blacks have been repeatedly on the front lines and on the move; very seldom have they rejected white allies. Whites are the ones who have blindly failed to see that common cause was possible, and that racial justice helps them too. Although Jesse Jackson's victories in the North and the South were impressive and heartening, the number of white people voting for him remained disappointing. Devising political and legal strategies that will build unity without pandering to white racism presents a sharp dilemma.
3. CIVIL RIGHTS ADVANCE HUMAN RIGHTS

Anna Fagan Ginger, Professor of Peace Law, San Francisco State University, DEPAUL LAW REVIEW, Summer 1993, p. 1342-1344.

Starting with some initial assumptions about law and some little known facts about the enforcement powers of the United Nations, we will look at the obstacles and responsibilities attaching to a treaty and what we know in 1993 that must be applied to the task of enforcing the ICCPR. We will consider the commitments in the Covenant to publicize and report on the rights spelled out in Articles 1 through 27 and Article 47, looking specifically at the rights of children, economic rights, and human rights that are not easily reported, including effective remedies for police misconduct, minimizing racism in jury trials, and the right to self-determination. In addition, we will discuss the responsibilities of federal government officials, lawyers, independent experts, local government officials, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to enforce the Covenant, and will describe an innovative Civil Rights Accountability Project to advance the ICCPR. All of these strands lead to the rope of conviction that words do matter; signing a treaty does matter; and enforcing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will be a step toward the realization of all human rights for all people in this country, which, in turn, will be a step toward peace and development throughout the world.
4. CIVIL RIGHTS EMPIRICALLY ADVANCE HUMAN RIGHTS

Anna Fagan Ginger, Professor of Peace Law, San Francisco State University, DEPAUL LAW REVIEW, Summer 1993, p. 1359-1360

Carrying out these five treaty-based responsibilities provides an excellent opportunity to give effect to human rights in the United States today, as collection and publication of reports on the discrimination and segregation in the public schools in the South, North, and West led to the beginning of the end to "separate but equal" education forty years ago, first de jure, then de facto. The campaign for equal, integrated, public education sparked the whole civil rights movement, opening the way for the succession of human rights movements of the 1970s and 1980s: for peace, women's rights, the environment, disability rights, the rights of the child, gay and lesbian rights, Native American and immigrant rights -- for peace, jobs, and justice.

HUMAN RIGHTS ARE NOT PARAMOUNT

1. HUMAN RIGHTS ARE FUTILE; DOCUMENTS AREN’T ENFORCED

Dorothy Q. Thomas, Director, Human Rights Watch Women’s Project, HARVARD HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL, Spring 1996, p. 16.

Yet, despite predictions that the United States' 1992 ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) could "prove useful in the protection of civil liberties and civil rights in the United States," the treaty has yet to make a significant domestic impact. The failure of this and other human rights treaties to serve as effective tools for domestic change is due, in part, to legal obstacles erected by the U.S. government that stand in the way of full implementation of these instruments. More significantly, however, this failure reflects the entrenched perception among domestic rights advocates that international law has little to add to the rights protections enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and that international pressure has scant influence over the domestic political climate. To a certain extent, this perception is accurate. The struggle to secure fundamental human rights is ultimately a local struggle, and no amount of international outcry can substitute for domestic activism.

Dorothy Q. Thomas, Director, Human Rights Watch Women’s Project, HARVARD HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL, Spring 1996, p. 17.

Although neither petition resulted in formal denunciation of, or charges against the United States, the appeal to international law proved powerful. The civil rights groups' submissions to the United Nations contained factual records that exposed to the international community the extent and nature of race-based human rights violations in the United States. This publicity underscored the hypocrisy of the United States in advocating rights abroad that it did not guarantee at home. As a result, civil rights groups were able to exploit international political relations and rivalries in order to pressure the United States to get its own house in order. This essentially political strategy worked to great, if somewhat contradictory, legal effect. On the one hand, the United States reacted by refusing to participate in the United Nations human rights treaty system for roughly thirty years.
3. UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS ARE A MYTH; SHOULD NOT BE PARAMOUNT

Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol, Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law, ALBANY LAW REVIEW, 1997, p. 620.

Indeed, international human rights theory supports the concept of universality of rights. My position insists on the protection of culture as an independently protected right, this Article advocates a cultural pluralist perspective within human rights discourse. This pluralist perspective rejects the use of culture as a pretext to subordinate or marginalize women, or relegate women to second-class citizenship. Ethnocentric, culturally biased notions of right and wrong, however, must be rejected.
4. HUMAN RIGHTS ARE CIRCUMVENTED, THEIR VALUE IS LIMITED

Donna Young, Assistant Professor, Albany Law School of Union University, ALBANY LAW REVIEW, 1997, p. 909-910.

International human rights standards are often circumvented with the claim that domestic laws reflect cultural practices, and that to the extent that international norms conflict with cultural practice, they are to be given little or no weight in regulating domestic matters. The stories outlined above illustrate important considerations about the role of international law in regulating domestic laws and practices that violate international human rights norms. Several interesting questions arise from attempts by nation states to justify, (as being part of domestic law or custom), practices otherwise illegal under international law. What are the consequences to international legal norms when countries ignore international law and rely instead on religious or cultural practice to institute harsh [*910] and frequently violent treatment of its peoples? What is the international legal response to such violence when inflicted on the basis of sexual orientation, race, gender, ethnicity or religion? How can international law be used to change domestic law and practice? The articles set out in this issue survey national and international legal developments with respect to these complex issues. What distinguishes these articles from others dealing with violence in international law is their focus on the violence committed against individuals by private citizens, not by state actors.