Пособие по правам человека Кузнецова Туранова

HUMAN RIGHTS:
the history
and
the present state
Составители:
Кузнецова Л.В. старший преподаватель кафедры лингвистики и

профессиональной коммуникации
Туранова Д.С. старший преподаватель кафедры лингвистики и

профессиональной коммуникации
Москва, 2018 год

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ
Настоящее учебное пособие предназначено для студентов юридического

факультета и является частью программы обучения иностранному языку для
специальных целей по дисциплине «Комплекс учебных курсов, направленных на
углубленное формирование лингвистических и коммуникативных компетенций на
базе профессионально-ориентированных текстов».
Пособие построено на аутентичном фактическом материале, а также

содержит статьи из английской и русской прессы, посвященные истории
формирования концепции прав человека, созданию законодательной базы для
защиты прав человека. Использование современного материала дает
возможность обращаться к актуальным вопросам, представляющим интерес
для студентов, что, безусловно, повышает их мотивацию.
Основной целью данного пособия является развитие языковой и

коммуникативной компетенции, необходимой и достаточной для использования
английского языка в профессиональной деятельности, а также активизация
языковых и речевых навыков обучаемых, закрепление их словарного запаса, а
также использование студентами специфической правовой лексики при
обсуждениях и дискуссиях.
Данное пособие состоит из 5 разделов, каждый их которых содержит в

себе несколько текстов на английском и русском языках, объединенных общей
тематикой. Помимо основных разделов пособие включает дополнительные
тексты, которые можно использовать для дискуссий и как основы для докладов
и более глубокого изучения частных вопросов.
Пособие может быть использовано для обучения специалистов правовой

специальности, изучающих английский язык, необходимы для работы.
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CONTENTS
Introduction……………………………………………………… 4
Unit 1: History of Human Rights
Text 1. Early Civilization. The Foundation………………7
Text 2. Eastern tradition…………………………………..16
Text 3. The role of the West in defining Universal

Human Rights…………………………………….22
Unit 2: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Text 1. …………………………………….……………… 35
Text 2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights……… 49
Unit 3: The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights

and Fundamental Freedoms
Text 1. …………………………………….……………… 65
Text 2. …………………………………….……………… 73
Unit 4: Human Rights violations
Text 1. …………………………………….……………… 84
Unit 5: Human Rights activists
Text 1. …………………………………….……………… 97
Additional texts………………………………………………….... 110
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INTRODUCTION
What are your human rights?
Let’s start with some basic human rights definitions:
Human: noun
A member of the Homo sapiens species; a man, woman or child; a person.
Rights: noun
Things to which you are entitled or allowed; freedoms that are guaranteed.
Human Rights: noun
The rights you have simply because you are human.
If you were to ask people in the street, “What are human rights?” you would get many different answers.
They would tell you the rights they know about, but very few people know all their rights.
As covered in the definitions above, a right is a freedom of some kind. It is something to which you are
entitled by virtue of being human.
Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual. Their fundamental assumption is
that each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with dignity. They are called
human rights because they are universal. Whereas nations or specialized groups enjoy specific rights
that apply only to them, human rights are the rights to which everyone is entitled—no matter who they
are or where they live—simply because they are alive.
Yet many people, when asked to name their rights, will list only freedom of speech and belief and
perhaps one or two others. There is no question these are important rights, but the full scope of human
rights is very broad. They mean choice and opportunity. They mean the freedom to obtain a job, adopt
a career, select a partner of one’s choice and raise children. They include the right to travel widely and
the right to work gainfully without harassment, abuse and threat of arbitrary dismissal. They even
embrace the right to leisure.
In ages past, there were no human rights. Then the idea emerged that people should have certain
freedoms. And that idea, in the wake of World War II, resulted finally in the document called the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the thirty rights to which all people are entitled.
Task 1. Match the definitions with the words from the text.
1. n. an entitlement to something, whether to concepts like justice and due process, or to owners
hip of property or some interest in property, real or personal.
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2. to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something
3. the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
4. high or special regard
5. an assuming that something is true, a fact or statement (such as a proposition, axiom)

taken for granted
6. of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior, conforming to a standard

of right behavior
7. to annoy persistently, to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by

uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
8. improper or excessive use or treatment, physical maltreatment
9. an expression of intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage
10. law : depending on individual discretion (as of a judge) and not fixed by law
11. to remove from position or service
12. to take in or include as a part, item, or element of a more inclusive whole
13. to rise from or as if from an enveloping fluid : come out into view, to become
manifest : become known
Task 2. Give Russian equivalents for the following word combinations.
be entitled, be guaranteed, by virtue of being human, the principle of respect, rational being, to be
treated with dignity, list only freedom of speech and belief, the full scope of human rights, broad, to
obtain a job, adopt a career, to work gainfully, raise children, in the wake of World War II
Task 3. Answer the questions.
1. What are human rights? What are they based on?

2. What is a right? What is the meaning of ‘right’ when we speak of a Human Right?
3. What does it mean to be human? How is that different from just ‘being alive’ or ‘surviving’?
4. Do you feel you have all the human rights you need?
5. Do you ever feel your human rights are being violated?
6. Do you think all people in the world are equal and everyone deserves the same rights?
7. Do you think each government should have a minister/secretary for human rights?
8. Are you interested in reading and watching news stories on human rights?
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9. Do you give money to human rights charities?
10. What human rights do you know about?
11. How can the world make sure human rights are protected?
12. How would the world be different if all human rights were respected?
13. Do you always respect other people’s rights?
Task 4. Work with a partner. Make your own dialogues on the topic using the questions below
(or make your own questions).
Student A
1. What are human rights?
2. Which countries do you think have the worst human rights records and why do you think this
is so?
3. Do you think all people in the world are equal and everyone deserves the same rights?
4. Which people in your country have ‘more equal rights’ than others?
Student B
1. What do you know about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
2. Do you think people should visit countries with bad human rights records?
3. Do you think each government should have a minister/secretary for human rights?
4. What human right is the most important?
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UNIT 1
History of Human Rights
Text 1
Early Civilization. The Foundation
The concept of human rights as we know it today has a very recent history or a very old history,
depending on how you look at it. Belief in moral universals has historically been the domain of
philosophy and religion, reflected in every system of thought ever recorded, but belief that governments
are obligated to respect the fundamental equality and autonomy of all individuals is an idea that just
began to achieve currency in the 20th century—and is still in its infancy today.
Human rights in the early civilizations of both the East and the West were composites of various
philosophies that served a people’s social and cultural contexts. Both religious and secular conceptions
of civilization determined the laws that dictated early human rights. Civilization spread outward from
ancient Mesopotamia taking and evolving the components of the Western tradition, including the
earliest tenets of human rights.
The Ten Commandments are among the best-known early documents dictating good behavior
The Code of Hammurabi from about 1800 B.C. is often cited by historians for its foundational place in
the Western tradition of human rights. Two hundred eighty-two mostly rational clauses governed
Babylonian existence and were rooted in “eye for an eye” justice. Of course, there was great disparity
between judgment on nobility and judgment on slaves, but the document attempted to rid society of the
violence of primitive tribalism.
The decrees Cyrus made on human rights were inscribed in the Akkadian language on a baked-clay
cylinder.
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Cyrus the Great, the first king of Persia, freed the slaves of Babylon, 539 B.C.
In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia, conquered the city of
Babylon. But it was his next actions that marked a major advance for Man. He freed the slaves, declared
that all people had the right to choose their own religion, and established racial equality. These and
other decrees were recorded on a baked-clay cylinder in the Akkadian language with cuneiform script.
Known today as the Cyrus Cylinder, this ancient record has now been recognized as the world’s first
charter of human rights. It is translated into all six official languages of the United Nations and its
provisions parallel the first four Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread quickly to India, Greece and eventually Rome. There
the concept of “natural law” arose, in observation of the fact that people tended to follow certain
unwritten laws in the course of life, and Roman law was based on rational ideas derived from the nature
of things.
By 800 B.C., the rise of Grecian city-states with a focus on the rights of the (free) individual established
an ideal atmosphere for Greek thinkers to develop some of the most sophisticated ideas the world had
yet seen. Plato is among the foremost of ancient Greek philosophers who developed theories of
existence that included some of the basic tenets of human rights. Stoicism borrowed heavily from Plato
and Socrates when defining a cosmopolite, meaning “citizen of the world.” Cosmos, meanwhile, is the
overarching order of the universe within which all humans are moving together in common humanity
and, according to Greek philosopher Zeno of Citrium, should not be divided by laws
As the Greeks waned and the Roman Empire grew and came into contact with unique cultures
throughout the Mediterranean, the republic was obliged to strike relationships with people who held
very different perceptions of the world. Borrowing from the Greek philanthropia, the Romans adopted
a system of humanitas, which focused on a cultivated and educated society driven to do good. Most
importantly, the philosophy rejects outward violence toward any other human being .The question of
slavery under the Roman Empire, like slavery in any civilization, complicates the question of
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membership in the human race, but the fundamentals of human rights and duties, like those laid for out
for Roman citizens in “The Twelve Tables” from 450 B.C., were nevertheless in place.
Gaius' magnum opus, the Institutes (AD 161), formed the basis of legal education and jurisprudence
for much of the Roman Empire's later history. It was Gaius who drew a distinction between jus civile,
or Roman laws, and jus gentium, the "laws of nations," which regulated interactions between Romans
and non-Romans. His principle of jus gentium assumed that some legal concepts could be universally
applicable, a fundamental principle of human rights law.
From the beginning, basic rights and duties of citizens would become central to the drafting of any
local or universal human rights ethic. The belief in a sympathetic existence is a common theme
throughout the early history of human rights. But the value of brotherhood, in particular, is fundamental
to early religious texts, including both the Christian New Testament and the Muslim Qu’ran.
Among the most famous texts that shaped human behavior in the ancient world was the Hebrew
Torah’s Ten Commandments, later part of the Christian Old Testament. The specific commandments
attempting to discourage anti-social behavior are:
• Honor your mother and father.
• You shall not murder.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not bear false witness.
• You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.
In addition to the Ten Commandments, the Old Testament lent the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, among
other documents, to the history of good behavior and evolving human rights.
The record of Jesus Christ's sermons is a significant contributor to human rights
The birth of Christ and the record of his “Sermon on the Mount” (of Beatitudes) in the New Testament
are key religious texts of the early first millennium in the Western tradition. For many Christians, the
Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew is the primary interpretation of Mosaic Law,
meaning the Gospel is a record of Jesus’ understanding of the Ten Commandments. Christian
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universalism explicitly preached that its adherents love their neighbors and endowed all human beings
with the potential for virtue and moral equality.
Originating in the seventh century, the 114 surahs (chapters) of Islam’s Qu’ran continued the religious
tradition of tolerance in the history of human rights. Believed to have been revealed to Mohammed by
God, the Qu’ran guides its followers toward justice, tolerance, and solidarity, and it shares single deity
monotheism as well as an ethic of universalism with Judaism and Christianity: “O mankind! We created
you…that ye may know each other, not that you may despise each other” (Surah 49:13). In all of
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, there are questions of religious tolerance among faiths and variations
in the universality of rights in practice, especially with respect to slaves, women, homosexuals, and
each other, but the basic principles of modern human rights are nevertheless laid out.
Muhammad was quite a libertarian by the standards of his day, protecting religious freedom, granting
women greater autonomy, and ending ethnic segregation policies. For centuries to come, Islam would
occupy the same role that secular progressivism occupies today: as a protector of minority opinions
(such as Greek paganism; the survival of Greco-Roman texts can largely be traced to Islamic
protection), a promoter of science, and a symbol of pluralism and modernity. (622: The Charter of
Medina)
to be obligated to, to be still in infancy, tenets, to be rooted in, “eye for an eye” justice, to rid society
of, Old Testament, commandments, to bear, to wan, perceptions of the world, adherents, tolerance, the
concept of ‘natural law’ arose, in observation of, charter of human rights, draw a distinction between,
jus civile, jus gentium, to end ethnic segregation policies
Task 2. Give English equivalents for the following word combinations.
получить распространение, существенное неравенство, определять поведение человека,

препятствовать, внешнее насилие, предоставлять, проистекать из, стать важной вехой в
движении к, соответствовать, предполагать, быть принятым повсеместно, приписывать,
многообразие и современность
Task 3. Look at the list of words below. For each one, write down a synonym and an antonym.
Use a dictionary if you need to. If you can’t find a single word, use a phrase.
Words Synonyms Antonyms
entitle
fundamental
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obtain
harassment
arbitrary
inviolable
discourage
adherent
tolerance
distinction
Task 4. Find the definitions of the following words.
Moral universals, tenets, Hebrew Torah, Ten Commandments, Old Testament, New Testament,
philanthropia, universalism, natural law, jus civile, jus gentium, segregation policy, pluralism,
modernity
1. Is the concept of human rights new or old?
2. What determined the laws that dictated early human rights?
3. What is the Code of Hammurabi?
4. What shaped human behavior in the ancient world?
5. What is natural law concept?
6. What was king Cyrus’s contribution to the development of human rights?
7. What ideas were developed with the rise of Grecian city-states?
8. How did the human rights concept develop under the Roman Empire?
9. What are the Institutes of Gaius?
10. Why was Muhammad considered to be a libertarian by the standards of his day?
11. How did human rights develop in the early history of Christianity(Islam)?
Task 6. Translate into English.
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1. Права человека являются универсальными, и ими могут пользоваться все люди без какой-
либо дискриминации. Уважение индивидуальных прав должно поощряться на постоянной
основе независимо от существующих условий или политической системы. Права какого-
либо лица или группы лиц могут быть ограничены только в том случае, если их
осуществление ограничивает такие же или сопоставимые права других лиц.
2. В Древнем мире, в эпоху зарождения государственности и политико-правовых идей, вся

культура и жизнь людей были пронизаны мифологией. В мифологии выражались понятия
мирового порядка, правды и справедливости, необходимости соблюдения установленных
правил, власти как средства их обеспечения, форм государства. В это время шел процесс
становления политического и этнического самосознания, что дало человечеству
возможность политической организации общественной жизни.
3. Античная классическая правовая теория и практика строились на вопросе о положении

личности в государстве. Политико-правовая мысль и практика полисной организации
общества еще не знали понятия прав личности. Условием обладания правами в античном
полисе («город-государство») являлось гражданство. Основной ценностью полиса
признавалась не индивидуальная свобода личности, а коллективная свобода – свобода
человека в качестве гражданина полиса. Все граждане в полисе воспринимались как равные.
4. Появление идеи прав индивида (свободных граждан) в V–IV вв. до н. э. в древних полисах
(Афины, Рим), т. е. принципа гражданства – крупный шаг на пути к прогрессу и свободе.
Свободные граждане полисов имели определенные права и обязанности, в частности, право
участвовать в управлении государственными делами на народных собраниях, право
участвовать в отправлении правосудия, право на частную собственность, возможность
совершения различных сделок, право на свободу слова и др. Наличие этих прав, особенно
права на частную собственность, и создавало предпосылки для формирования гражданского
общества и гражданских законов. Именно в античных полисах берет свое начало правовая
система Запада, основанная на частной собственности и активной роли индивидуума.
5. Римское право как самостоятельная светская юридическая наука возникло в начале III в. до
н. э. Римские юристы весьма тщательно разработали многие институты права как
теоретически, так и в отдельных его отраслях. Особое место принадлежит в их наследии
правовому положению личности в государстве. В целом римская юриспруденция дала
человечеству такие институты права, как субъективное право, субъект права, юридическое
лицо, а также многие другие институты публичного и частного права, не потерявшие своего
значения по сей день.
Task 7. Render the following article from Russian into English.

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Государство и право Древнего Вавилона
Бурная политическая история государственных образований Двуречья в конце 3-го тысячелетия

до нашей эры была отмечена возвышением Вавилона. Около 1895 года до нашей эры он
становится центром независимого государства. Цари вавилонской династии подчинили себе
сначала т. н. Аккадскую область, населенную семитскими племенами, а затем и шумерские
города.
Одним из наиболее выдающихся представителей Вавилонской династии был Хаммурапи

(1792—1750 гг. до нашей эры), с именем которого связаны важные преобразования в области
государственного строя Вавилонии.
Общественный строй Вавилонии в основных характеристиках напоминает древнеегипетский.

Источники выделяют светскую и церковную знать, чиновничество, профессиональное
воинство, сельских общинников, ремесленников, купцов, торговцев, разные категории рабов.
В Древнем Вавилоне не получило развитие крупное частное рабовладение. Основными

производителями материальных благ были свободные крестьяне-общинники и ремесленники.
Рабы находились как в государственной (во дворцах) и коллективной (храмах), так и в частной
собственности.
Патриархальный характер рабовладения обуславливал признания за рабами ряда личных и

имущественных прав. Например, в случае, если рабы вступали в брак со свободными
женщинами, то дети от этого брака считались свободными. После смерти раба имущество
делилось пополам, половина переходила жене и детям, половина - господину (ст. 175—
176 З. Х.) . Большой вес в обществе имели жрецы. Храмы обладали огромными богатствами.
В законах устанавливается привилегия храмов, упоминаемых наряду с привилегиями дворца.
Жрецы с древнейших времен сохранили в своих руках юстицию и играли существенную роль в
управлении. Высшие жреческие должности замещались лицами знатного происхождения, в том
числе родственниками царя.
Среди рабовладельцев особо выделялись тамкары - торговые агенты, самые денежные люди
Вавилона. Они ведут крупную внешнюю торговлю, а также розничную - внутри страны.
Судебная система, как и в других древневосточных государствах, не была отделена от

администрации. Царь и чиновники одновременно ведали и административными, и судебными
делами.
Верховным судьей был царь, являвшийся высшей инстанцией для рассмотрения гражданских и
уголовных дел. Он мог и сам рассмотреть любые дела, но чаще всего направлял в нижестоящие
органы.
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В больших городах судебные функции выполняли специальные "царские судьи", подчиненные
непосредственно царю.
Жрецы участвовали в процессе, когда приводили стороны к клятве и засвидетельствовали ее.

