Examples of international human rights protection measures. International law (international protection of human rights in peacetime and wartime). Presentation on the topic

International protection of human rights is a set of legal norms that define and establish in a contractual manner human rights and freedoms, the obligations of states for the practical implementation of these rights and freedoms; as well as international mechanisms for monitoring the implementation by states of their international obligations and direct protection of violated individual rights.

International means of protecting rights and freedoms are special bodies created in accordance with international regulations that are vested with the authority to accept, consider and evaluate individuals’ appeals.

Such funds in relation to individual areas legal regulation were provided for in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Established under these Conventions, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee against Torture were empowered to receive and consider communications from individuals (or groups of individuals) who claim to be victims of a violation by a State party of the rights set out in the Convention (Articles 14 and 14 respectively). Article 22 of the Second Convention).

The term “human rights” (droitsdel "homme) first appears in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in 1789 in the wording of the declaration. Here we were talking about establishing legally formal equality between people and consolidating the fact that a “citizen” has in relation to authorities have not only responsibilities, but also rights.

The UN is the focal point for cooperation between states in the field of human rights.

Within the framework of the UN, the most important international legal acts have been developed to protect human rights and freedoms, which have actually established international standards in this area.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. For the first time, the Declaration developed in a complex not national, but universal, supranational, internationally recognized standards of rights and freedoms. The Declaration, for example, proclaimed such human rights as the right to leave one’s country and return, the right to choose one’s place of residence, the right to strike, etc. Since its main task was the development of human rights and freedoms, more general concept-- the concept of human status -- to achieve main goal was artificially dismembered. Only one part of it was isolated - rights and freedoms, to the detriment of other components of this concept, and, above all, human responsibilities.

Human Rights Covenants 1966: The UN General Assembly adopted two universal human rights treaties, called covenants: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These were already mandatory for participating countries regulations. Together with the declaration, they became known as the International Bill of Rights.

CSCE Final Act 1975 In this act, for the first time, normative regulations on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms were formulated as an independent principle of modern international law. Since that time, the observance by states of generally accepted human rights and freedoms has become not just a contractual form of international law, but a norm-principle, i.e. a duty that can be demanded by anyone. Now the very need to prove the very right to exist of the concept of respect and observance of human rights and freedoms has disappeared.

There are also a number of conventions in the field of human rights protection that are of primary importance:

The international mechanism for monitoring the protection of human rights and freedom provides for two levels:

• 1) universal;
• 2) regional.

At the universal level, control is carried out by the UN (GA, ECOSOC, High Commissioner for human rights, Commission on Women's Rights, Committee against Torture, etc.).

There are three main forms of human rights monitoring:

• 1) consideration of periodic reports of states at the UN;
• 2) consideration of disputes regarding the interpretation and implementation of specific agreements;
• 3) consideration of individual petitions.

The primary importance of the International Covenants on Human Rights, as well as its predecessor, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related different periods conventions in the field of humanitarian law is that they, based on global experience and embodying modern needs and trends social progress, establish universal standards of individual rights and freedoms.

Standards are constituted as a normative minimum that determines the level of state regulation with permissible deviations in a particular state in the form of exceeding it or specifying it.

This is the meaning of the standards that is well expressed in Art. 19 of the ILO Constitution, which states that conventions or recommendations within the ILO do not affect “any law, judgment, custom or agreement which provides to the workers concerned more favorable conditions than those provided for by the convention or recommendation.” In one of the official publications of the ILO (1995), conventions and recommendations are qualified as minimum standards.

The following functions of standards can be identified:

• 1) determination of the list of rights and freedoms that are classified as fundamental and mandatory for all states party to covenants and other conventions;
• 2) formulation of the main features of the content of each of these rights (each of these freedoms), which should be embodied in the relevant constitutional and other regulatory provisions;
• 3) establishing the obligations of states to recognize and ensure the proclaimed rights and introducing at the international level the most necessary guarantees that determine their reality;
• 4) fixing the conditions for the use of rights and freedoms, associated with legal restrictions and even prohibitions.

