Consider how international institutions can help in the protection of human rights (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 70 Points (distinction), Lancaster University (Politics and International Relations), course: International Organisations and Foreign Policy, language: English, abstract: Human rights are rights to which all human beings are equally entitled, independently of acts of law. The foundation of this entitlement is human dignity.

Human rights are not only to be respected by public authorities (vertical dimension of human rights), but also by private parties (horizontal dimension of human rights) as human rights law increasingly admits. The latter dimension is to be implemented first of all by the national criminal law.

Human rights law distinguishes two sets of human rights: first, civil rights (for example the right to life and physical integrity) and political rights (for example the right to participate in politics) and second, social rights (for example the rights of children, women, ethnic groups and the right to social security), economic rights (for example those referring to labour conditions, health and safety at the workplace) and cultural human rights. The realisation of both sets of rights depends on each other. Extreme poverty or illiteracy, for example, makes the exercise of civil and political rights difficult. That it is more expensive to realise social and economic than civil and political human rights, cannot be upheld generally, because mechanisms to monitor and enforce the respect of human rights are needed. Press gives some examples on this. Better working conditions, more occupational safety and social security are examples for costly economic rights.