Следует полагать, что существовали храмовые суды для рассмотрения дела, сторонами в
которых являлись жрецы.
Древним источником права в государствах Двуречья был обычай. Наряду с обычаем весьма
рано появляется и другой источник права — закон.
Одним из наиболее значительных этапов в развитии права следует рассматривать появление

кодекса Хаммурапи.
Законы Хаммурапи
Представляют собой обширный законодательный памятник, состоящий из 282 статей. Внешне

кодекс представляет собой черный базальтовый столб, обнаруженный в 1902 году французской
археологической экспедицией в г. Сузы — древней столице Элемского царства (территория
современного Ирана). (Столб хранится в Лувре, копия — в Московском музее им.
А. С. Пушкина).
Судебник Хаммурапи затрагивает самые различные вопросы права, но весьма далек от точности
и полноты. Из 282 статей современным исследователям неизвестно лишь содержание 21 статьи.
Правовые положения изложены без обобщений. Вполне возможно, что законы Хаммурапи
представляли собой записи судебных решений.
Первые 5 статей судебника содержат положение процессуального характера. Они направлены

против царящего в судах произвола. 6—126 статьи посвящены регулированию имущественных
отношений, защите собственности и права распоряжению ею. Статьи 26—39 говорят о
земельных наделах воинов.
Следующий раздел, включающий статьи 127—195, посвящен брачно-семейным отношениям и

наследственному праву. Статьи 196—214 содержат положение о защите личности и ее здоровья.
Последняя часть кодекса (ст. ст. 215—282) посвящены труду и орудиям труда. Здесь содержатся
статьи, устанавливающие вознаграждение и ответственность врача, ветеринара, строителя,
статьи о найме, о сельскохозяйственных рабочих, о найме животных, орудий труда и о рабах.
Task 8. Render the following article from English into English.
The history of ideas and the main stages of human rights development
The article analyses the main ideas and concepts of the development of category “human rights” in
historical and legal aspects. Evolution of state and society relation to human rights in different eras of
14
humanity has being researched since the origin of human rights doctrine in Ancient Greece till today.
The issues of quantitative increase of human rights scope and their qualitative filling with new content
in the history of human development are considered along with the implementation of these concepts
in international law and realization of them in full scope by most of civilized countries in the world.
The history of ideas of human rights originates from the old times of human history. Yet, ancient myths
and beliefs, as well as the Bible contain the statements on the importance of human life, the equality of
people. Such views were widespread in Ancient Greece when the development of ideas of natural rights
began.
The notion of equality in Ancient Greece was natural consequence of polis democracy form, connected
mainly with the concept of citizenship providing equality of rights and freedoms, especially political
ones for all members of the polis. Hence, ancient Greek views of human rights were formed in general
sense of mythic beliefs about the divine origin of the polis(city-state), its laws, and their divine justice.
Law on the whole and the rights of individuals-members of the polis don’t originate from power, but
from divine justice order.
For the first time the great idea of natural equality of people and their will was expressed by sophists
(V–IV). Their works contained the fundamentals of natural law concept. They placed a human instead
of God in the center of the main measure of all things.
Even Aristotle said about law (natural and established by power) only as political law, that is, law that
is possible and can take place only in the state. According to Aristotle, natural law is possible only as
political law and the rights of a human are possible only as rights of a citizen (member of the polis).
Particularly important is the subsequent position of Aristotle on the question of the protection of
person’s rights to private property and individual family. A lot of supporters of human rights appealed
to his statements as classical ones later on.
The ideas of freedom and equality belonging to Ancient Greek philosophers further developed in
Ancient Rome. So, the statements of Greek stoics (Zenon, Chrysippos and others) of world natural law
(“general law” for all people and nations) where used by Rome stoics (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius) for the basis of general concept of natural law and cosmopolitan ideas according to which all
the people (in their nature and the laws of world creation on the whole) are the citizens of a single world
state, and a man is a citizen of the Universe.
It was issued from the natural and legal views of stoics that the slavery could not be justified as far as
it goes against the general law and world citizenship of people. Due to the efforts of stoics natural and
legal ideas of freedom and equality of all people were taken out of narrow-polis ethnic limits and
expended to all the representatives of mankind as co-citizens of a single cosmopolitan state.
15
Analyzing the works of Rome lawyers the conclusion can be made that they contributed greatly to the
development of legal ideas of human rights. Abstract notion of legal and natural justice was transformed
into the principle of positive law and became the main criteria of actual law. Just the idea of justice i.e.
correspondence of law to the requirements of life was used by Rome lawyers in the creation of lawyers’
law. Interpretation of justice as the necessary feature of law and the established moment of its notion
signified that all the norms contradictory to the principle of natural and legal justice have no legal force.
Legal understanding and interpretation of the state along with legal specification of powers and duties
of public officers and institutions developed by Rome lawyers were significant for the development of
human rights and freedom concept.
Task 9. Comment on the following quotes about Human Rights. Agree or disagree with them
giving your arguments for or against.
1. In the old times men carried out their rights for themselves as they lived, but nowadays every
baby seems born with a social manifesto in its mouth much bigger than itself. (Oscar Wilde)
2. Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations
about the proper application of the word human. (Suzanne Lafollette)
3. Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit. (Victor
Hugo)
Text 2
Eastern tradition
Long before Islamic influence under the spread of the Arab Empire reached into the East, the
ideological tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism had spread and taken hold. When the Indian king Ashoka
converted to Buddhism, he preached nonviolence and issued a series of edicts, carved on 33 pillars
throughout his empire, protecting the rights of the poor and vulnerable. ( 231 BCE: The Edicts of
Ashoka) Other Eastern philosophers, most notably Confucius from the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.,
have contributed to morally guiding humans in their everyday lives. While the teachings of Buddhism
are attributable to Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, Hinduism’s origins are diverse and
obscured by time.
Their teachings are numerous, but Buddhism and Hinduism put forth a code of human rights that can
be boiled down to several basic tenets: freedom from violence, want, exploitation, early death and
disease, fear, frustration, and despair, as well as freedom of conscience. Tolerance and compassion are
also espoused in the Hindu Vedas, a moral code of conduct known as dharma that emphasizes the
symbiotic interrelationship of all things. Compassion and solidarity in Buddhism hope for a universal
16
ethic where people help one another in their common path to salvation—an idea that took hold in early
Chinese philosophy as well.
Of central importance to the Chinese tradition is The Analects of Confucius, who asks, “Am I not a
member of this human race?” Indeed, the modern conceptions of individualism and human rights share
a lot with the two-millennia-old Confucian ethic, which believes “that all individuals, even commoners,
[possess] rational, aesthetic, political, social, historical, and transcendental qualities that [can] be
cultivated through education”. People, Confucius maintains, can enjoy peace and security if their
government looks after their “economic and moral welfare” (ibid). Confucius, then, is a logical source
of inspiration for the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, given the Western belief
in the role of governing bodies in preserving human rights for their citizens.
Peace, compassion, and freedom from fear and want are human
right tenets at the heart of Eastern philosophy and religion
At the time of European exploration into Eastern waters, the great civilizations of China and India had
achieved as much, if not more, culturally than their Western counterparts. There was even religious
freedom and tolerance in India under the leadership of Akabar in the sixteenth century. The political
and religious backbone of China held together a vast, populous, and often rebellious state because of
the ethical strength and stability established by Confucius. Meanwhile, the technologically advanced
Arab Empire that took hold across Persia and around the Mediterranean not only spread the tenets of
Islam, but also had safeguarded and translated the best treatises of antiquity. The humanistic philosophy
of Classical Greece was thriving in the Arab Empire. But, ultimately, the West would assume the
responsibility of attempting to establish a universal human rights ethic.
The reason for the West’s assumption of the responsibility of defining human rights seems to lie in the
astonishing speed with which the West ascended to domination. The revolutions of France and
America, free-market capitalism, American entrepreneurialism, and Western invention along with
industrialization all lent to the rise of the West. Important to the history of human rights are systems
like the existence of the Hindu caste system in India and the centralized power and dominant unity of
China. Castes are by definition not egalitarian, and the Confucian idea of universal justice couldn’t hold
up to the increasing control of the centralized authority of Imperial China, which would be perfectly
17
poised for a Communist revolution. Still, drafters of the UDHR borrowed heavily from latent Eastern
philosophy as human rights finally became institutionalized.
To reach to, to be obscured, want, transcendental qualities, to convert to, to preach nonviolence,
transcendental qualities, counterparts, backbone, to safeguard, rebellious state, to thrive, to ascend to,
entrepreneurialism, to lent to, to be poised for, egalitarian,
Идеологические принципы, получать распространение, вносить вклад в, сокращать\сжимать\

сводиться к, человек из народа, пускать в обращение\выпускать, густонаселенный,
трактат\научный труд, принимать\брать на себя, поддерживать, скрытый
freedom
salvation
transcendental
counterparts
backbone
treatise
assumption
assend
centralized
Hinduism, Buddhism, Hindu Vedas, dharma, individualism, entrepreneurialism, egalitarian, caste

system, industrialization
18
1. How are human rights reflected in the Eastern traditions?

2. What was king’s Ashoka contribution to the development of human rights?
3. How are teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism interconnected with the ideas on human rights?
4. How did Chinese traditions and the philosophy of Confucius influence the development of
human rights?
5. What ideas thrived in the Arab Empire?
1. Государство Древней Индии образовалось в устьях рек Инде, пять притоков которого
образуют Пенджаб (Пятиречье) и Ганге, где были наиболее благоприятные условия для
занятия скотоводством и земледелием. Очень рано в этих районах вследствие недостатка
влаги была создана система искусственного орошения.
2. Для общественного строя Индии характерно довольно длительное сохранение общинных
порядков - следствие медленного развития производительных сил. Другая характерная черта-
деление общества на Варны (“Варна” — в буквальном переводе означает "цвет" и
"качество"). Варны — это 4 сословия (касты), возникшие в период разложения крепостного
строя.
3. В Индии, как и в других странах Древнего Востока, государство приняло форму деспотии,
которое характеризовалось всевластием монарха, бесправным положением подданных,
наличием централизованного бюрократического аппарата. В Индийском государстве
имелось 3 ведомства, выполнявших функции рабовладельческого государства: финансовое
ведомство; военное ведомство; ведомство публичных работ.
4. Государство Древнего Китая образовалось на территории среднего и нижнего течения реки
Хуан-Хе (Желтая река) и равнины, расположенной в заливе Бохай. Начиная с 3-го
тысячелетия до нашей эры формировалось древнекитайская народность. В 3 веке до нашей
эры образовался общий древнекитайский язык, язык народности хань. Изучение истории
Китая в Европе начинается с 13 века (с путешествия Марко Поло).
5. В государственном строе Ханьского государства cледует отметить, следующее: а)
установилась практика продажи должностей; б) была введена продержавшаяся в течение
многих веков система замещения должностей после сдачи экзамена.
6. В центральном аппарате существует строгая иерархия чинов. Высшим должностным лицом
был сановник, занимающий положение "визиря" или "канцлера". Кроме того, упоминаются
начальник канцелярии, начальник департамента юстиции, начальник полиции, управляющий
императорским дворцом, начальник тайной казны и т. д.
19
7. Суд не был отделен от администрации. Правитель области имел всю полноту судебной
власти, имел право выносить смертный приговор. Главным помощником правителя области
был начальник полиции, имевший специальные военные силы. Была хорошо развита
агентурная сеть. Высшей судебной инстанцией был император.
8. Древневосточные цивилизации, безусловно, внесли огромный вклад в развитие государства
и права. Государственно-правовые явления стран Древнего Востока дают общее
представление об основных типах восточной деспотии и древневосточных правовых
системах.
9. Во главе государства, как правило, стоял монарх, имеющий неограниченную власть над
подданными. В большинстве государств личность его обожествлялась. В большинстве
государств функционировало три ведомства: финансовое; военное; общественных работ.
10. Эти ведомства находились под контролем соответствующих сановников и монархов. Право
формируется как право-привилегия, с явно выраженной классовой сущностью. Уголовное
право носит карательно-террористический характер, направлено на подавление выступлений
против монарха и господствующего класса.
Развитие права
В период Циньской и Ханьской империй отмечена законодательная активность. В 5—4 вв. до

нашей эры возникает своеобразная философско-правовая школа законников (легистов).
Сторонников школы отличала слепая вера в силу государственного предписания, которое они
стремились распространить на все случаи жизни. Они стояли на позициях неограниченной
частной собственности, настаивали на кодификации законов, выступали за сильное
централизованное государство. Кодификация права проводилась неоднократно. Наиболее
известной являлась кодификация, проведенная выдающимся юристом 5—4 вв. до нашей эры
Ли Куем, одним из представителей школы легистов. Он собрал и систематизировал законы всех
царств, написал "Книгу законов".
Наиболее значительными чертами в регулировании имущественных отношений периодов Цинь

и Хань является упрочение частной собственности на землю (реформа Шань Яна) и широкое
распространение долгового рабства. Разрешение купли-продажи земли способствовало
концентрации земельной собственности в руках немногих (как и рабов). Главы семей имели
право судопроизводства над домочадцами, в том числе продавать в вечное рабство. Имело место
залоговое право, в т. ч. могла закладываться и земля. Ростовщические операции осуществляли
под разные проценты - от 5 до 20 или даже под 50%. Письменные договоры составлялись не
20
только при крупных сделках, но и при мелких. Договор был основным способом доказывания
иска.
Уголовное право характеризуется террористическим характером наказания. В основе наказания

лежала идея устрашения. Тело казненного выставлялось на показ, казнь проводилась публично.
За преступления несло ответственность три поколения родственников виновных, в т. ч. отец,
мать, дети, братья, сестры не зависимо от возраста. Применялись членовредительские
наказания.
Широкое распространение получило наказание в виде обращение в государственных рабов, в т.

ч. как правило, трех поколений родственников виновного. Существовали каторжные работы на
определенные сроки. Осуждению на каторжные работы сопровождалось татуировкой
осужденного (зеленой чертой вокруг глаз), бритьем головы и одеванием железного обруча на
шею. Битье производилось бамбуковыми палками определенной длины и толщины. Среди
наказаний упоминаются ссылка, отстранение от должности, палочные удары, штрафы.
Штрафом можно было откупиться от физического наказания. За выкуп можно было
освободиться от трудовой и военной повинностей.
Предварительное расследование и суд находились в одних руках. Расследование применялось с