Both covenants are characterized by the consolidation of the connection between the legal status of the individual and the right of peoples to self-determination, by virtue of which they freely establish their political status and freely ensure their economic, social and cultural development.

In one respect, the covenants differ from each other: while, according to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, each state “undertakes to respect and ensure” the rights recognized in the Covenant, then, according to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, each state undertakes to “accept in to the maximum extent of available resources, measures to ensure the progressive full realization" of the rights recognized in the Covenant.

The relationship between international legal standards and the norms of the legislation of the Russian Federation is expressed in the fundamental consistency of the international and domestic lists of rights and freedoms, their content and means of ensuring and protecting.

Chapter structure 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which, of course, does not reproduce the structure of human rights covenants, allows almost all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights to be fixed at the national level (in relation to the last three groups, the term “socio-economic rights” is widely used in government studies) ).

A noticeable departure in this regard is the absence of the provisions of Art. 11 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes “the right of everyone to adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and for the continuous improvement of living conditions." Obviously, even taking into account the current situation, it would be appropriate to provide for such a right, especially in the context of the above wording of this Covenant on the gradual full implementation of the rights recognized in the Covenant to the maximum extent of available resources.

It should be emphasized that international humanitarian law rejects the division of rights and freedoms according to the degree of their significance for a person.

A holistic view of the problem is clearly expressed in the text of the Final Document of the 1989 Vienna CSCE Meeting, which states that all rights and freedoms are essential for the free and full development of the individual, that all rights and freedoms “are of paramount importance and must be fully realized in all appropriate ways "

The same idea is expressed in the Vienna Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993: “All human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally, in a fair and equal manner, with the same consideration and consideration.”

The adoption by the state, in accordance with its constitutional procedures, of legislative, administrative and judicial measures in order to consolidate, ensure and protect human rights and freedoms is qualified in covenants and conventions as an international obligation of the state.

Covenants and conventions presuppose the right of the state to establish certain restrictions as conditions for the enjoyment of rights and as protective measures against unlawful actions of users. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also stipulated that “every person has responsibilities to the society in which alone free and full development his personality,” and therefore stipulated the possibility of restrictions established by law in the exercise of rights and freedoms.

Today, in connection with the entry Russian Federation to the Council of Europe, the signing and ratification of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (together with a number of protocols thereto) and other European conventions, the norms of these regional international acts recognized by our state acquire particular relevance.

Sometimes they talk about “European standards” of human rights and freedoms. Some of these specific standards actually exist, if we take into account the formulation of individual rights and especially their guarantees, the mechanism for their implementation. And yet, at their core, the current universal standards, that is, those contained in the international covenants considered, and the European standards of human rights and freedoms are homogeneous and have common value characteristics.

The specificity of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is that its own text is organically combined with the texts adopted in different time protocols to it. These protocols are mostly independent legal documents, but their provisions are considered as additional articles of the Convention. The Convention and its protocols represent an integral normative complex.

Thus, the main text of the Convention did not provide for such essential rights as the right of every individual or legal entity to freely enjoy their property, the right to education, the right to freedom of movement and freedom to choose a place of residence within the territory of the state, etc. They were included into the protocols.

The wording of Art. 2 of the Right to Life Convention allows for the deprivation of life in execution of a death sentence imposed by a court for the commission of a crime for which the law provides for such punishment. However, the perception of this article today cannot be true without taking into account the requirement of Protocol No. 6 to the Convention regarding the abolition death penalty, in Art. 1 which says: “The death penalty is abolished. No one can be sentenced to death or executed."

This Protocol was signed on behalf of the Russian Federation on April 16, 1997, but did not go through the ratification procedure and, therefore, did not enter into force for the Russian Federation. However, it should be borne in mind that, according to Art. 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, during the period after the signature of a treaty, subject to ratification, acceptance or approval, before the entry into force of the treaty, the state is obliged to refrain from actions that would deprive the treaty of its object and purpose.