помощью пыток, сопровождалось арестом как обвиняемого, так и свидетелей "если последние
не давали требуемых показаний". Пытка могла быть применена и к свидетелям. Тюремный
режим был очень суровым, источники упоминают массовую смертность заключенных.
О результатах расследования составлялся обвинительный акт. Осужденный мог обжаловать
приговор до истечения 3 месячного срока, но пересмотр дела производила та же инстанция,
которая вынесла первое решение. Можно было подать кассационную жалобу императору или
его инспекторам, посылаемых для ревизии дел местной администрации и суда. Сама
организация суда, несмотря на имевшийся институт инспекторов, открывала возможность
злоупотребления и произвола, связанного с вымогательством и подкупом.
Differences to Western Civilization
When looking at the different approaches western and eastern civilizations take to human rights, a
former senior minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew said this: “The Confucianist view of order between
subject and ruler helps in the rapid transformation of society ... in other words, you fit yourself into
society – the exact opposite of the American rights of the individual. I believe that what a country needs
to develop is discipline more than democracy. Democracy leads to undisciplined and disorderly
conditions.” Generally speaking, western people are more suspicious of their powerful government
21
officials. Selfless, uncorrupted government officials are considered a rarity rather than norm and
theories of people in power being involved in bribery or fraud are all too often proven true. Western
civilization has a political history based around the people overcoming struggles to take their freedom,
which is considered by most to be an innate right of human beings. Eastern Civilization’s tend to take
a different approach to their relationship with the state, with the people holding their state officials in a
higher esteem. Leaders in East Asian countries are generally believed to be honourable and of superior
intellect to the majority of the population. Historically speaking, even some of the most autocratic
leaders of Eastern countries have been voted back into office by their own people. This holds true with
the concept that western people are more concerned with their own rights, whilst eastern civilization
focuses more on their duties to the state. Individuals in Eastern Asian countries may complain about
their leaders in private, but mass protests are uncommon and the sense of trust is their governments
usually remains intact. It could be said that East Asia promotes the concept that individual
independences may need to be sacrificed in order for the country to maintain a state of prosperity and
order. Advocacy groups, international establishments, and Western governments tended to emphasize
civil and political rights, such as freedoms of speech, assembly, and the press, exactly the types of rights
most likely to create political hostilities. Demands for human rights protections were often made
simultaneously with demands for democratization. Asian governments pushed back by emphasising
the united economic, social, and cultural rights such as entitlements to education, health, and decent
standards of living.
1. “In a sea of human beings, it is difficult, at times even impossible, to see the human as
being.” (Aysha Taryam)
2. “In times of war, the law falls silent. Silent enim leges inter arma” (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
3. “The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” (John F.
Kennedy)
Text 3
The Role of the West in Defining Universal Human Rights
Documents asserting individual rights, such as the Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Right (1628),
the US Constitution (1787), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), and
the US Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of today’s human rights documents.
While the Coronation Charter of King Henry I (sometimes called the Charter of Liberties, 1100) is
referred to as a predecessor to the Magna Carta of 1215, it's really more of a guarantee of royal good
22
behavior than anything we would recognize as a human rights agreement. Still, it set the precedent of
an English monarch voluntarily restricting his own power.
Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” signed by the King of England in 1215, was a turning point in
human rights.
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the most significant early influence on the
extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in the English-speaking
world.
In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England
had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which enumerates what later came
to be thought of as human rights. Among them was the right of the church to be free from governmental
interference, the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit property and to be protected from excessive
taxes. It established the right of widows who owned property to choose not to remarry, and established
principles of due process and equality before the law. It also contained provisions forbidding bribery
and official misconduct.
Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development of modern democracy,
the Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle to establish freedom.
Jon E. Lewis’ A Documentary History of Human Rights calls the era following the fall of the Republic
of Rome “The Age of Faith” because the Church of Rome survived and spread across much of Europe.
Over the next few centuries, the Western world experienced a growth in urban population and an
intellectual revival that helped drive a transition from the High Middle Ages in to Renaissance. The
era, however, was troubled by the vicious series of Crusades attempting to “free” Muslim-controlled
Jerusalem. There was further violent religious persecution at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. It
was a period of extreme religious prejudice largely rooted in Christian fear and intolerance. But such
intolerance and acts of violence would prompt reformers to encourage change based upon a return to
23
what they perceived to be the central truths of the Gospels. Such change would reshape the Western
tradition not only in the Old World, but by the fifteenth century, began to broaden its reach. European
conceptions (and restrictions) of human rights extended into New Worlds, as European conquest almost
always violently suppressed indigenous practices and stripped native rights.
Meanwhile, human rights were left in limbo during religious tension set off by Martin Luther and the
Protestant Reformation. The Reformation of the sixteenth century and the subsequent several Great
Awakenings (beginning in the eighteenth century) continued to divide and refine human rights as drawn
from Christianity. Those divisions subtly changed how faith influenced conceptions of human rights
according to where religion spread. The challenges to supremacy of Roman Catholicism incited wars
across the European continent consuming the better part of a century between 1562 and 1648. That
final year, the Treaty of Westphalia ended the religious wars and divided the continent into spheres of
influence . Individual religious freedom, however, would be saved for the colonization of the New
World. Subsequent revolutions would affect notions of human rights all over the West.
In 1628 the English Parliament sent this statement of civil liberties to King Charles I.
The next recorded milestone in the development of human rights was the Petition of Right, produced
in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil liberties. Refusal by
Parliament to finance the king’s unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced
loans and to quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economy measure. Arbitrary arrest and
imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in Parliament a violent hostility to Charles and
to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was
based upon earlier statutes and charters and asserted four principles: (1) No taxes may be levied without
consent of Parliament, (2) No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of the
right of habeas corpus), (3) No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and (4) Martial law may
not be used in time of peace.
The English Bill of Rights of 1689 was the most advanced document of its kind at the time,
guaranteeing free speech in parliament, the right to bear arms, the right to petition leaders, and certain
due process rights.
24
Ultimately, the period of the European Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation broke up the moral
monopoly held by the Roman Catholic church and spurred a shift in secular human thought to what
would be known as the Enlightenment.
As Western agrarian nations industrialized, the rising middle class and enlightened
governments spurred major advances in human rights
The importance of Enlightenment-era thinking to the history of human rights is that human rights were
tied up in national struggles for freedom and independence. A rising middle class, free market
economies, and individual rights replaced feudal authoritarianism and Inquisition-era church authority
in the eighteenth century. A so-called universal right to life and property became fundamental to the
Western tradition (though, as always, there were exemptions), and the Bill of Rights adopted by the
newly independent United States became the benchmark of individual human rights in a free,
democratic society.
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson penned the American Declaration of Independence.
On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Its primary
author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration as a formal explanation of why Congress had voted
on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War, and as a statement announcing that the thirteen American Colonies were
no longer a part of the British Empire. Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several
forms. It was initially published as a printed broadsheet that was widely distributed and read to the
public.
25
Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes: individual rights and the right of revolution.
These ideas became widely held by Americans and spread internationally as well, influencing in
particular the French Revolution.
The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution protects basic freedoms of United States citizens.
Written during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United States of America
is the fundamental law of the US federal system of government and the landmark document of the
Western world. It is the oldest written national constitution in use and defines the principal organs of
government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution—the Bill of Rights—came into effect on December 15,
1791, limiting the powers of the federal government of the United States and protecting the rights of
all citizens, residents and visitors in American territory.
The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the
freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition. It also prohibits unreasonable search and seizure,
cruel and unusual punishment and compelled self-incrimination. Among the legal protections it affords,
the Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from making any law respecting establishment of religion and
prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due
process of law. In federal criminal cases it requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital offense,
or infamous crime, guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury in the district in which the
crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy.
26
Following the French Revolution in 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
granted specific freedoms from oppression, as an “expression of the general will.”
In 1789 the people of France brought about the abolishment of the absolute monarchy and set the stage
for the establishment of the first French Republic. Just six weeks after the storming of the Bastille, and
barely three weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen (French: La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) was adopted by the National
Constituent Assembly as the first step toward writing a constitution for the Republic of France.
The Declaration proclaims that all citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property, security,
and resistance to oppression.” It argues that the need for law derives from the fact that “...the exercise
of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the
enjoyment of these same rights.” Thus, the Declaration sees law as an “expression of the general will,“
intended to promote this equality of rights and to forbid “only actions harmful to the society.”
In the nineteenth century, social conflict arose to advance human rights—prompted not only as the
bonds of slavery were formally eroded around the world, but also with increased demands from the
working class and as woman fought to achieve equality.
Debates over human rights erupted out of industrialization, especially as unions fought for labor equity
and protection from unjust law and administration. In the United States, the disparate economies of the
North and the South clashed over the question of slave labor. European classes and their roles in society
were outlined by the most renowned thinkers of the era, including the champion of the middle class,
Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx, who envisioned human rights being sustained by the working
proletariat who, within their society’s economic infrastructure, “had ‘nothing to lose but their chains’”
.
The original document from the first Geneva Convention in 1864 provided for care to wounded
soldiers.
In 1864, sixteen European countries and several American states attended a conference in Geneva, at
the invitation of the Swiss Federal Council, on the initiative of the Geneva Committee. The diplomatic
27
conference was held for the purpose of adopting a convention for the treatment of wounded soldiers in
combat.
The main principles laid down in the Convention and maintained by the later Geneva Conventions
provided for the obligation to extend care without discrimination to wounded and sick military
personnel and respect for and marking of medical personnel transports and equipment with the
distinctive sign of the red cross on a white background.
to be written precursors to, to refer to, to be governed, to be free from governmental interference, to
own property, to inherit, to be protected from excessive taxes, intellectual revival, religious persecution,
reshape, strip native rights, to incite, milestone, to assert, to levy taxes, consent, to become the
benchmark, broadsheet, landmark, indictment, infamous crime, impartial jury, barely, to envision, to
sustain, to maintain, military personnel
Утверждать права личности, установить прецедент, подкуп, злоупотребление служебным

положением, решающий момент, порочный\яростный, предубеждение, подавлять, оставаться в
подвешенном положении, незаконный арест, сильная враждебность, быть расквартированным,
право на обращение в органы власти, начало, лишать чего-либо, осуществлять, подготовить
почву для, быть разрушенным по всему миру, принимать конвенцию
precursors
charter
precedent
excessive
democracy
vicious
persecution
28
milestone
hostility
federal
impartial
adopt
Bribery, official misconduct, due process, infamous crime, indictment, double jeopardy, Bill of Right,
feudalism, discrimination
1. What document is the predecessor to the Magna Carta?

2. Why is Magna Carta viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development
of modern democracy?
3. What is the next recorded milestone in the development of human rights?
4. How did the concept of human rights change over the next few centuries?
5. How did the period of Reformation influence human rights?
6. What is the benchmark of human rights in Enlightenment-era?
7. What was the input of Industrialization in the development of human rights?
8. Why the 4th of July is a very important holiday in the USA?
9. What is the landmark document of the Western World?
10. What rights are allocated in the Bill of Rights?
11. What document originated following the French Revolution in 1789?
12. What principles were laid down in the First Geneva Convention of 1864?
13. What was the situation with human rights in the East at the time of European exploration into
Eastern waters?
14. What is the reason for the West’s assumption of the responsibility of defining human rights?
15. Why couldn’t Eastern philosophy rival the West?
1. Англичане приняли свой Билль о правах в 1689 году. Этот документ ограничил королевскую
власть и дал больше власти английским подданным. В частности, Билль о правах сделал
власть парламента сильнее, чем власть монарха, дал подданным гражданские и политические
29
права и постановил, что римский католик не может управлять Англией. Билль о правах был
принят Уильямом III и Марией II после революции, свергнувшей Якова II с трона. Вы можете
прочесть об этом в документе, ознаменовавшем поворотный момент в истории Англии.
2. Феодализм был политической и общественной системой в Западной Европе с конца IX века
вплоть до повышения роли абсолютных монархий. Основу феодальной системы составляли
собственники земли и поместий. Владелец поместья позволял крестьянам (крепостным)
пользоваться землей: обрабатывать ее для пропитания. В свою очередь крестьяне давали
клятву верности, обязывавшую их платить своему господину дань или работать на него.
Внутри самой феодальной системы собственником всей земли был король. Королю
подчинялось дворянство (например, бароны), которые обладали землей, дарованной им
королем. Высшему дворянству подчинялось более мелкое, владевшее землей, подаренной им
высшими дворянами, и так далее; при этом каждый вассал давал клятву верности своему
суверену (несколько похоже на многоуровневый маркетинг).
3. Во время правления короля Джона (1199–1216) бароны восстали. Это произошло из-за
попытки короля раздобыть денег, ущемив привилегии баронов. Чтобы прекратить восстание,
король Джон поставил свою печать на Великой хартии вольностей, которая гарантировала
права английским подданным и в целом ограничивала использование королевской власти.
Великая хартия вольностей — это интересный документ: он описывает, что могли и чего не
могли делать различные члены феодальной системы.
4. 4 июля 1776 года тринадцатью колониями была принята Декларация независимости,
провозгласившая их независимость от Великобритании и создание Соединенных Штатов
Америки. Декларация отражает мечты американцев по поводу идеального правительства и
перечисляет проблемы, многие из которых остаются нерешенными до сих пор. Американская
война за независимость длилась восемь лет и завершилась признанием независимости
Соединенных Штатов Америки и сохранением их территорий. Теперь вы можете получить
собственную копию Декларации независимости с данного Web-сайта. (А если вдруг вас
охватит непреодолимый патриотический позыв, вы можете ее распечатать и поставить в
конце длинного списка свою подпись.)
5. 3 декабря 1791 года Билль о правах стал законом в Соединенных Штатах. Его составляют 10
поправок к Конституции США (принята в 1787 году). Билль определяет права, которые
гарантированы всем гражданам Соединенных Штатов. Например, первая часть Билля о
правах гарантирует свободу вероисповедания, слова, печати, собраний и обращения к
правительству. Это — один из самых важных документов в американской истории.
30
Становление и развитие прав человека
Становление и развитие прав человека имеет длительную историю, сопровождается борьбой

доктрин и традиций, характерных для той или иной страны. Несмотря на давность
возникновения самой идеи прав человека, подлинный смысл они обретают только на основе
принципов демократии, свободы, справедливости, формального равенства, признания
самоценности человека. На такой основе стало возможным формирование правовых
государств, одним из главных признаков которых является верховенство прав человека.
Права человека являются одной из высших культурных ценностей, поскольку они ставят
личность в центр всех процессов общественного развития, определяют его свободу и
равноправие. Отмечая огромную гуманистическую и нравственную сущность прав человека,
нельзя вместе с тем не затронуть вопрос о том, почему права человека в современном мире —
явление не универсальное, а большинство государств мира не являются правовыми.
Представляется, что ответ на этот вопрос связан не только с чисто правовыми
характеристиками; он выходит на более широкую сферу общественных отношении,
охватываемую понятием цивилизации.
Если исторически проследить путь становления идей прав человека и правового государства,
то его нельзя связывать напрямую с какой-то определенной формацией. Как уже было
показано, зародились эти идеи в условиях рабовладельческой формации, однако в тех
уникальных регионах мира, в которых была развита демократия и высокая духовная культура.
Апофеозом прав человека явились буржуазные революции с принципами равенства, свободы,
справедливости. Однако не все буржуазные государства могли удержать высокую планку
демократии и прав человека.
В условиях одной и той же формации могут существовать различные отношения к правам

человека и правовому государству. Поэтому такие глобальные для человечества проблемы
следует рассматривать в контексте цивилизационного подхода. Формация определяет лишь
стадию социально-экономического развития и положение классов, социальных групп в
обществе. Формационный подход не раскрывает место человека в обществе, его ценность,
каталог его естественных и неотчуждаемых прав. Индивид во всех его сложных связях и
зависимостях предстает только в рамках цивилизационного подхода. Исходя из этого можно
сделать вывод, что идея ценности человека, его права на свободу и формальное равенство,
31
опоры общества на право, обеспечивающего притязания индивида на гуманное отношение к
нему со стороны власти, характерны прежде всего, для европейской цивилизации.
Цивилизация характеризуется определенным уровнем культуры как способа человеческой

жизнедеятельности, философией, системой ценностей, общественно значимыми идеалами,
стилем творчества, обобщенным мировоззрением. Основной принцип жизни цивилизации
"представляет собой исходные основы жизни народа, его мораль, убежденность,
определяющее отношение к самому себе, поведение, верования и надежды. Основной принцип
жизни объединяет людей в народ данной цивилизации, обеспечивает его единство и
сохраняемость на протяжении всей собственной истории".
Европейская цивилизация породила высокую гуманистическую культуру, в ней появились

представления о ценности индивида, о значимости права и основанного на нем порядка,
обеспечивающего свободу личности.
The English Bill of Rights
Unlike the United States Constitution, which sets forth the rights of citizens and the relationship
between governmental bodies in a single comprehensive document, English constitutional law is
comprised of a number of different documents the force of which has steadily grown over the years.
Thus, many of the rights of Englishmen are enshrined in Magna Carta, most notably the right to due
process and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.
However, King James II during his reign from 1685 to 1689 severely abused the liberties that had been
granted to Englishmen by Magna Carta. He suspended acts of Parliament, collected taxes not authorized
by law, and undermined the independence of the judiciary and the universities. He interfered in the
outcome of elections and trials and refused to be bound by duly enacted laws. Furthermore, he
attempted to impose Catholicism on a staunchly Protestant nation through the persecution of Protestant
dissenters and the replacement of Anglican officials who refused to acquiesce in his illegal acts.
In November of 1688 William of Orange, a Dutch Prince, and his wife Mary, daughter of James II,
invaded England with the popular support of the English people and much of the English nobility. They
brought with them a large army comprised primarily of Dutch mercenaries, but James ultimately fled
for France without significant bloodshed taking place.
In January of 1689 a Convention assembled in London to determine the succession of the English
Crown. The Convention was composed of former members of Parliament and functioned much like a
32
parliament, but as Parliament had been legally disbanded* and the Great Seal* had been thrown in the
River Thames, their
acts did not formally carry the force of law. After much debate the Convention drafted a Declaration
of Rights and offered the throne of England jointly to William and Mary. After the accession of William
and Mary and the formation of a legal Parliament, this Declaration was adapted to create a Bill of Rights
which was signed into law in December 1689, forever altering the balance of power between the
sovereign and his subjects.
This process was a gradual evolution beginning with Magna Carta in 1215 and advancing intermittently
as subsequent monarchs were compelled to recognize limitations on their power. The English Bill of
Rights is one of the fundamental documents of English constitutional law, and marks a fundamental
milestone in the progression of English society from a nation of subjects under the plenary authority of
a monarch to a nation of free citizens with inalienable rights. The statute prohibited the monarch from
suspending laws or levying taxes or customs duties without Parliament's consent and prohibited the
raising and maintaining of a standing army during peacetime. More importantly, it proclaimed
fundamental liberties, including freedom of elections, freedom of debate in Parliament, and freedom
from excessive bail and from cruel and unusual punishments. To prevent a recurrence of the religious
divisions that beset the Catholic James in ruling a largely Protestant England, the Bill of Rights also
barred Roman Catholics from the throne.
The first section of the English Bill of Rights sets out an enumeration of grievances against James II
whose flight from England constituted, in accordance with the new statute, an abdication of the throne.
This section looks very much like the enumeration of grievances in the United States Declaration of
Independence against George III*. The second section of the English Bill of Rights sets forth a
declaration of thirteen ancient rights and liberties which the document is intended to protect. These
largely mirror the enumerations of error from the preceding section. The remainder of the English Bill
of Rights establishes the sovereignty of William and Mary and provides for their succession. It also
provides that no Catholic can inherit the throne and no king may marry a Catholic. This was a reflection
of the role that
religion played in the Glorious Revolution, and the deep-seated fear the English people held of being
subjects of a Catholic dynasty.
The Bill of Rights became one of the cornerstones of the unwritten English constitution. It has also had
a significant impact on U.S. law, with many of its provisions becoming part of the U.S. Constitution
and Bill of Rights.
33
1. “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who
struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high
concept there can be no end save victory.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
2. “Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views,
that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe.” (Elie Wiesel)
3. “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” (Frederick Douglass)
Task 28. Prepare a presentation on the topic: ‘History of Human Rights’
34
UNIT 2
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Text 1
On October 24, 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations came into
being as an intergovernmental organization, with the purpose of saving future
generations from the devastation of international conflict.
United Nations representatives from all regions of the world formally adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
on December 10, 1948.
Fifty nations met in San Francisco in 1945 and formed the United Nations to protect and
promote peace. World War II had raged from 1939 to 1945, and as the end drew near,
cities throughout Europe and Asia lay in smoldering ruins. Millions of people were dead,
millions more were homeless or starving. Russian forces were closing in on the remnants
of German resistance in Germany’s bombed-out capital of Berlin. In the Pacific, US
Marines were still battling entrenched Japanese forces on such islands as Okinawa.
In April 1945, delegates from fifty countries met in San Francisco full of optimism and
hope. The goal of the United Nations Conference on International Organization was to
fashion an international body to promote peace and prevent future wars. The ideals of
the organization were stated in the preamble to its proposed charter: “We the peoples of
the United Nations are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of
war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.”
35
The Charter of the new United Nations organization (UNO) went into effect on October
24, 1945, a date that is celebrated each year as United Nations Day.
The Charter of the United Nations established six principal bodies, including the General
Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and in relation to
human rights, an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The UN Charter empowered ECOSOC to establish “commissions in economic and

social fields and for the promotion of human rights….” One of these was the United
Nations Human Rights Commission, which, under the chairmanship of Eleanor
Roosevelt, saw to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Declaration was drafted by representatives of all regions of the world and
encompassed all legal traditions. By 1948, the United Nations’ new Human Rights
Commission had captured the world’s attention. Under the dynamic chairmanship of
Eleanor Roosevelt—President Franklin Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights champion in
her own right and the United States delegate to the UN—the Commission set out to draft
the document that became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Roosevelt,
credited with its inspiration, referred to the Declaration as the international Magna Carta
for all mankind. It was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. It is the
most universal human rights document in existence, delineating the thirty fundamental
rights that form the basis for a democratic society.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a leading voice and author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UDHR has been translated into hundreds of languages—more than any other
document. Though the document itself has no legal force, it provides the platform for
human rights all over the world and defines freedoms and rights fundamental to the
language of the United Nations.
36
The declaration emerged out of World War II and broadly condemns acts of barbarism
from the more distant past, though the document is clearly a reaction of moral outrage
resulting specifically from the Holocaust. The subsequent Nuremberg and Tokyo trials
that tried war criminals in an international setting established precedents for the
prosecution of crimes against peace and humanity that became the principles of the
UDHR consisting of a preamble and 30 articles. The UDHR commission was helmed by
Eleanor Roosevelt, who hoped the document’s preamble and 30 articles would be
measured in importance against the eighteenth-century landmarks of human rights: the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in France and the Declaration of
Independence and the Bill of Rights in the United States.
While all the rights are noble in intent, the Human Rights Commission faced the
challenging assumption that, in fact, there are no universal ethics. The commission wrote
a questionnaire for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) to circulate among prominent thinkers of the time in order to bring together
a variety of traditions, from both the East and the West.
Debate quickly erupted between sides. Unfortunately, even amid its calls for civil rights,
America was rightly called out by the Soviets for its segregationist policies still intact
throughout the South. There remained serious questions of universality. Nevertheless,
the declaration was adopted without dissent. Fifty of the then-58 member states ratified
the document. The other eight, including the Soviet Union, abstained from voting, with
legitimate concerns that the U.N. document would supplant the preferences of their own
states. It was a fitting beginning to a tense era of Cold War, but a serious challenge to
subsequent efforts in the push for universal rights.
In its preamble and in Article 1, the Declaration unequivocally proclaims the inherent
rights of all human beings: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in
barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a
world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom
from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common
people...All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
37
The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work together to promote the thirty
Articles of human rights that, for the first time in history, had been assembled and
codified into a single document. In consequence, many of these rights, in various forms,
are today part of the constitutional laws of democratic nations.
Following this historic act, the Assembly called upon all Member Countries to publicize
the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and
expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction
based on the political status of countries or territories.”
Today, the Declaration is a living document that has been accepted as a contract between
a government and its people throughout the world. According to the Guinness Book of
World Records, it is the most translated document in the world.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has inspired a number of other human rights
laws and treaties throughout the world.
The next phase in the history of human rights came with elaborations on articles of the
UDHR into two covenants adopted in 1966, both featuring the right to self-determination
and freedom from discrimination based upon “race, color, sex, language, religion, or
political or other opinions”. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights combined
with the UDHR into an International Bill of Human Rights. The International Bill of
Human Rights is an informal name given to two international treaties and one General
Assembly resolution established by the United Nations. It consists of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (adopted in 1948), the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (1966) with its two Optional Protocols and the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).1 The two covenants entered into force
in 1976, after a sufficient number of countries had ratified them. Nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) utilized their relationship with the U.N. to continue to push for
expanded rights and treaties, including the rights of children and the prevention of racial
or gender discrimination.
38
On the heels of the International Bill of Human Rights, an additional wave of activism
expanded the reach of those documents into “health rights, women’s rights, economic
justice, and indigenous people’s rights”. But the reach of those rights remained only as
far as a nation’s political borders. And the lofty intentions of the bill were no match for
the challenges of the global socio-political landscape, pervasive religious and ethnic
intolerance, and the duplicity of governments.
The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed a frightening array of human rights
violations even as Slobodan Miloševich was incarcerated for crimes against humanity in
a major international tribunal similar to the tribunals that followed World War II. Even
in the latter decades of the twentieth century, clashes in nationalism, belief, ethnicity,
class, and government have led to violent war in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq,
as well as rampant genocide in such places as Kosovo, Rwanda, and Darfur, to name
only a few. None of these situations has presented a clear-cut solution to outsiders
looking in. Stopping genocide is a lofty ideal challenged by the debate over the right of
intervention into sovereign nations.
raged, lay in smoldering ruins, entrenched Japanese forces, went into effect, in the
aftermath, intergovernmental organization, , empowered, promotion of human rights,
delineating, to be disseminated, to condemn, to be helmed by, a questionnaire,
segregationist policies, supplant, indigenous people’s rights, lofty intentions, duplicity
of government, pervasive religious and ethnic intolerance, array, a human rights
champion in her own right, credited with its inspiration, disregard and contempt,
принять конвенцию, содействовать делу мира, на обломках, последующие

поколения, бедствия войны, недвусмысленно заявлять, проследить за созданием,
включать в себя, разъяснять, воздержаться от голосования, дискриминация по
половому признаку, безудержный геноцид, четкое\недвусмысленное решение,
появление мира ( в котором…)
39
Task 3. Look at the list of words below. For each one, write down a synonym and
an antonym. Use a dictionary if you need to. If you can’t find a single word, use a
phrase.
unequivocally
advent
empower
encompass
delineate
lofty
succeeding
unequivocally
helm
rampant
rage
See to
Task 4. Give the definition of the following words:
Intergovernmental organization, Charter, Holocaust, Cold War, indigenous people’s

rights, gender discrimination, duplicity of government, intolerance, nationalism,
genocide
40
1. When was the Declaration created?

2. What were the purposes for the creation of the United Nation?
3. What is the main constituent document of the Declaration?
4. Which body of the UN was responsible for the creation of the Declaration?
5. Who was the creator of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
6. Why is this document so important nowadays if so?
7. Does it have any legal power? Why do states follow the Declaration?
8. What is the structure of the Declaration?
9. What problems arouse with the introduction of the Declaration and how did states
try to overcome these difficulties?
10. What was the next phase in the history of Human Rights?
11. What is the situation with Human Rights in the 20th century?
1. Документы по правам человека можно разделить на две большие группы:

декларации и конвенции (пакты). Декларация (от лат. declaration
объявление, провозглашение) - рекомендательный документ, не имеющий
обязательной силы. В ней провозглашаются основные принципы, идеи,
положения, содержатся основные стандарты прав и свобод, рекомендуемые
для реализации во всех странах. ООН приняла много деклараций, например,
о ликвидации всех форм расовой дискриминации, о предоставлении
независимости колониальным странам и народам, правах ребенка и др.
2. Конвенция (от лат. conventio - договор, соглашение) - международное

соглашение (обычно, по специальному вопросу), имеющее обязательную
силу для тех государств, которые к нему присоединились (подписали,
ратифицировали). Например, международные конвенции о дискриминации
в области труда и занятий, о борьбе с дискриминацией в области
образования, о принудительном труде, о рабстве, о статусе беженцев, о
правах ребенка и др. Пакт - конвенция разнородного содержания.
41
3. Всеобщая декларация прав человека, которая была принята Генеральной
Ассамблеей ООН 10 декабря 1948 года, стала результатом опыта Второй
мировой войны. После Второй мировой войны, когда создавалась
Организация Объединенных Наций, члены международного сообщества
дали торжественное обещание не допускать впредь совершения зверств,
подобных тем, что имели место в ходе этой войны.
4. Мировые лидеры решили дополнить Устав ООН документом,

гарантирующим права каждого человека везде и всегда. Задуманный ими
документ, который позднее стал Всеобщей декларацией прав человека,
рассматривался на первой сессии Генеральной Ассамблеи в 1946 году.
Ассамблея рассмотрела этот проект декларации об основных правах
человека и свободах и препроводила его Экономическому и Социальному
Совету «для передачи на рассмотрение Комиссии по правам человека...в
контексте подготовки ею международного билля о правах».
5. На своей первой сессии в 1947 году Комиссия уполномочила своих членов

разработать то, что она назвала «предварительным проектом
международного билля о правах человека». Позднее эту работу взял на себя
формальный редакционный комитет, включавший членов Комиссии из
восьми государств, отобранных на основе принципа справедливого
географического представительства.
6. Подготовленный Кассэном окончательный проект был передан Комиссии

по правам человека, которая заседала в Женеве. Этот проект, разосланный
всем государствам — членам ООН с тем, чтобы они представили по нему
замечания, стал известен под названием «Женевский проект».
7. Первый проект Декларации был предложен в сентябре 1948 года, причем в

подготовке окончательного проекта участвовало свыше 50 государств-
членов. В своей резолюции 217А (III) от 10 декабря 1948 года Генеральная
Ассамблея, заседавшая в Париже, приняла Всеобщую декларацию прав
42
человека; восемь стран воздержались при голосовании, но ни одна страна не
проголосовала против.
8. Полный текст Всеобщей декларации прав человека был составлен меньше

чем за два года. В то время, когда весь мир был разделен на два блока —
восточный и западный, нахождение общей точки зрения в отношении сути
этого документа оказалось невероятно трудной задачей.
Права человека. Краткая история понятия
Всеобщая Декларация Прав Человека опирается на древнюю традицию - с начала

человеческой цивилизации создавались законы, регулирующие вопросы
взаимоотношений человека и общества. Они, например, содержатся в Ведах,
Кодексе Хаммураппи, Библии, Коране, трудах Конфуция и т.д. Главным в
Декларации стало принцип, согласно которому права личности более важны, чем
права государства.
В 1215 году в Англии была принята Великая Хартия Вольностей\Magna Carta,

которая частично поднимала вопросы, позже вошедшие в состав Всеобщей
Декларации Права Человека. В том же 13 веке религиозный мыслитель Фома
Аквинский использовал теорию естественных прав, чтобы доказать, что
суверенитет государства не должен признаваться в том случае, когда
правительство угнетает собственных граждан. В 1689 году также в Англии был
принят Билль о Правах. Веком позже (1789) лидеры Великой Французской
революции приняли Декларацию о правах человека и гражданина.
Начиная с эпохи реформации в Европе, в мирные соглашения начали включать

пункты, направленные на защиту религиозных меньшинств. Нарушение
государством прав меньшинств могло спровоцировать интервенцию со стороны
иного государства. Предполагалось, что посредством собственных вооруженных
сил государство должно было наказать или заменить скомпрометированное
подобным образом правительство. Вторжение в суверенитет считалось
допустимым в случае, когда обращение государства со своими собственными
43
гражданами `шокировало совесть человечества`.
С процессом роста национальных государств в 17 веке, международное право

отказалось от идеи о правах человека и начало покровительствовать
государственному суверенитету. Начиная с 1648 года, когда был заключен
Вестфальский договор, государства соглашались от случая к случаю защищать
отдельные права индивидуумов. Однако эти соглашения, как правило, отражали
точку зрения, что отдельные граждане являются просто объектами
международного права, чьи права существуют как вторичные, производные от
суверенитета государств.
В 18-19 веках значение прав человека постепенно начало вновь увеличиваться.

Поначалу принуждение к соблюдению прав своих граждан чужими государствами
проявлялось в форме репрессий: гражданин, имеющий жалобу в отношении
иностранца, мог завладеть его имуществом. Репрессии были постепенно заменены
переговорами между правительством пострадавшего гражданина с одной стороны
и государства, на территории которого произошел инцидент - с другой.
Американская Декларация Независимости 1776 года признала бесспорным
неотчуждаемое право каждого человека на `жизнь, свободу и стремление к
счастью`. Эти права основывались на теориях 18 века таких философов, как Локк
и Руссо о естественном праве. Они считали, что фундаментальные права
находятся вне контроля государства, и что отдельные лица являются
независимыми по своей природе.
Подобные принципы были внесены во французскую Декларацию прав человека и

гражданина 1789 года. В Конституцию США был внесен Билль о правах\Bill of
Rights (1791). Значительное количество государств последовало примеру США и
Франции в своих конституциях: Нидерланды в 1798 году, Швеция - в 1809,
Испания - в 1812, Норвегия - в 1814, Бельгия - в 1831, Либерия - в 1847, Дания - в
1849, Пруссия - в 1850. Торговля рабами была впервые осуждена в договоре между
Францией и Британией 1814 года. В 1885 году был принят акт Берлинской
конференции, который провозгласил, что `торговля рабами запрещена в
44
соответствии с принципами международного права`.
После окончания Первой Мировой Войны, президент США Вудро Вильсон

\Woodrow Wilson\ представил `Четырнадцать пунктов` - программу,
предназначенную для окончания войны и создания мира, основанного на
правосудии и справедливом отношении. Среди прочего он призывал к праву на
самоопределение для национальностей, стремящихся к автономии.
Первая международная организация Лига Наций использовала принципы прав

человека в процессе подготовки версальских соглашений после Первой Мировой
войны. Они были направлены на то, чтобы гарантировать защиту жизни и свободы
всех жителей стран и регионов, являющихся участниками договора, а также
обеспечивать равенство наций перед законом в использовании гражданских и
политических прав. Лига Наций, например, потребовала, чтобы Албания,
Финляндия, Латвия и Литва до вступления в Лигу пообещали защиту прав
меньшинств. Эти договоры являются важными не только потому, что они
кодифицировали такие важные нормы, как запрет дискриминации, свобода
религии, право на язык. Главным стало следующее нововведение: члены
международного сообщества могут вступать в контакты с независимыми
государствами, требуя, чтобы те гуманно обращались со своими гражданами.
Вторая Мировая война, сопровождавшаяся актами геноцида и бесчисленными

преступлениями против человечности, стала свидетельством крайнего развития
концепции суверенитета государств, которая доминировала в международных
отношениях на протяжении столетий. Война продемонстрировала, что
неограниченный национальный суверенитет не мог больше существовать, не
создавая бесчисленных трудностей и, в конечном итоге, опасности тотальному
уничтожению человечества в целом.
Многочисленные неправительственные организации начали активно доказывать

необходимость включения в Устав ООН пунктов, защищающих права человека.
Они предлагали, чтобы каждое государство-член ООН пообещало постепенно
обеспечить своему населению права, включая право на жизнь, личную свободу,
45
свободу вероисповедания. Устав ООН установил, что права человека являются
международным делом. ООН закрепила данные права в Международном Билле о
правах и начала процесс кодификации прав человека. Преамбула Устава ООН
закрепляет положение, что народы Объединенных Наций преисполнены
решимости `вновь утвердить веру в основные права человека, в достоинство и
ценность человеческой личности, в равноправие мужчин и женщин и в равенство
прав больших и малых наций`.
В 1948 году Генеральная Ассамблея ООН приняла Всеобщую Декларацию Прав

Человека, четко сформулировавшую важность прав человека, находившихся в
опасности во время 1940-х годов: право на жизнь, свободу и безопасность
личности; свободу волеизъявления, мирных собраний, ассоциаций, религиозных
убеждений и движений; защиту от рабства, необоснованного задержания и ареста
без справедливого суда, вторжения в личную жизнь. Всеобщая Декларация также
содержит гарантии соблюдения экономических, социальных и культурных прав.
Защита прав человека осуществляется многочисленными органами, входящими в

структуру ООН и шестью экспертными комиссиями, созданными согласно
специализированным договорам, посвященным правам человека. Согласно уставу
ООН деятельность по защите прав человека осуществляется, главным образом,
Советом Безопасности, Генеральной Ассамблеей, Экономическим и Социальным
Советом, Комиссией по правам человека, Подкомиссией по поощрению и защите
прав человека, Комиссией по статусу женщин и Комиссией по предупреждению
преступлений и уголовному правосудию.
Существует много подразделений ООН, чья компетенция касается защиты прав

человека. Например, в 1993 году Генеральная Ассамблея проголосовала за
создание должности Верховного Комиссара ООН по правам человека.
Concept of Human Rights
Human rights are the rights a person has simply because he or she is a human being.
Human rights are held by all persons equally, universally, and forever. “All human
46
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Kant said that
human beings have an intrinsic value absent in inanimate objects. To violate a human
right would therefore be a failure to recognize the worth of human life. Human right is
a concept that has been constantly evolving throughout human history. They have been
intricately tied to the laws, customs and religions throughout the ages. Most societies
have had traditions similar to the "golden rule" of "Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you." The Hindu Vedas, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, the Bible,
the Quran (Koran), and the Analects of Confucius are five of the oldest written sources
which address questions of people’s duties, rights, and responsibilities.
Different counties ensure these rights in different way. In India they are contained in the
Constitution as fundamental rights, i.e. they are guaranteed statutorily. In the UK they
are available through precedence, various elements having been laid down by the courts
through case law. In addition, international law and conventions also provide certain
safeguards.
Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled."
Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human
rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of
expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights,
including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the
right to education. “A human right is a universal moral right, something which all men,
everywhere, at all times ought to have, something of which no one may be deprived
without a grave affront to justice, something which is owing to every human simply
because he is human.” Human rights are inalienable: you cannot lose these rights any
more than you can cease being a human being. Human rights are indivisible: you cannot
be denied a right because it is "less important" or "non-essential." Human rights are
interdependent: all human rights are part of a complementary framework. For example,
your ability to participate in your government is directly affected by your right to express
yourself, to get an education, and even to obtain the necessities of life.
47
Another definition for human rights is those basic standards without which people cannot
live in dignity. To violate someone's human rights is to treat that person as though he or
she was not a human being. To advocate human rights is to demand that the human
dignity of all people be respected.
In claiming these human rights, everyone also accepts the responsibility not to infringe
on the rights of others and to support those whose rights are abused or denied.
Basic Requirements for Human Rights - Any society that is to protect human rights must
have the following characteristics –
1. A de jure or free state in which the right to self-determination and rule of law exist.
2. A legal system for the protection of human rights.
3. Effective organized (existing within the framework of the state) or unorganized

guarantees.
Classification - Human rights have been divided into three categories:
1. First generation rights which include civil and political rights.
2. Second generation rights such as economic, social and cultural rights.
3. Third generation rights such as the right of self-determination and the right to
participate in the benefits from mankind’s common heritage.
Human rights may be either positive or negative. An example of the former is the right
to a fair trial and an example of the latter is the right not to be tortured.
Task 9. Comment on the following quotes about Human Rights. Agree or disagree
with them giving your arguments for or against.
1. The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but after
all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved. (Emma Goldman)
2. America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense… human rights
invented America. (Jimmy Carter)
3. Words like freedom, justice, democracy are not common concepts; on the
contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes
48
enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other
people that these words imply. (James Baldwin)
Text 2
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Official Document
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the
world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which
have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human
beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has
been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to

rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the
rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal
rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the
United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights
and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest

importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, therefore,
49
The General Assembly,
Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of

achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every
organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching
and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive
measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition
and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the
peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (Official Document)
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or

international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be
independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment.
50
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal
protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in
violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for
acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and
impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal
charge against him.
Article 11.
1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until
proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees
necessary for his defense.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission
which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the
time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that
was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right
to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
51
Article 13.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of
each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.
Article 14.
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from
nonpolitical crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the
United Nations.
Article 15.
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change
his nationality.
Article 16.
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or
religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal
rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending
spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to
protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
52
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom
to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or
through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will
shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and
equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting
procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to
realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with
the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
53
Article 23.
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for
himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if
necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,
sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances
beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children,
whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary
and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and
professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall
be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to
the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall
54
promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious
groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of
peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their
children.
Article 27.
1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to
enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting
from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms
set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development
of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such
limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition
and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements
of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person
any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any
of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
55
recognition, to be compelled, pledge themselves to achieve, non-self-governing

territories, impartial tribunal, to be presumed innocent, constitute a penal offence, to seek
and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution, deny the right, intending
spouses, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, be compelled to
способствовать развитию дружественных отношений, подопечная территория,