The characterization of international legal norms as international standards of human rights and freedoms presupposes a comprehensive assessment of the legal status of an individual in the context of both constitutional and conventional provisions.

The opinion has become widespread that rights and freedoms acquire the qualities of elements of a person’s legal status only through their enshrinement in the constitution and other domestic legislation. With this approach, those rights that are formulated exclusively in international treaties are not recognized as the subjective rights of citizens of a state in whose laws certain rights are not named.

Complex legal status the individual includes rights and freedoms, regardless of legal forms and means of their implementation. The property of the individual is equally those rights that are enshrined in domestic regulations, and those that are contained in interstate agreed decisions.

In the absence of constitutional or other domestic regulation, as well as in the case of discrepant normative formulations at the constitutional and convention levels, international standards can not only act as a normative minimum that determines the state of domestic regulation, but also be an independent and direct regulator

Thus, the legal status of an individual includes the rights and freedoms proclaimed in international treaties, i.e., internationally recognized rights and freedoms. These rights and freedoms become directly applicable in the sense of Art. 18 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, both in situations of their application by national courts and other state bodies, and in cases of international protection when individuals apply to interstate bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights.

In accordance with the provisions of international treaties, a certain system of interstate bodies vested with the functions of international control over the activities of states in the field of ensuring human rights.

Some conventions provided for the creation of special bodies. Among them: the Human Rights Committee - on the basis of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Committee on the Rights of the Child - based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - on the basis of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; Committee against Torture - based on the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights did not provide for a special body, stipulating the possibility of action through ECOSOC; the latter, by its decision in 1985, established the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Each committee consists of experts (the committee against torture has 10, the others have 18 people), and it cannot include more than one citizen of one state; fair geographical distribution and representation of different forms of civilization and major legal systems are taken into account.

States parties to the covenants and conventions have undertaken to report regularly to the relevant committee (either directly or through the UN Secretary-General) on the state of human rights and on measures taken to advance the realization of rights.

Human Rights Covenants and others international instruments provide legal protection of the proclaimed rights and freedoms, and, on the one hand, they fix the obligations of states to implement national means of protection, and on the other hand, they introduce and directly regulate international means of protection.

The next step was the recognition that the “right to legal protection” (the term of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) belonging to a person is real only with the corresponding responsibilities of the state and its organs.

At the same time - and this emphasizes normative meaning pacts - it was established that the rights and freedoms recognized in the pacts are subject to legal protection. Consequently, national courts and other competent state bodies were entrusted with the duty to protect not only constitutional but also international treaty rights.

In accordance with Part 3 of Art. 2 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, each state undertakes to provide any person whose rights and freedoms recognized in the Covenant are violated, an effective remedy; establishing the right to legal protection for any person through judicial, administrative or legislative authorities; application by the competent authorities of legal remedies.

After considering the message and the information requested from the state, the Committee submits its opinions, proposals, recommendations to the relevant state and interested party.

The Human Rights Committee, established by the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has additional competences set out in the first Optional Protocol to the Covenant. This refers to the function of considering individual appeals in connection with violations of the rights proclaimed in the Covenant. The condition for the Committee to exercise such a function is the participation of the state not only in the Covenant, but also in the Protocol (as noted above, for the Russian Federation the Protocol came into force on January 1, 1992) and the recognition by the state of the specified competence of the Committee.

Any person within the jurisdiction of such a State who alleges that any of the rights enumerated in the Covenant has been violated and who has exhausted all available domestic remedies may submit a written communication to the Committee for consideration (a complaint may also be made if if application internal funds unnecessarily delayed). The Committee brings the communication to the attention of the State concerned, which, within six months, provides the Committee with written explanations and informs about the measures taken. After considering all submissions, the Committee forwards its views to the State and person concerned.