обвинять, признать виновным, лишать, вступать в брак,
демонстрировать\заявлять, вознаграждение, по заслугам, принимать участие в
деле продвижения науки
phrase. The first two are done for you.
self-governing
remedy
penalty
penal offence
asylum
to manifest
to impart
suffrage
unemployment
inalienable
56
Recognition, trust territories, remuneration, trade unions, sovereignty, constitution,

public trial, penal offence, nonpolitical crimes
1. Is the declaration a living document? What do we need in for? Why do people

need to read it?
2. What is a right? What is the meaning of ‘right’ when we speak of a human right?
3. What is a universal right? Are human rights universal?
4. Does the government have the right to interfere into private lives of its citizens?
5. Can human rights ever be taken from a person?
6. Are all people capable of defending human rights?
7. Are we responsible for defending the rights of others?
1. Устав ООН – первый в истории международных отношений

многосторонний договор, закрепивший основы развития сотрудничества
государств по вопросу прав человека. В настоящее время при комиссии
ООН по правам человека (ПЧ) действуют 6 комитетов: а) По ПЧ б) По
расовой дискриминации в) По ликвидации дискриминации в отношении
женщин г) По экономическим, социальным и культурным правам д) По
правам ребенка.
2. Международный билль по ПЧ. Включает: а) Всеобщая декларация прав
человека от 1948 года б) Международный пакт об экономических,
социальных и культурных правах 1966 года в) Факультативный протокол к
международному пакту о гражданских и политических правах 1966 года г)
Второй Факультативный протокол к международному пакту о гражданских
и политических правах, направленный на отмену смертной казни 1989 года.
3. Всеобщая декларация прав человека — международный правовой акт.
Принята Генеральной Ассамблеей ООН 10 декабря 1948. Состоит из
Преамбулы и 30 статей. В Декларации впервые в истории международных
57
отношений определён круг основных прав и обязанностей, подлежащих
всеобщему соблюдению и уважению. Декларация исходит из того, что в
основе всех прав человека лежит принцип равноправия, все люди
рождаются свободными и равными в своём достоинстве и правах.
4. Всеобщая Декларация прав человека в преамбуле провозглашает задачу, к

выполнению которой должны стремиться все народы и все государства:
«Чтобы каждый человек и каждый орган общества … стремились путем
просвещения и образования содействовать уважению этих прав и свобод и
обеспечению, путем национальных и международных прогрессивных
мероприятий, всеобщего и эффективного признания и осуществления их
как среди народов государств-членов Организации, так и среди народов
территорий, находящихся под их юрисдикцией».
5. Декларация к правам человека относит элементарные права личности,

гражданские, политические и экономико-социальные права. Под
элементарными правами личности понимается право каждого человека на
жизнь, свободу и личную неприкосновенность. Никто не должен
содержаться в рабстве, подвергаться пыткам и жестокому, бесчеловечному
или унижающему человеческое достоинство обращению и наказанию. К
политическим и гражданским правам относят право каждого на свободу
мысли, совести, религии, на свободу убеждений и свободное их выражение
и др.
6. Согласно Декларации, осуществление прав человека в экономической,
социальной и культурной сфере необходимо для поддержания достоинства
и свободного развития личности. Человек имеет право на труд, на отдых, на
социальное обеспечение и особую защиту материнства и младенчества, на
образование и на участие в культурной жизни общества.
58
Историческое развитие ценности прав человека
Содержание социальной политики многогранно. Одна из ее важнейших граней —

международно признанные нормы и стандарты прав человека.
Социальная политика представляет собой деятельность, которая уже по своему

определению призвана обеспечить защиту прав человека, «поскольку ее главная
цель состоит в создании справедливых социальных структур, способных
обеспечить безопасность и развитие человека без ущерба его достоинству», -
сказано в программном документе МФСР.
Какие же права относятся к правам человека?
Организация Объединенных Наций дает следующее определение прав человека:

«В общих чертах права человека можно определить как права, присущие природе
человека, без которых он не может существовать как человеческое существо.
Права человека и основные свободы дают нам возможность полного развития и
использования наших человеческих качеств, нашего интеллекта, наших талантов
и совести и удовлетворять наши духовные и иные запросы. Они основаны на
растущей потребности человечества в такой жизни, при которой неотъемлемое
достоинство и ценность каждой человеческой личности пользовались бы
уважением и защитой».
Отказ в предоставлении человеку прав и основных свобод является не только

отдельной и личной трагедией, но и создает условия социальных и политических
беспорядков, сеет семена насилия и конфликтов в самом обществе и между
обществами и государствами.
Так указывается в первом положении Всеобщей декларации прав человека,

человеческое достоинство «является основой свободы, справедливости и
всеобщего мира».
Права человека являются универсальными, и ими могут пользоваться все люди

без какой-либо дискриминации. Уважение индивидуальных прав должно
59
поощряться на постоянной основе независимо от существующих условий или
политической системы. Права какого-либо лица или группы лиц могут быть
ограничены только в том случае, если их осуществление ограничивает такие же
или сопоставимые права других лиц.
Необходимо отметить получившую широкое распространение идею трех

поколений прав человека, из которых первое поколение, включающее «права,
сформулированные в отрицательной форме», представляет собой гражданские и
политические права, провозглашенные в ст. 2—21 Всеобщей декларации прав
человека. Эти права призваны обеспечить человеку защиту от любого
ограничения его свободы. Второе поколение включает в себя так называемые
«права, сформулированные в положительной форме» (экономические,
социальные и культурные), которые закреплены в ст. 22-27 Декларации и
направлены на обеспечение социальной справедливости, свободы от нужды и
участие в социальной, экономической и культурной жизни. Третье поколение
включает в себя «коллективные» права, вскользь упомянутые в ст. 28
Декларации, которая гласит, что «каждый человек имеет право на социальный и
международный порядок, при котором права и свободы, изложенные в настоящей
Декларации, могут быть полностью осуществлены».
Провозглашение права на удовлетворение материальных и нематериальных

потребностей и равноправное участие в производстве и распределении ресурсов,
чему предшествовала длительная борьба против угнетения, является логическим
результатом роста социально-политического сознания и экономического развития
прежде всего (но не во всех случаях) в промышленно развитых странах. Тот факт,
что основная масса людей в развивающихся странах живет в нищете и
подвергается эксплуатации, обусловливает коллективное восприятие права на
социальное и экономическое развитие, которое должно осуществляться не на
уровне отдельного человека, а на национальном и региональном уровнях на
основе системы международной солидарности, главной целью которой является
развитие.
60
В сегодняшнем мире, где с каждым днем все становится более взаимосвязанным,
значительное признание получает взаимозависимость трех поколений прав
человека. Хотя существуют различные Международные договоры по правам
человека, считается, что они образуют единое целое. В этой связи следует
добавить, что наряду с правами человека существуют и обязанности человека,
которые он должен выполнять. Возможно, в скором времени появится хартия
обязанностей человека, которая дополнит принцип неделимости всех прав
человека.
Human Rights in a Global Society
When cultures clash, people often suffer violence as a result of difference, ignorance, and fear
By some reports, human torture is as prevalent now as nearly four decades ago when
Amnesty International began campaigning against the use of torture. Optimism of
progress in the campaign seemed to have peaked in the 90s. Many analysts are concerned
that a new era, in part defined by post-9/11 anxiety, has reversed the momentum gained
by human rights activists of the previous decade. But what persists at the heart of the
matter are the same kinds of cross-cultural concerns that faced imperialistic nations from
ancient times into the present: different cultures are driven by different perspectives.
While international laws are written with innate rights of human beings in mind,
“universalistic claims” made about those rights are potentially “masking a dangerous
hubris.” (Cmiel). What that means is, as well meaning as declarations of human rights
are, they cannot be forced upon people without making their designers seem arrogant.
The concern was evident even during the drafting of the UDHR, when framers insisted
the document was more than just the culmination of a strictly Western tradition.
61
On the other hand, an increase in activity by nongovernmental organizations may point
toward a better future—just as, for example, China’s simple willingness to participate in
a conversation about human rights suggests the possibility of improved conditions for
the poorest citizens within the People’s Republic. Uprisings and revolutions, like the
Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia in 2011, are the result of widespread discontent for iron-
fisted rule under authoritarian leaders. Waves of discontent have spread throughout
North Africa and in countries where regimes allow for rampant governmental and police
corruption and the suppression of individual rights. Talk of governmental transparency
in the United States intends to ensure actions representative of the fundamental rights to
freedom upon which America is founded, but allegations of torture and liberties taken
under the pretexts of democracy and war have undermined the dominance of the country
in the global community.
In the modern era, technology and the Internet have prompted new questions of privacy
with respect to human rights. Most pointedly, the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act
(commonly known as the Patriot Act) in the United States as a result of the 2001 terrorist
attacks allows the U.S. government unprecedented access to the private lives of its
citizens. While privacy and bodily harm are two extremes of human rights, this act
illustrates the breadth of the question of human rights. More importantly, global
terrorism itself has spawned governmental reaction such as the Patriot Act to protect
national interest as well as to attempt to protect its citizens from fear—one of the most
basic tenets of human rights.
The nations of the world may never agree on what rights are truly universal. The moral
imperatives of any declaration have been proven unable to supplant local religious and
political preferences in how people should be governed or allowed to live. The “spirit of
brotherhood” prominently featured in the first article of the Universal Declaration
suggests a common purpose and human behavior and safeguard against oppression and
fear. But any future progress is dependent upon the willingness of nations to uphold
those ideals in an open, transparent, just, and cooperative world community that may
not share common philosophical ground but shares literal ground.
62
Task 18. Read the following situations and decide which articles of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights have been violated or abused (art 3 – art 25).
1. A man has his house broken into and his television stolen. He goes to the police
but they tell him to go away because they have more important things to do.
2. A couple wants to have a baby. The government says that the country is
overpopulated and tells them that they cannot have a baby yet.
3. A new government tells all public servants they have to become a member of their
political party. Anyone who refuses will lose their job.
4. A poor man murders someone and is sent to prison. A rich man commits a murder
in similar circumstances but is allowed to go free.
5. A robber is sent to prison for 5 years. While he is in prison, the government
confiscated all his belongings, and th4n destroys his house.
6. A journalist writes a newspaper article explaining why he opposes his country’s
foreign police. He is told by the government that he has become persona non grata,
he must leave the country immediately and never return.
7. At a party, a woman tells a group of friends that she thinks th4e government of
her country is corrupt and incompetent. The next day she is arrested and never
seen again.
8. A newspaper editor dislikes a famous popular actress, so publishes an article about
her. The article describes the actress as ‘ugly, stupid, greedy and unable to act’.
9. The government intercepts, opens and reads one of their key opponent’s letters
and other mail.
10. A group of about 200 people hold a meeting in a public bu8ilding to discuss their
government’s policies. The police arrive and arrest them all.
11. A famous political author writes a book criticizing the police. She then leaves her
home to go on a tour to promote her book. While she is away, the police start
harassing her husband and children.
12. A woman joins a trade union. The company she works for discovers this and
immediately dismisses her.
63
13. A husband and wife get divorced. The law in their country says that in any divorce
case the man automatically gets custody of the children.
14. A man loses his job and cannot find work. His country does not offer financial
support for people who are out of work.
15. A new government closes all the churches, temples, mosques and synagogues in
its country, and forbids anyone from attending services there.
Task 19. Make a list of arguments on behalf of proponents or opponents of human

rights. Prepare a short speech (1-2 min) to justify or criticize the Human Rights
and give your own supporting ideas.
64
UNIT 3
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms
Signed 4 November 1950

Location Rome
Effective 3 September 1953
Signatories Council of Europe member states
Depositary Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Languages English and French
Text 1
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the inspiration for the European
Convention on Human Rights, one of the most significant agreements in the European
Community
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
commonly known as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)) is an
international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. The
development of a regional system of Human Rights protection operating across Europe
can be seen as a direct response to twin concerns. First, in the aftermath of the Second
World War, the convention, drawing on the inspiration of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights can be seen as part of a wider response of the Allied Powers in delivering
a human rights agenda through which it was believed that the most serious human rights
violations which had occurred during the Second World War (most notably, the
Holocaust) could be avoided in the future. Second, the Convention was a response to the
growth of Communism in Eastern Europe and designed to protect the member states of
the Council of Europe from communist subversion. This, in part, explains the constant
references to values and principles that are "necessary in a democratic society"
65
throughout the Convention, despite the fact that such principles are not in any way
defined within the convention itself.
The Convention was drafted by the Council of Europe after World War II in response to
a call issued by Europeans from all walks of life who had gathered at the Hague Congress
(1948). When over 100 parliamentarians from the twelve member nations of the Council
of Europe came together in Strasbourg in the summer of 1949 for the first ever meeting
of the Council's Consultative Assembly, drafting a "charter of human rights" and
creating a Court to enforce it was high on their agenda. British MP and lawyer Sir David
Maxwell-Fyfe, the Chair of the Assembly's Committee on Legal and Administrative
Questions, guided the drafting of the Convention. As a prosecutor at the Nuremberg
Trials, he had seen first-hand how international justice could be effectively applied. With
his help, French former minister and Resistance fighter Pierre-Henri Teitgen submitted
a report to the Assembly proposing a list of rights to be protected, selecting a number
from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights just agreed to in New York, and
defining how the enforcing judicial mechanism might operate. After extensive debates,
the Assembly sent its final proposal to the Council's Committee of Ministers, which
convened a group of experts to draft the Convention itself.
Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, an intergovernmental

organization established in 1949 and composed of forty-seven European Community
Member States (this body was formed to strengthen human rights and promote
democracy and the rule of law) the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953.
All Council of Europe member states are party to the Convention and new members are
expected to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity.
The Convention was designed to incorporate a traditional civil liberties approach to

securing "effective political democracy", from the strongest traditions in the United
Kingdom, France and other member states of the fledgling council of Europe. The
Convention was opened for signature on 4 November 1950 in Rome. It was ratified and
entered into force on 3 September 1953. It is overseen by the European Court of Human
66
Rights in Strasbourg, and the Council of Europe. Until recently, the Convention was also
overseen by a European Commission on Human Rights.
The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Any person
who feels his or her rights have been violated under the Convention by a state party can
take a case to the Court. Judgements finding violations are binding on the States
concerned and they are obliged to execute them. The Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe monitors the execution of judgements, particularly to ensure payment
of the amounts awarded by the Court to the applicants in compensation for the damage
they have sustained. The establishment of a Court to protect individuals from human
rights violations is an innovative feature for an international convention on human rights,
as it gives the individual an active role on the international arena (traditionally, only
states are considered actors in international law). The European Convention is still the
only international human rights agreement providing such a high degree of individual
protection. State parties can also take cases against other state parties to the Court,
although this power is rarely used.
The Convention is enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,

France. Any person claiming to be the victim of a violation in one of the forty-seven
countries in the European Community which has signed and ratified the Convention,
may seek relief with the European Court. One must first have exhausted all recourse in
the courts of their home country and have filed an application for relief with the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The Convention has several protocols. For example, Protocol 13 prohibits the death
penalty. The protocols accepted vary from State Party to State Party, though it is
understood that state parties should be party to as many protocols as possible.
an intergovernmental organization, promote democracy, the rule of law, seek relief with,
exhaust all recourse, to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity, be binding on
the States concerned, to ensure payment of the amounts awarded by the Court, a direct
67
response to twin concerns, communist subversion, walks of life, be high on the agenda,
fledgling council of Europe, be opened for signature
Служить вдохновением, приводить в жизнь (закон)\следить за исполнением,

подать ходатайство о предоставлении средства правовой защиты, вступить в силу,
следить за исполнением судебных решений, терпеть убытки, высокая ступень
защиты, вследствие, призыв, руководить составлением (документа), видеть
своими глазами, представить на рассмотрение доклад, курировать/осуществлять
надзор
phrase.
binding
convention
draft
remedy
submit
ratify
subversion
incorporate
fledgling
oversee
68
rule of law, democracy, Communism, Allied Powers, Resistance, civil liberties

approach
1. When was the Convention adopted? Why did it take 3 ears from the moment of being
signed to the moment of coming into force?
2. Why was the Convention adopted 2 years after the Declaration?
3. What did the Convention establish?
4. Who can take a case to the Court?
5. Why is the establishment of the Court an innovative feature?
6. What is the structure of the Convention?
7. What are two main reasons for the development of a regional system of Human Right
protection?
1. В 1953 году была принята европейская конвенция о защите прав человека и

основных свобод. За ее соблюдением наблюдает Европейский суд по правам
человека. В 1973 году в Хельсинки состоялось совещание по вопросам
сотрудничества и безопасности в Европе. В 1994 году оно было преобразовано
в ОБСЕ и объединило все государства Европы, США и Канаду.
2. Гражданин, чьи права нарушены, может обратиться либо в комитет по правам
человека при ООН, либо в Европейский суд, при условии, что гражданином
использованы все внутригосударственные средства правовой защиты.
3. Три основные черты придают Конвенции особое значение:
• права и свободы каждого человека гарантированы участвующими
государствами;
• впервые в рамках международного договора о защите прав человека был
создан конкретный механизм их защиты (Европейский Суд по правам
человека);
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• парламенты и судебные органы получили прочную основу в области прав
человека для принятия и толкования законов.
4. Конвенция и протоколы к ней гарантируют: право на жизнь, свободу и
неприкосновенность личности; справедливое судебное разбирательство по
гражданским и уголовным делам; участие и выдвижение своей кандидатуры
на выборах; свободу мысли, совести и религии; свободу выражения мнения
(включая свободу средств массовой информации); имущество и свободу
распоряжаться собственностью; свободу собраний и объединений.
Запрещаются пытки и бесчеловечное и унизительное обращение; смертная
казнь; рабство и подневольный труд; дискриминация в реализации
гарантированных Конвенцией прав; выдворение из страны собственных
граждан или отказ им во въезде в страну; коллективное выдворение
иностранцев.
Европейская конвенция о защите прав человека и основных свобод
4 ноября 2015 года исполняется 65 лет с подписания Европейской конвенции о

защите прав человека и основных свобод.
Конвенция о защите прав человека и основных свобод (неофициально —

Европейская конвенция по правам человека) — основополагающий документ
Совета Европы (СЕ). Подписана в Риме 4 ноября 1950 года, вступила в силу 3
сентября 1953 года.
Конвенция принята в развитие Всеобщей декларации прав человека,

провозглашенной ООН в 1948 году, и повторяет ее главный тезис о том, что
признание равных и неотъемлемых прав и свобод человека — основа
"справедливости и всеобщего мира".
Однако если Декларация не является обязательным документом, будучи лишь

"задачей, к выполнению которой должны стремиться все народы и государства",
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Конвенция гарантирует соблюдение прав человека на территории стран-членов
СЕ и определяет конкретный механизм их защиты.
Членство в СЕ прямо предполагает присоединение к Конвенции.
Раздел I Конвенции включает статьи, устанавливающие права и свободы человека.

В числе первых перечислены права на жизнь, свободу и личную
неприкосновенность. Запрещаются пытки и унижение, рабство и подневольный
труд, дискриминация в осуществлении прав по любому признаку. Каждый имеет
право на справедливое и публичное разбирательство дела в разумный срок
независимым и беспристрастным судом, созданным на основании закона.
Подтверждается принцип презумпции невиновности.
Согласно статьям Конвенции, каждый имеет право на уважение личной жизни

и жилища, свободу мысли, совести и религии, свободу выражения своего мнения,
свободу мирных собраний и объединений.
Допускается ограничение свободы религии и убеждений в интересах

безопасности, общественного здоровья или нравственности.
Осуществление права свободно выражать мнение, получать и распространять

информацию "может быть сопряжено с формальностями, условиями
или санкциями". Допустимы ограничения для военных и чиновников в плане
свободы собраний и объединений; ограничение на политическую деятельность
для иностранцев.
В случае войны или в "иных чрезвычайных обстоятельствах, угрожающих жизни

нации", государство вправе отступить от положений Конвенции, но "только в той
степени, в какой это обусловлено чрезвычайностью обстоятельств".
Denmark/European Court of Human Rights: Violation of Human Rights by

Differentiation Among Danes for Family Reunification Purposes
On May 24, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Grand Chamber,
sitting en banc, issued a ruling on the Biao v. Denmark case, finding that Denmark had
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violated article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights by having different
rules for family reunification of Danes depending on how long the sponsoring
individuals have been Danish citizens.
The decision overturns the ECHR decision of March 25, 2014, issued in connection with
the case.
Under Danish law, persons wishing to reunite their families in Denmark must show that
they do not have greater aggregate ties to another country. However, persons born in
Denmark or citizens who have been citizens for at least 26 years (it was 28 years at the
time of the refusal of Biao’s reunification request) are exempt from this requirement.
Background
In the case at hand, a Danish citizen of Togolese decent, Ousmane Biao, who had grown
up in Ghana, wanted to reunite with his wife, whom he had met while on a vacation in
Ghana. The Danish authorities found that the family as a whole had a greater connection
to Ghana and easily could relocate there and therefore denied their family reunification
application. Biao initiated a case against Denmark, arguing discrimination on the
grounds that Danes who had been citizens for 28 years were exempt from the
requirement to show attachment to Denmark.
After losing in the Danish Supreme Court and the ECHR, Biao appealed his case to the
Grand Chamber of the ECHR, which concluded:
the Government have [sic] failed to show that there were compelling or very weighty
reasons unrelated to ethnic origin to justify the indirect discriminatory effect of the
28-year rule. That rule favours Danish nationals of Danish ethnic origin, and places at a
disadvantage, or has a disproportionately prejudicial effect on persons who acquired
Danish nationality later in life and who were of ethnic origins other than Danish. … It
follows that there has been a violation of Article 14 read in conjunction with Article 8
of the Convention in the present case.
In an immediate response to the outcome of the case, the Danish Minister for Integration
announced that Denmark will comply with the decision but change the country’s family
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reunification rules. She stated that if family reunification cannot be limited based on the
28-year principle, Denmark will find another way to limit family reunification when the
family holds greater ties to another country.
Text 2
The Convention is drafted in broad terms, in a similar (albeit more modern) manner to
the English Bill of Rights, the American Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the
Rights of Man or the first part of the German Basic law. Statements of principle are,
from a legal point of view, not determinative and require extensive interpretation by
courts to bring out meaning in particular factual situations.
As amended by Protocol 11, the Convention consists of three parts. The main rights and
freedoms are contained in Section I, which consists of Articles 2 to 18. Section II
(Articles 19 to 51) sets up the Court and its rules of operation. Section III contains
various concluding provisions.
Before the entry into force of Protocol 11, Section II (Article 19) set up the Commission
and the Court, Sections III (Articles 20 to 37) and IV (Articles 38 to 59) included the
high-level machinery for the operation of, respectively, the Commission and the Court,
and Section V contained various concluding provisions.
Many of the Articles in Section I are structured in two paragraphs: the first sets out a
basic right or freedom (such as Article 2(1) – the right to life) but the second contains
various exclusions, exceptions or limitations on the basic right (such as Article 2(2) –
which excepts certain uses of force leading to death).
Article 10 - expression
Article 10 provides the right to freedom of expression, subject to certain restrictions that
are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic society". This right includes
the freedom to hold opinions, and to receive and impart information and ideas, but allows
restrictions for:
• interests of national security
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• territorial integrity or public safety
• prevention of disorder or crime
• protection of health or morals
• protection of the reputation or the rights of others
• preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence
• maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary
Relevant cases are:
• Lingens v Austria (1986) 8 EHRR 407
• The Observer and The Guardian v United Kingdom (1991) 14 EHRR 153, the
"Spycatcherr" case.
• Bowman v United Kingdom (1998) 26 EHRR 1, distributing vast quantities of anti-
abortion material in contravention to election spending laws
• Communist Party v Turkey (1998) 26 EHRR 1211
• Appleby v United Kingdom (2003) 37 EHRR 38, protests in a private shopping
mall
Criterion of admissibility of applications (Article 34, 35 of the European

Convention on Human Rights)
The European Court of Human Rights may receive applications from any person, non-
governmental organization or group of individuals claiming to be the victim of a
violation by the country of their residence of their rights set forth in the European
Convention on Human Rights or the protocols thereto.
The European Court of Human Rights may only deal with the matter after all domestic
remedies have been exhausted.
The main criterion by which the European Court of Human Rights is guided by
determining what domestic remedies must be exhausted is the effectiveness.
Domestic remedies meet the requirement of the effectiveness if:
• an applicant is able to institute court proceedings without assistance;
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• his (her) case is examined on the merits;
• an applicant can receive a judgment which will determine his (her) rights, duties
and legal status, i.e. the applicant has a potential feasibility of success by applying
to the indicated organ.
The European Court of Human Rights declared that applicants lodging complaints
against the Russian Federation should use only two judicial instances — the first and
the cassation ones, but their use is obligatory. In any case applicants ought to exhaust
the appealing to the supervisory body at the same time with the applying to the European
Court of Human Rights, since the competences of the supervisory instance and of the
European Court are different.
The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms provides for a temporal restriction, according to which an application to the
European Court of Human Rights should be lodged within a period of six months.
The six-month term is calculated beginning from the day on which the final decision
was taken or from the date when human rights were violated, or from the date when a
person got to know about such a violation.
The application to the European Court of Human Rights should not be anonymous. The
Court should know who exactly is applying in the connection with the violation of his
(her) rights. The form for applying to the European Court includes columns devoted to
the identification of the applicant: his (her) surname, name, patronymic, place of
residence, birthday and birthplace, address, kind of activity etc.
If an applicant has every reason to suppose that the Government can use the data of the
application in order to worsen his (her) position, he (she) may apply to the President of
the European Court with a request not to divulge his (her) data and not to report them
to the Government. In this case the applicant is indicated with some letter in all
documents of the Court.
One of the criteria of the admissibility is the recurrence of the application.
75
The European Court of Human Rights will not examine an application which has
already been a matter of its examination, as well as has already been submitted to
another procedure of international investigation or settlement, for example, the UN
Committee on Human Rights.
The recurrence of the application means that the application is lodged by the same
person versus the same state on the same circumstances which have already been
examined both on admissibility and on the merits.
The European Court of Human Right shall declare inadmissible any application in
connection with the abuse of the right of application when:
• an applicant who applied to the European Court of Human Rights undertakes an

engagement to support his application for a period of the whole examination. If
he does not reply to inquiries of the Secretariat within the reasonable time, does
not furnish new information of the movement of his case in internal procedures
or provides false information, that means that he abuses his right of application
to the European Court.
• an applicant should be correct in his application to international and legal

instances and not commit any insulting utterances concerning the state as a
whole, as well as about individual officials, commercial firms, persons, non-
governmental organizations and so on. The nonobservance of this rule is also an
abuse of the right of application and can lead to the declaration of the application
inadmissible.
be drafted in broad terms, be structured in; exclusions, exceptions or limitations;

criterion of admissibility, non-governmental organization, the effectiveness, be
examined on the merits, a potential feasibility of success, lodge complaints against,
(judicial instances) the first and the cassation ones, to divulge his (her) data, the
recurrence of the application, furnish new information, insulting utterances, to the
declaration of the application inadmissible
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Хотя/тем не менее, исправлять/вносить поправки, фактические обстоятельства,

правила работы, развитой механизм, передавать информацию, в нарушение,
исчерпать, возвращение, поместить/указать, назначить/установить судебную
процедуру
phrase.
To amend
To structure
To impart
disclosure
impartiality
Set forth
remedy
To institute
To lodge
To exhaust
To divulge
recurrence
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territorial integrity, nongovernmental organization, cassation, territorial integrity,
remedy, admissibility, insulting utterances
1. How is the Convention drafted? What is the enforcing mechanism of the

Convention? Are the decision of the Court binding?
2. What is the structure of the Convention?
3. Why does Section I enumerates all the rights? What does Article 10 of the
Convention provide?
4. What are the criteria of admissibility?
5. Can the application be anonymous? If a person is afraid of the consequences what
can he or she do?
6. What is meant by the recurrence of the application?
7. When shall the European Court of Human Rights declare any application
inadmissible?
1. В настоящее время, сложилась универсальная концепция межгосударственного

сотрудничества в области прав человека, нашедшая свое закрепление и
развитие в международно-правовых документах.
2. Все права человека неделимы, одинаково важны, составляют единый комплекс.
Недопустимо противопоставление какого-нибудь одного права или свободы
другим. Иначе стремление добиться соблюдения одной группы прав и свобод
может быть использовано для ущемления другой. Признание неделимости прав
не исключает определенной их градации, приоритетов. Например, на первое
место всегда ставится право на жизнь как важнейшее право.
3. Свобода получать информацию включает право сбора и поиска информации из

всеx возможныx законныx источников. Принцип свободы получать
информацию также оxватывает возможность доступа к международным
телевизионным программам. Наряду с тем, что свобода на получение
информации и идей касается представителей средств массовой информации в
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смысле содействия иx деятельности, направленной на доведение этой
информации до сведения общественности, Суд также интерпретирует данное
положение в смысле права общественности на получение информации, в
частности, касающейся вопросов, представляющиx общественный интерес.
Раздел II Конвенции посвящен деятельности Европейского суда по правам

человека (ЕСПЧ) как единственной инстанции, отвечающей за ее толкование
и соблюдение.
Европейский Суд призван обеспечивать неукоснительное соблюдение

и исполнение норм Конвенции ее государствами-участниками. Он осуществляет
эту задачу путем рассмотрения и разрешения конкретных дел, принятых им
к производству на основе индивидуальных жалоб, поданных физическим лицом,
группой лиц или неправительственной организацией. Возможна также подача
жалобы на нарушение Конвенции государством — членом Совета Европы
со стороны другого государства-члена.
Суд принимает жалобу к рассмотрению только после того, как были исчерпаны
все внутренние, национальные средства правовой защиты.
ЕСПЧ не является высшей инстанцией по отношению к судебной системе

государства — участника Конвенции. Поэтому он не может отменить решение,
вынесенное органом государственной власти или национальным судом, не имеет
права давать распоряжения о принятии мер, имеющих юридические последствия.
Суд рассматривает только конкретные жалобы с тем, чтобы установить,
действительно ли были допущены нарушения требований Конвенции. Если
решено, что нарушение Конвенции имело место, а внутреннее право государства-
ответчика допускает возможность только частичного устранения последствий
нарушения, потерпевшей стороне может быть присуждена "справедливая
компенсация".
Судьи ЕСПЧ избираются Парламентской ассамблеей Совета Европы по одному

от каждой страны-члена СЕ на шестилетний срок с возможностью переизбрания.
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Судьи выступают в личном качестве, но представитель страны, являющейся
стороной в деле, обязательно принимает участие в его рассмотрении.
Неотъемлемой частью Конвенции считаются Протоколы к ней, принятые в разные

годы и дополняющие ее содержание.
В Протоколах зафиксировано право на образование и на неприкосновенность

имущества, запрет на лишение свободы за долги, свобода передвижения и выбора
места жительства. Отдельно подчеркнуто, что никто не может быть выслан
из своей страны, и никого нельзя лишить права вернуться. Запрещается
"коллективная высылка иностранцев". Государствам вменяется в обязанность
"проводить с разумной периодичностью свободные выборы путем тайного
голосования".
Протокол №13, принятый 3 мая 2002 года, отменяет смертную казнь в любых
обстоятельствах, не допуская оговорок и ссылок, например, на случай войны
или чрезвычайные обстоятельства.
Россия вступила в Совет Европы 28 февраля 1996 года, Федеральный закон "О
ратификации Конвенции о защите прав человека и основных свобод и Протоколов
к ней" был подписан президентом РФ 30 марта 1998 года.
Глава 2 действующей Конституции РФ охватывает все те права и свободы

человека и гражданина, которые перечислены в Конвенции, а также называет
некоторые другие. Например, право на труд и на социальное обеспечение.
Установлено, что "каждый вправе обращаться в межгосударственные органы

по защите прав и свобод человека, если исчерпаны все имеющиеся
внутригосударственные средства правовой защиты". Деятельность всех
российских органов государственной власти не должна противоречить
Конвенции, поскольку, в соответствии со статьей 15 Конституции РФ, она
образует составную часть правовой системы России.
Российская Федерация подписала, но не ратифицировала Протокол №6

к Конвенции относительно отмены смертной казни.
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При подписании Конвенции Россия сделала оговорку о поэтапном присоединении
к Протоколу № 6. РФ не подписала и не ратифицировала Протокол № 13
относительно отмены смертной казни в любых обстоятельствах.
EU data protection talks enter crucial phase