At the regional level, a similar procedure is planned within the CIS. Article 33 of the CIS Charter provided for the creation of a Human Rights Commission as an advisory body designed to monitor the implementation of member states' human rights obligations.

The most effective system for considering individual appeals (complaints) and legal response to violations of human rights by bodies and (or) officials of states has developed within the framework of the Council of Europe in accordance with the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its protocols.

In the problem of exhaustion of all domestic remedies in relation to the Russian Federation, the Court’s position is that the applicant needs to go through the authorities, the appeal to which is determined by his own will, i.e. the first and cassation courts. The use of supervisory review proceedings is not considered a mandatory precondition for applying to the European Court. It is possible to accept a complaint in the event of an unjustified delay, since the Court, bearing in mind the provision of paragraph 1 of Art. 5 of the Convention, focuses on the trial of the case in a national court “within a reasonable time”.

Following its international obligations, the Russian Federation has provided for this kind of procedure in its constitutional legislation. Initially, it was recorded in the former Constitution of the Russian Federation as amended by the Law of April 21, 1992. In the current Constitution of the Russian Federation, the corresponding norm is contained in Part 3 of Art. 46: “Everyone has the right, in accordance with international treaties The Russian Federation should apply to interstate bodies for the protection of human rights and freedoms if all available domestic remedies have been exhausted.” There is no such norm yet in the constitutional legislation of other states, including in the new constitutions of the states included in the CIS, with the exception of similar wording in the Constitution of Ukraine of June 28, 1998 (Article 55) and in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of November 24 1996 (art. 61). It should be noted that in the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, in Art. 12 “Fundamental Rights of Prisoners” includes a provision on their right to file complaints with interstate bodies for the protection of human rights and freedoms.

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5.13. International law (international protection of human rights in peacetime and wartime)

International law - a special system of legal norms governing international relations arising between the states created by them international organizations and other subjects of international relations when establishing mutual rights and obligations of the parties. Functions of international law: stabilizing function; regulatory function; protective function.

The basic principles of international law are enshrined in the UN Charter: sovereign equality states; non-use of force and threat of force; inviolability state borders; peaceful resolution of international disputes; non-interference in internal affairs; universal respect for human rights; self-determination of peoples and nations; international cooperation; conscientious fulfillment international obligations. Sources of international law: international treaty, international legal custom, acts of international conferences and meetings, resolutions of international organizations. Types of international documents: international conventions (treaties between states whose legislation contains norms mandatory for international community); declaration (a document whose provisions are not strictly binding); pact (one of the names of an international treaty).

Subjects of international law: states; nations and peoples fighting for independence; international organizations(intergovernmental - UN, UNESCO, ILO; non-governmental - Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, Greenpeace).

International organizations , ensuring joint actions of countries in defense of human rights:

1. United Nations (1945). Founding document The UN - the UN Charter - is a universal international treaty and establishes the foundations of the modern international legal order. UN pursues goals: maintain international peace and security and, to this end, take effective collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to peace and suppress acts of aggression; develop friendly relations between states based on respect for the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples; carry out international cooperation in resolving international problems economic, social, cultural and humanitarian in nature and in promoting respect for human rights, and others.

UN bodies: General Assembly; Security Council plays a major role in maintaining international peace and security; Economic And Social Council (ECOSOC) is authorized to undertake research and prepare reports on international issues in the field of economics, social sphere, culture, education, healthcare and other issues; UN Trusteeship Council promotes the progress of the population of the Trust Territories and their gradual development towards self-government or independence; International Court of Justice; UN Secretariat.

The specialized UN human rights bodies include: UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN High Commissioner for the Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Commission on Human Rights, Council of Europe. Established under the Council of Europe European Commission of Human Rights And European Court of Human Rights. In some states, individual rights against arbitrariness government agencies protects ombudsman- special official. Established in Russia post of Commissioner for Human Rights, not related to any branch of government.

Types of international offenses: international crimes, crimes international character, other international offenses (torts).