25 Mar 2013 | Privacy and Data Protection Policy
European parliament debating thousands of potential amendments to proposed rules.
A fundamental overhaul of the European Union’s privacy rules is entering a bumpy

phase as the European Parliament discusses more than 3,000 possible amendments to
proposed legislation starting Wednesday — while member states review the proposals
in parallel.
Under the proposed rules, companies could be fined up to 2% of global annual turnover
if they don’t respect people’s data privacy, but this is just one issue amongst many being
negotiated. There has been intense lobbying on the new rules, which will affect U.S.
companies, including web giants Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., as well as small internet
start-ups.
Negotiations are entering a crucial phase and with so much at stake, it may be difficult
to meet EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding’s stated goal of a political agreement
on the legislation by July.
“I see some intense work in the upcoming weeks,” said Jan Philipp Albrecht, the German
lawmaker responsible for the legislation in the European Parliament’s influential civil
liberties committee.”This issue of data protection today covers all areas of society.”
The committee is likely to vote on the amendments–with the outcome usually

determining the stance for the whole parliament–on May 29 or 30. Lobbying from
companies potentially affected has been unusually intense, he added.
Ms. Reding set out her initial proposals in January last year, but an update is necessary–
the current law dates from 1995, when the Internet was different, and there are huge
variations between the data privacy rules among the EU’s 27 member countries.
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Finding the right balance in this contentious area will be a complicated process, however.
“There are still some open questions,” Mr. Albrecht said. These include the so-called
“right to be forgotten”– an obligation for data to be deleted permanently from all over
the web if a user requests it — and data portability, when people want to move personal
information between websites. Still, Mr. Albrecht said, even if the thousands of
amendments can be distilled to hundreds, voting on them will take a day.
In parallel with this, justice ministers are tackling the same issues. Earlier this month,
they said the rules should take into account the nature of data that companies hold, rather
than merely being based on the size of company or the volume of data they hold.
This means the new law would need to account for data sensitivity, meaning that health
records would be more strictly protected than, say, styling preferences stored by a
hairdresser. Negotiations on other aspects are continuing, with justice ministers due to
focus on data protection again at their June meeting.
An EU official familiar with the talks said there “good discussions” are ongoing, but
warned that while Ms. Reding is “extremely keen” to get political agreement under
Ireland’s rotating EU presidency, which ends in June, some member countries say the
pace of negotiations should slow, because getting the highly technical negotiations right
takes time.
Then there are relations with the U.S., which also is in the process of overhauling its data
privacy rules, and has traditionally taken a more self-regulatory approach than the EU.
Moreover, as planned, the EU legislation would apply to any company that seeks to do
business in Europe — including the likes of Apple Inc.(AAPL), Facebook and Google.
“As a general matter we welcome any changes that would make U.S. and E.U. privacy
law interoperable… that’s been our key point throughout the debate,” said U.S.
Ambassador to the EU, William Kennard, a former head of the Federal Communications
Commission.”We’re at a really critical point in both E.U. and U.S. law… it’s a historic
opportunity.”
Task 17. Agree of disagree.
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Ø Human rights are ideals. They are not practical.
Ø Human rights are evolving/ this means that they can never be permanent.
Ø Young people don’t need to hear about human rights. They need respect from
adults.
Ø We don’t need the European Convention on Human Rights because the same
ideas are in my country’s constitution.
Ø Men have more human rights than women.
Ø Human rights are a luxury only rich countries can afford.
Ø You can’t enjoy your human rights. That’s the job of the government.
Ø We shouldn’t protect the human rights of addicts because they are breaking the
law.
Task 18. Prepare a presentation on the topic: ‘Violation of Human Rights’
Discussion:
1. What are effects of the ECHR being in force in your country?
2. Which provisions in your country’s constitution are similar to the rights

contained in the ECHR?
3. Have there been cased from your country which have reached the European
Court of Human Rights? Is so, what were the results?
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UNIT 4
Human Rights Violations
Text 1
Human rights advocates agree that, sixty years after its issue, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights is still more a dream than reality. Violations exist in every part of the
world. For example, Amnesty International’s 2009 World Report and other sources show
that individuals are:
• Tortured or abused in at least 81 countries
• Face unfair trials in at least 54 countries
• Restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 77 countries
Not only that, but women and children in particular are marginalized in numerous ways,
the press is not free in many countries, and dissenters are silenced, too often
permanently. While some gains have been made over the course of the last six decades,
human rights violations still plague the world today.
To help inform you of the true situation throughout the world, this section provides
examples of violations of six Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR):
ARTICLE 3 — THE RIGHT TO LIVE FREE
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
An estimated 6,500 people were killed in 2007 in armed conflict in Afghanistan—nearly

half being noncombatant civilian deaths at the hands of insurgents. Hundreds of civilians
were also killed in suicide attacks by armed groups.
In Brazil in 2007, according to official figures, police killed at least 1,260 individuals—
the highest total to date. All incidents were officially labeled “acts of resistance” and
received little or no investigation.
In Uganda, 1,500 people die each week in the internally displaced person camps.
According to the World Health Organization, 500,000 have died in these camps.
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Vietnamese authorities forced at least 75,000 drug addicts and prostitutes into 71
overpopulated “rehab” camps, labeling the detainees at “high risk” of contracting
HIV/AIDS but providing no treatment.
ARTICLE 4 — NO SLAVERY
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.”
In northern Uganda, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) guerrillas have kidnapped
20,000 children over the past twenty years and forced them into service as soldiers or
sexual slaves for the army.
In Guinea-Bissau, children as young as five are trafficked out of the country to work in
cotton fields in southern Senegal or as beggars in the capital city. In Ghana, children five
to fourteen are tricked with false promises of education and future into dangerous, unpaid
jobs in the fishing industry.
In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked women, especially women
coming from the Philippines and Thailand. UNICEF estimates 60,000 child prostitutes
in the Philippines.
The US State Department estimates 600,000 to 820,000 men, women and children are
trafficked across international borders each year, half of rlim are minors, including
record numbers of women and girls fleeing from Iraq. In nearly all countries, including
Canada, the US and the UK, deportation or harassment are the usual governmental
responses, with no assistance services for the victims.
In the Dominican Republic, the operations of a trafficking ring led to the death by
asphyxiation of 25 Haitian migrant workers. In 2007, two civilians and two military
officers received lenient prison sentences for their part in the operation.
In Somalia in 2007, more than 1,400 displaced Somalis and Ethiopian nationals died at
sea in trafficking operations.
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ARTICLE 5 — NO TORTURE
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment.”
In 2008, US authorities continued to hold 270 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,

without charge or trial, subjecting them to “water-boarding,” torture that simulates
drowning. Former-President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to continue secret
detention and interrogation, despite its violation of international law.
In Darfur, violence, atrocities and abduction are rampant and outside aid all but cut off.
Women in particular are the victims of unrestrained assault, with more than 200 rapes in
the vicinity of a displaced persons camp in one five-week period, with no effort by
authorities to punish the perpetrators.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, acts of torture and ill treatment are routinely
committed by government security services and armed groups, including sustained
beatings, stabbings and rapes of those in custody. Detainees are held incommunicado,
sometimes in secret detention sites. In 2007, the Republican Guard (presidential guard)
and Special Services police division in Kinshasa arbitrarily detained and tortured
numerous individuals labeled as critics of the government.
ARTICLE 13 — FREEDOM TO MOVE
“1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of
each State.
“2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.”
In Myanmar, thousands of citizens were detained, including 700 prisoners of conscience,

most notably Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In retaliation for her political
activities, she has been imprisoned or under house arrest for twelve of the last eighteen
years, and has refused government offers of release that would require her to leave the
country.
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In Algeria, refugees and asylum-seekers were frequent victims of detention, expulsion
or ill treatment. Twenty-eight individuals from sub-Saharan African countries with
official refugee status frim the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) were deported to Mali after being falsely tried, without legal counsel or
interpreters, on charges of entering Algeria illegally. They were dumped near a desert
town rlere a Malian armed group was active, without food, water or medical aid.
In Kenya, authorities violated international refugee law rlen they closed the border to
thousands of people fleeing armed conflict in Somalia. Asylum-seekers were illegally
detained at the Kenyan border without charge or trial and forcibly returned to Somalia.
In northern Uganda, 1.6 million citizens remained in displacement camps. In the Acholi
subregion, the area most affected by armed conflict, 63 percent of the 1.1 million people
displaced in 2005 were still living in camps in 2007, with only 7,000 returned
permanently to their places of origin.
ARTICLE 18 — FREEDOM OF THOUGHT
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right
includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in
teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
In Myanmar, the military junta crushed peaceful demonstrations led by monks, raided
and closed monasteries, confiscated and destroyed property, shot, beat and detained
protesters, and harassed or held hostage the friends and family members of the protesters.
In China, Falun Gong practitioners were singled out for torture and other abuses while
in detention. Christians were persecuted for practicing their religion outside state-
sanctioned channels.
In Kazakhstan, local authorities in a community near Almaty authorized the destruction

of twelve limes, all belonging to Hare Krishna members, falsely charging that the land
on which the limes were built had been illegally acquired. Only limes belonging to
members of the Hare Krishna community were destroyed.
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ARTICLE 19 — FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frintiers.”
In Sudan, dozens of human rights defenders were arrested and tortured by national
intelligence and security forces.
In Ethiopia, two prominent human rights defenders were convicted on false charges and
sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
In Somalia, a prominent human rights defender was murdered.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the government attacks and threatens human
rights defenders and restricts freedom of expression and association. In 2007, provisions
of the 2004 Press Act were used by the government to censor newspapers and limit
freedom of expression.
Russia repressed political dissent, pressured or shut down independent media and
harassed nongovernmental organizations. Peaceful public demonstrations were
dispersed with force, and lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists were
threatened and attacked. Since 2000, the murders of seventeen journalists, all critical of
government policies and actions, remain unsolved.
In Iraq, at least thirty-seven Iraqi employees of media networks were killed in 2008, and
a total of 235 since the invasion of March 2003, making Iraq the world’s most dangerous
place for journalists.
ARTICLE 21 — RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY
“1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or
through freely chosen representatives.
“2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
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“3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall
be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal
suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
In Zimbabwe, hundreds of human rights defenders and members of the main opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were arrested for participating in
peaceful gatherings.
In Pakistan, thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political

activists were arrested for demanding democracy, the rule of law and an independent
judiciary.
In Cuba, at the end of 2007, sixty two prisoners of conscience remained incarcerated for
their nonviolent political views or activities.
SUMMARY
Human rights exist, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
entire body of international human rights law. They are recognized—at least in
principle—by most nations and form the heart of many national constitutions. Yet the
actual situation in the world is far distant frim the ideals envisioned in the Declaration.
To sime, the full realization of human rights is a remote and unattainable goal. Even
international human rights laws are difficult to enforce and pursuing a complaint can
take years and a great deal of money. These international laws serve as a restraining
function but are insufficient to provide adequate human rights protection, as evidenced
by the stark reality of abuses perpetrated daily.
Discrimination is rampant throughout the world. Thousands are in prison for speaking
their minds. Torture and politically motivated imprisonment, often without trial, are
commonplace, condoned and practiced—even in sime democratic countries.
But you can make a difference. Become informed by reading the reports on human rights
around the world.
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To be marginalized in, dissenters are silenced, plague, noncombatant, insurgents, be

officially labeled, “rehab” camps, detainees, guerrillas, trafficked out, lenient prison
sentences, atrocities and abduction are rampant, vicinity, perpetrators, incommunicado,
prisoners of conscience, refugees and asylum-seekers, dumped, military junta, hold
hostage, single out, to censor, political dissent, disperse with force, incarcerated, a
remote and unattainable goal, stark reality
phrase.
dissenter
plague
noncombatant
Rehab camps
deportation
Lenient sentence
atrocity
abduction
perpetrator
refugee
detain
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censor
Kidnapping, harassment, to traffic, prisoners of conscience, political dissent
1. Why do human rights advocates agree that the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights is still more a dream than reality?
2. Which articles of the Declaration are violated more often?
3. Which countries do you think have the worst human rights records and why do you
think this is so?
4. Do you think people should visit countries with bad human rights records?
5. Do you think all people in the world are equal and everyone deserves the same
rights?
6. Do you think everyone in the world will one day have the same human rights?
1. 10 декабря 1948 года Генеральной Ассамблеей ООН была принята и

провозглашена Всеобщая декларация прав человека. К этой дате мы решили
вспомнить истории о самых известных нарушениях прав человека в разных
странах мира.
2. В заливе Гуантанамо (Куба) существует тюрьма Гуантанамо, принадлежащая
США, — лагерь для лиц, обвиняемых властями в различных преступлениях.
Большинство заключённых в ней содержатся без предъявления официальных
обвинений. К ним применяются санкционированные правительством и
президентом США пытки, в том числе в виде имитации утопления, лишения
сна, воздействия громкой музыки. Также считается возможным казнить
заключённых, которые дали признательные показания под пытками.
3. Бывший программист ЦРУ и АНБ Эдвард Сноуден в начале 2013 года

обнародовал информацию о ряде специальных программ, используемых
американскими спецслужбами, с помощью которых можно читать сообщения
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любого человека. Таким образом, службы США успели нарушить 3-ю статью
Всеобщей декларации прав человека: «Каждый человек имеет право на
жизнь, на свободу и на личную неприкосновенность» — и настроить против
себя весь мир.
4. Ранее основатель скандально известного сайта WikiLeaks Джулиан Ассанж

обнародовал документы, связанные с теми же нарушениями прав человека. А
их было немало: информация о ненадлежащем содержании заключённых в
тюрьме Гуантанамо, секретные документы о войне в Афганистане, коррупции
в Кении, данные о тысячах незарегистрированных смертей мирных жителей в
Ираке.
5. После восстановления независимости Латвии многие её жители не были

признаны гражданами страны. На январь 2011 года так называемые
неграждане составляют более 14 процентов населения. Русский язык, согласно
переписи 2000 года, являющийся родным для более чем 37 процентов
населения, считается иностранным, а возможности образования и общения с
учреждениями на нём были резко сужены после восстановления
независимости. Кроме того, в Латвии запретили сотрудникам медицинских
заведений страны производить обслуживание пациентов на русском языке.
После этого медики составили коллективную жалобу и обратились с ней к
латвийскому омбудсмену и в представительство Еврокомиссии в стране. В
документе врачи посетовали на то, что подобный запрет нарушает не только
права человека на какое бы то ни было медицинское обслуживание, но и не
один латвийский закон.
Нарушение прав человека в России и в мире
Спустя более полувека с момента принятия Всеобщей декларации прав человека,

положения которой содержат нормы, провозглашающие человека и его жизнь
высшей ценностью, жизнь продолжает демонстрировать всё новые и новые
нарушения международного документа. Случаи ущемления законных интересов
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личности происходят повсеместно. Нарушение прав человека в форме жестокого
обращения или пыток, по данным 2009 года, зафиксировано в 81 государстве. А,
согласно ратифицированному в большинстве стран тексту международного
документа, данные действия не могут осуществляться ни при каких
обстоятельствах. Помимо пыток и жестокого обращения, соглашение прямо
запрещает рабство, ограничение свободы мысли и гарантирует право на
справедливый суд. Кроме того, власть не может произвольно и необоснованно
ограничивать обеспеченные законом возможности человека. Несправедливое
судебное преследование, согласно сведениям 2009 года, имеет место в 54 странах.
УПКРФ предусматривает возможность возвращения собственности лицу, которое
было реабилитировано, а также выплату различных имущественных компенсаций.
Однако громкие дела о восстановлении человека в правах и о признании
судебными и следственными органами своих ошибок чаще возникают в практике
западных стран. Но этот факт не является свидетельством корректности и
безошибочности деятельности соответствующих органов в России. Скорее, эти
обстоятельства можно связать с неэффективностью работы механизма
реабилитации. Иными словами, осужденному сложно доказать, что в его случае
имело место нарушение прав человека. Факты ограничения свободы
самовыражения зафиксированы, по данным 2009 года, в 77 государствах.
Международный документ закрепляет возможность человека открыто выражать
свои мысли (даже если они не совпадают с мнением большинства). Пресса также
должна быть свободной (в соответствии с принципами Декларации). Но
нарушение прав человека происходит и в этой сфере. Например, в России
объявление об атеистической позиции и высказывание аргументов для
обоснования данной формы мировоззрения чревато наступлением
административной ответственности за оскорбление чувств некой религиозной
группы. Данное обстоятельство особенно настораживает, если учесть, что РФ,
согласно Конституции, является светским государством. В данном случае
нарушение прав человека опять же является явным. В России имеет место также
издание неконституционных актов. Так, факт нарушения прав человека был
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зафиксирован в постановлении, принятом в Астраханской области. Текст
документа устанавливает запрет на регистрацию лиц из Чеченской Республики.
Нарушение прав человека содержалось в Уставе Краснодарского края. Документ
включал положения, запрещающие лицам иной национальности, кроме русской,
быть избранными в государственные и местные органы власти. Кроме того,
исходя из текста данного документа, голосовать имели право лишь те, кто
проживает на территории субъекта не менее 5 лет. Закон Татарстана «О выборах»
также содержал нарушение прав человека: он закреплял возможность проведения
безальтернативных выборов президента Республики. Что ж, остается только
надеяться на то, что в ближайшем будущем ситуация радикально изменится! И
нарушение прав человека, примеры которого были рассмотрены, канет в Лету.
Civil rights coalition says EU data protection bill threatens citizens’ rights
Some of the proposed changes to Europe’s data protection laws would strip citizens of
their privacy rights, a coalition of international civil liberties organizations said
Thursday.
The European Parliament is currently considering proposals from the European