Types of state responsibility:

1) Material liability: restitution (compensation in kind by the offender for the material damage caused); reparation (compensation for material damage caused by an offense, money, goods, services).

2) Non-financial liability expressed in the form restaurants(restoration by the offender of his previous state and bearing all the adverse consequences of this), satisfaction(satisfaction by the offender of non-material requirements, compensation for non-material (moral) damage), restrictions on sovereignty And declarative decisions.

Types of international crimes: crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity.

One of the forms of coercion in international law is international legal sanctions(coercive measures of both armed and unarmed nature, applied by subjects of international law in the established procedural form in response to an offense in order to suppress it, restore violated rights and ensure the responsibility of the offender). Types of sanctions: retortion(for example, establishing restrictions on the import of goods from the violating state; increasing customs duties on goods from this state; introducing a system of quotas and licenses for trade with this state), reprisals(embargo, boycott, denunciation), severance or suspension of diplomatic or consular relations, self-defense; suspension of rights and privileges arising from membership in an international organization, exclusion of the offender from international communication, collective armed measures to maintain international peace and security.

International humanitarian law – a set of norms that define human rights and freedoms that are common to the international community, establish the obligations of states to consolidate, ensure and protect these rights and freedoms and provide individuals with legal opportunities for their implementation and protection.

Sources of international humanitarian law: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, Convention on the Political Rights of Women, International convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child and others.

International bodies monitoring human rights: European Court of Human Rights; Inter-American Court of Human Rights; International Criminal Court (considers crimes against humanity).

A) Humanitarian law in peacetime

* Considerable attention in international humanitarian law is paid to foreigners. Foreign citizen is a person who does not have citizenship of the host country, but has proof of citizenship of another state. Should be distinguished from foreigners stateless people, i.e. stateless persons. Distinguish three types legal regime foreigners: national treatment, special treatment and most favored nation treatment.

* The right to provide asylum to persons persecuted for political, national, racial, religious or ethnic reasons. Distinguish territorial And diplomatic shelter.

* Rights and freedoms refugees And forced migrants regulated by international humanitarian law. Refugees have the right to property, copyright and industrial rights, the right to association, the right to go to court, the right to engage in business and work for hire and other rights.

B) Humanitarian law in times of armed conflict

The main directions of international cooperation in the field of armed conflicts: prevention of armed conflicts; the legal status of the states participating and not participating in the conflict; limitation of means and methods of warfare; protection of human rights during armed conflicts; ensuring liability for violations of international law. Basic rules of international humanitarian law applied during armed conflicts:

– Persons out of action, as well as persons who do not directly take part in hostilities (civilians), have the right to respect for their lives, as well as to physical and mental integrity.

– Captured participants in hostilities (combatants) and civilians must be protected from any acts of violence. Parties to a conflict must always distinguish between civilians and combatants so as to spare civilians and civilian objects. The attack should only be directed against military targets.

– It is prohibited to kill or injure an enemy who has surrendered or ceased to take part in hostilities.

– The wounded and sick should be picked up and given medical care.

– Everyone has the right to basic judicial guarantees. No one shall be subjected to physical or psychological torture, corporal punishment, cruel or degrading treatment.

International law limits the means and methods of warfare. The following are completely prohibited means of warfare: explosive and incendiary bullets; bullets that unfold or flatten into human body; poisons and poisoned weapons; asphyxiating, poisonous and other gases, liquids and processes; biological weapons; means of influencing natural environment, which have broad long-term consequences as a means of destruction, damage or harm to another state; damage from fragments that cannot be detected in the human body by X-rays; mines, booby traps and others.

The following are prohibited methods of warfare: treacherously kill or injure civilians or the enemy; kill or wound an enemy who has surrendered and laid down his arms; announce to the defender that in case of resistance there will be no mercy for anyone; It is illegal to use the parliamentary flag or the flag of a state not participating in the war, the flag or signs of the Red Cross, etc.; to force citizens of the enemy side to participate in military actions against their state; genocide during the war, etc.