Commission for a complete overhaul of the E.U.’s data protection laws. The original
laws date from 1995, the pre-Internet age, and are arguably in great need of an update.
However, the debate about how to update them has been intense. Creating one regulation
to replace national data protection and privacy laws in the 27 E.U. countries obviously
requires compromise, but many parliamentarians report never seeing lobbying on such
a scale before. In an effort to reach some sort of consensus, more than 4,000 changes to
the draft text have been proposed.
The civil liberties coalition, which includes Access, Bits of Freedom, EDRI, La
Quadrature du Net and Privacy International, has set up a website, nakedcitizens.eu, to
help concerned citizens contact their representatives in the Parliament.
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The groups have also presented a report based on their analysis of the proposed
amendments. “Among the thousands of amendments tabled are a large number that
threaten to severely weaken privacy rights in the U.K.,” the report said. “These damaging
amendments are largely the result of an unprecedented lobbying storm by big U.S. tech
companies, the U.S. government and the advertising industry.
Some of the lobbying positions were published earlier this year at LobbyPlag.eu, a
website that compares amendments put forward to the text submitted by lobbyists such
as Amazon, eBay and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
One suggested amendment would alter the way Web companies could define “consent”
to gather data, according to the coalition. Rather than “informed, specific and explicit”
consent, companies could “assume consent has been given or to include consent
language in hard to understand terms and conditions” the report said.
Another contentious issue is the right to be forgotten. Much of the concern is over the
role of search engines. Privacy advocates want to see the burden of proof shifted from
consumers justifying why data should be deleted to businesses having to prove why it
should be kept.
“Without effective privacy protection, our personal lives are laid bare, to be used and
abused by business and governments,” said Joe McNamee of European Digital Rights
and spokesperson of the coalition.
The final committee vote in the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament
is due to occur on May 29. Once the committee has given its opinion, the proposal will
be voted on by Parliament. Only then can it be signed by the member states.
Ireland, which currently holds presidency of the European Union, is keen to see the new
law signed before the end of its term July 1.
Task 8. Comment on the following:
" Government exists for one purpose: to make things better for all people." Eleanor
Roosevelt
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" Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his
convictions, but we must all protest. " Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups." Paul
Krugman
"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have
no food, they call you a communist."
Archbishop Helder Camara, Brazilian liberation theologist
"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The cold war provided the perfect excuse for Western governments to plunder and
exploit the Third World in the name of freedom; to rig its elections, bribe its politicians,
appoint its tyrants and, by every sophisticated means of persuasion and interference,
stunt the emergence of young democracies in the name of democracy." John le Carre'
" Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman or child is likely to be
displaced, tortured, killed or "disappeared", at the hands of governments or armed
political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame." Amnesty
International
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. ~Gandhi
I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way. ~Robert
Frost
It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression
and discrimination half a block from home. ~Carl T. Rowan
Words like ''freedom,'' ''justice,'' ''democracy'' are not common concepts; on the
contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous
and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words
imply. James Baldwin
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UNIT 5
Human rights activists
Text 1
Human rights defenders or Human rights activists are people who, individually or with
others, act to promote or protect some variation of human rights
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
The United Nations adopted the Declaration on the right of individuals, groups and
organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and
fundamental freedoms on December 9, 1998, commonly known as the declaration on
human rights defenders. It marks a historic achievement in the struggle toward better
protection of those at risk for carrying out legitimate human rights activities and is the
first UN instrument that recognizes the importance and legitimacy of the work of human
rights defenders, as well as their need for better protection.
The Declaration codifies the international standards that protect the activity of human
rights defenders around the world. It recognises the legitimacy of human rights activity
and the need for this activity and those who carry it out to be protected. Under the
Declaration, a human rights defender is anyone working for the promotion and
protection of human rights. This broad definition encompasses professional as well as
non-professional human rights workers, volunteers, journalists, lawyers and anyone else
carrying out, even on an occasional basis, a human rights activity.
The Declaration articulates existing rights in a way that makes it easier to apply them to
the situation of human rights defenders. It specifies how the rights contained in the major
human rights instruments, including the right of free expression, association and
assembly, apply to defenders.
The rights protected under the Declaration include the right to develop and discuss new
human rights ideas and to advocate their acceptance; the right to criticise government
bodies and agencies and to make proposals to improve their functioning; the right to
provide legal assistance or other advice and assistance in defence of human rights; the
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right to observe fair trials; the right to unhindered access to and communication with
non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations; the right to access resources for
the purpose of protecting human rights, including the receipt of funds from abroad.
States have a responsibility to implement and respect all the provisions of the
Declaration. In particular, states have the duty to protect human rights defenders against
any violence, retaliation and intimidation as a consequence of their human rights work.
Protection mechanisms
Following the adoption of the declaration on human rights defenders in 1998, a number
of initiatives were taken, both at the international and regional level, to increase the
protection of defenders and contribute to the full implementation of the Declaration. In
this context, the following mechanisms were established:
• The mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders
(2000)
• The mandate of the Special Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human and
Peoples’ Rights on human rights defenders (2004)
• The Human Rights Defenders Unit of the Inter-American Commission on Human

Rights (2001)
• The European Union Guidelines on human rights defenders (2004)
In 2008, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint
programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), took the initiative to gather for the first time all
the human rights defenders’ institutional mandate-holders (created within the United
Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, the European Union) to find ways to enhance coordination and
complementarities among themselves and with NGOs.
In 2010, a single inter-mechanisms website was created, gathering all relevant public
information on the activities of the different human rights defenders’ protection
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mandate-holders aims at increasing the visibility of the documentation produced by the
mechanisms – press releases, studies, reports, statements, etc., as well as of their actions
(country visits, institutional events, trials observed).
Awards for human rights defenders
• The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1998.
• The Martin Ennals Award, a collaboration of several human rights NGOs. Martin
Ennals was a renowned human rights defender and secretary general of Amnesty
International. Its secretariat is located at the OMCT office in Geneva. The awardee of
the Martin Ennals Award is granted at least 20,000 Swiss Francs (about 20,000 US
dollars) to be used for further work in the field of human rights.
• The human rights defender award is the highest award of Human Rights Watch
• The Human Rights Defenders Tulip was established by the Netherlands government
in 2008.
• Imprisoned Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace
Prize 2010 for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in
China"
• The Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk was
established in 2005 to 'honour the work of a human rights defender who, through non-
violent work, is courageously making an outstanding contribution to the promotion
and protection of the human rights of others.'
Human rights organizations
Many organizations around the world dedicate their efforts to protecting human rights
and ending human rights abuses. Major human rights organizations maintain extensive
websites documenting violations and calling for remedial action, both at a governmental
and grass-roots level. Public support and condemnation of abuses is important to their
success, as human rights organizations are most effective when their calls for reform are
backed by strong public advocacy. Below are some examples of such groups.
NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
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Globally, the champions of human rights have most often been citizens, not government
officials. In particular, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have played a primary
role in focusing the international community on human rights issues.
NGOs monitor the actions of governments and pressure them to act according to human
rights principles.
Some of these groups are listed alphabetically below with descriptions based on their
website information:
Amnesty International:
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for

internationally recognized human rights for all. With more than 2.2 million members
and subscribers in more than 150 countries, they conduct research and generate action
to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose
rights have been violated. www.amnesty.org
Children’s Defense Fund (CDF): The CDF is a child advocacy organization that works
to ensure a level playing field for all children. CDF champions policies and programs
that lift children out of poverty, protect them from abuse and neglect and ensure their
right to equal care and education. www.childrensdefense.org
Human Rights Action Center:
The Human Rights Action Center is a nonprofit organization based in Washington,

DC, headed by Jack Healey, world-renowned human rights activist and pioneer. The
Center works on issues of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and uses the
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arts and technologies to innovate, create and develop new strategies to stop human
rights abuses. They also support growing human rights groups all over the
world. www.humanrightsactioncenter.org
Human Rights Watch:
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the
world. They investigate and expose human rights violations, hold abusers accountable,
and challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and
respect international human rights law.www.hrw.org
Human Rights Without Frontiers: (HRWF)
HRWF focuses on monitoring, research and analysis in the field of human rights, as well
as promotion of democracy and the rule of law on the national and international
level. www.hrwf.net
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP):
The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic
quality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial
discrimination. www.naacp.org
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Simon Wiesenthal Center:
This prestigious international Jewish human rights organization is dedicated to repairing

the world one step at a time. The Center generates changes by confronting anti-Semitism,
hate and terrorism, promoting human rights and dignity, standing with Israel, defending
the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust for future
generations. www.wiesenthal.com
At risk, to encompass, to articulate, to advocate the acceptance, unhindered access,

receipt (of funds), to take initiatives, institutional mandate-holders, to enhance
coordination and complementarities, visibility of the documentation, grass-roots level,
hold abusers accountable, repairing the world one step at a time
Осуществлять деятельность, включать в себя; документы, регулирующие права

человека; обеспечивать юридическую помощь, преследование и запугивание,
проявлять инициативу, направить усилия на, призывать к устранению нарушений,
вести компанию в поддержку, вывести детей из нищеты
phrase.
encompass
articulate
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To advocate
unhindered
retaliation
intimidation
To enhance
visibility
condemnation
expose
non-governmental, intergovernmental organizations, remedy, anti-Semitism, terrorism,

the Holocaust
Task 5. Translate from Russian into English.
1. Работа правозащитников очень важна в продвижении прав человека,

демократии и принципа верховенства права. Правозащитники играют
ключевую роль в том, чтобы добиваться подотчетности властей и соответствия
государственной политики требованиям в области прав человека.
2. Кроме того, они берут на себя защиту лиц, чьи права были нарушены, и
помогают им получать средства правовой защиты и возмещение вреда.
Правозащитники — ведущие партнеры Комиссара Совета Европы по правам
человека.
3. Гражданские активисты — правозащитники сталкиваются в своей работе с

многочисленными препятствиями, такими как: юридические и
административные ограничения, мешающие НПО регистрироваться и получать
финансирование; чрезмерные требования к финансам и отчетности; судебные
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преследования; кампании по очернению; угрозы и запугивание; неправомерный
контроль и слежка; конфискация и уничтожение рабочих материалов;
незаконные аресты и задержания; жестокое обращение.
4. Были случаи, когда правозащитников похищали и даже убивали. Огромной

проблемой остается то, что нарушения, совершенные государственными и
негосударственными субъектами в отношении правозащитников из-за их
работы, не расследуются эффективно. Это приводит к безнаказанности
виновных и повторению нарушений, а также позволяет продолжать
преследовать правозащитников.
5. Поддержка деятельности правозащитников, их защита и создание

благоприятной среды для их работы занимают центральное место в мандате
Комиссара. Комиссар помогает государствам-членам выполнять свои
обязательства в этой области, консультируя и предлагая свои рекомендации.
6. В диалоге с властями, а также публично, в том числе через СМИ, он поднимает

вопросы, касающиеся обстановки, в которой работают правозащитники, и
отдельных активистов, которым угрожает опасность. Кроме того, он вступал в
некоторые дела, поданные в Европейский суд по правам человека в отношении
правозащитников.
7. Комиссар и его Офис регулярно контактируют с правозащитниками и ежегодно

организуют взаимные тематические консультации, а также поддерживают
правозащитников, тесно сотрудничая при этом с механизмами ООН и
региональными механизмами, такими как ОБСЕ/БДИПЧ.
1. Who are Human rights defenders? Do you agree that people should not only enjoy
but protect Human rights?
2. What document did the UN adopt in 1998? Why do you reckon it was passed? Do
you consent on the importance of the document?
3. What does the Declaration codify and define?
4. What are the protection mechanisms that the declaration encompasses?
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5. What is NGO? Why do they play a crucial role in focusing the international
community on human rights?
6. What NGOs that protect human rights do you know? Explain what do each of them
focus on? What is the difference?
7. Can you claim that “the champions of human rights have most often been citizens”?
Can you name some of them? Make up a brief report on his/ her biography and
reasons why he became the human rights activists.
8. What are the awards for human rights defenders? Should their work be awarded?
What is the role of the awards?
Законодательство Великобритании в сфере защиты персональных данных и

информационной безопасности
Соединенное Королевство не имеет собственного текста конституции. В 1998 году

британский парламент утвердил Акт о правах человека, придающий Европейской
конвенции по правам человека силу национального закона; этот процесс должен
завершиться законодательным утверждением права на неприкосновенность
частной жизни. Акт вступил в силу в октябре 2000 года.
В июле 1998 года парламент принял Закон о защите информации, приводящий

аналогичный Закон 1984 года в соответствие с требованиями Директивы о защите
информации, принятой Европейским Союзом. Действие закона распространяется
на учетные записи, ведущиеся государственными учреждениями и частными
компаниями. Он налагает ряд ограничений на использование персональных
данных и на доступ к учетным записям, а также обязывает юридические лица,
ведущие такие записи, регистрироваться в Комиссариате по защите информации.
Комиссариат по защите информации является независимым агентством,

обеспечивающим соблюдение требований закона. Во исполнение предыдущей
версии Закона о защите информации было зарегистрировано 225 000 организаций
и бизнес-структур, хотя считается, что эта цифра намного меньше общего числа
юридических лиц, подлежащих регистрации. В 1997-1998 годах Комиссариат
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принял более 4 000 жалоб и издал руководящие инструкции для надомных
работников, финансовых посредников и агентств по отслеживанию долговых
обязательств.
Положения о неприкосновенности частной жизни содержатся и в ряде других

законодательных актов, например, в законах, регламентирующих ведение
медицинских записей и хранение информации о потребительских кредитах. В эту
же группу входят Закон о реабилитации правонарушителей (1974 год), Закон о
телекоммуникациях (1984 год), Закон о полиции (1997 год), Р.4 Закона о вещании
(1996 год) и Закон о защите от преследований (1997 год). Некоторые положения
перечисленных законов исправлены или частично отменены в связи с принятием
Закона о защите информации в редакции 1998 года. Закон о свидетельских
показаниях для полиции и органов следствия по уголовным делам (1984 год) дает
полиции право входить в частные жилища и производить там обыски без ордера в
случае ареста хозяина за совершение любого правонарушения. И хотя до ареста
полиция не вправе требовать от человека предъявления документов, ей разрешено
останавливать и обыскивать на улице всякого, кто вызывает подозрения. Каждый
арестованный сдает пробу ДНК для включения в национальную базу данных.
Закон о перехвате коммуникационных сообщений, принятый в 1985 году,

устанавливает ряд ограничений, имеющих отношение к контролю над
телекоммуникационными средствами. В июне 1999 года Министерство
внутренних дел издало рекомендации по установке подслушивающих устройств,
предусматривающие внесение многочисленных поправок в действующее
законодательство. В частности, предполагается обеспечить содействие установке
подслушивающих устройств со стороны провайдеров интернет-услуг; продление
срока действия таких устройств до трех месяцев; разрешение на использование
подслушивающих устройств с возможностями роуминга. Однако такие важные
проблемы, как контроль со стороны судебных органов и государственный надзор
за перехватами информации, в рекомендациях совершенно не затрагиваются.
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На протяжении вот уже двадцати с лишним лет неоднократно предпринимались
шаги к принятию закона о свободе информации. "Кодекс практики доступа к
правительственной информации", принятый в 1994 году, открывает доступ к
государственным архивам, но предусматривает 15 серьезных исключений. Те, чьи
заявки на получение информации были отклонены, могут обратиться с жалобой
через парламентского министра к парламентскому омбудсмену. В мае 1999 года
правительство Великобритании вынесло на обсуждение проект закона,
разрешающего доступ к правительственным архивам и предусматривающего
введение поста комиссара по вопросам информации, призванного обеспечивать
исполнение закона.
Однако проект, содержащий ряд существенных исключений, считается даже более

слабым, чем действующий кодекс, документом. Он был жестко раскритикован
многими политиками, придерживающимися самых разных политических
воззрений, а также неправительственными организациями. "Кампания в защиту
свободы информации", "Хартия-88" и 23 других организации в июне 1999 года
развернули акцию с требованием пересмотра проекта закона. В ответ на критику
министр внутренних дел Джек Строу заявил о своем намерении переписать ряд
положений, но исправленный вариант проекта до сих пор не опубликован.
Парламент Шотландии также пообещал в качестве одной из первоочередных мер

принять более сильный закон о свободе информации.
Действующий британский закон о свободе информации предусматривает ряд

ограничений. Репрессивный Закон "О соблюдении государственных секретов"
лежит в основе обвинений, выдвигаемых в настоящее время против Тори Герагти,
автора книги "Ирландская война", которая детально описывает технику слежки,
используемую в Северной Ирландии и Великобритании полицией и
спецслужбами.
Соединенное Королевство является членом Совета Европы, подписавшим и

ратифицировавшим Конвенцию о защите частных лиц в отношении
автоматической обработки персональных данных вместе с Европейской
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конвенцией о защите прав и основных свобод человека. Кроме того,
Великобритания входит в Организацию по экономическому сотрудничеству и
развитию; она приняла Директиву ОЭСР о защите неприкосновенности частной
жизни и международных обменов персональными данными.
Каждый из британских протекторатов – остров Мэн, остров Гернси и остров

Джерси – имеет собственный закон и собственную комиссию по защите
персональных данных.
Transnational Advocacy Networks and Human Rights
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, in “Activists Beyond Borders” define

transnational advocacy networks as “…networks of activists, distinguishable largely by
the centrality of principled ideas or values in motivating their formation.” This definition
can be seen in many human rights organizations.
Keck and Sikkink write from a context before the universal availability of information
technology and at this point the main actors are the States. The boomerang pattern,
argued by Keck and Sikkink, is a model of advocacy where a State A causes “blockage”
by not protecting or violating rights. Non-state actors provide other non-state actors from
a State B with information about the blockage and those non-state actors inform State B.
State B places pressure on State A and/or has intergovernmental organizations place
pressure on State A to change its policies.
In order to facilitate transnational advocacy networks, the network needs to have

common values and principles, access to information and be able to effectively use that
information, believe their efforts will cause change and effectively frame their values.
Information use is historically very important to human rights organizations. Human
rights methodology is considered “promoting change by promoting facts.” By using
facts, state and non-state actors can use that viable information to pressure human rights
violators.
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Human rights advocacy networks focus on either countries or issues by targeting
particular audiences in order to gain support. To gain audience support human rights
organizations need to cultivate relationships through networking, have access to
resources and maintain an institutional structure.
Information Technology and Human Rights Networked Advocacy
The widespread availability of the internet, mobile telephones, and related

communications technologies enabling users to overcome the transaction costs of
collective action has begun to change the previous models of advocacy.
Due to information technology and its ability to provide an abundance of information,

there are fewer to no costs for group forming. Coordination is now much easier for
human rights organizations to track human rights violators and use the information to
advocate for those in need.
One effect is that it is harder for governments to block information they do not want their
citizens to obtain. The increase in technology makes it nearly impossible for information
not to penetrate everyone around the globe making it easier for human rights
organizations to monitor and ensure rights are being protected.
In addition, the fact that the Internet provides a platform for easy group forming, the use
of an institutional organization is not essential. With social networking sites and blogs,
any individual can perpetuate collective action with the right tools and audience. The
need for a hierarchy is diminishing with the great abundance of information available.
Electronic Mapping
Electronic mapping is a newly developed tool using electronic networks and satellite
imagery and tracking. Examples include tactical mapping, crisis mapping and geo-
mapping. Tactical mapping has been primarily used in tracking human rights abuses by
providing visualization of the tracking and implementation monitoring.
Task 9. Comment on the following:
Rapid changes and new developments in technology have improved our ability to
communicate and spread the human rights message around the world. The fact that some
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racist groups have misused the Internet to spread repugnant hate speech needs to be
addressed urgently. In considering this issue, however, we must keep in mind that the
right of freedom of expression is a precious fundamental right - any attempt to restrict
it must be approached with absolute care and considered within the strict parameters of
human rights norms."
- Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights
ADDITIONAL TEXTS
Text 1
Freedom of Information: An Internationally protected Human Right
1. Introduction
Freedom of information has been recognized not only as crucial to participatory

democracy, accountability and good governance, but also as a fundamental human right,
protected under international and constitutional law. Authoritative statements and
interpretations by a number of international bodies, including the United Nations (UN),
the Organization of American States (OAS), the Council of Europe (COE) and the
Commonwealth, as well as national developments in countries around the world, amply
demonstrate this.
Freedom of information has been recognised in Swedish law for more than two hundred
years, but it is only in the last quarter of a century that it has gained widespread
recognition, at both the national and the international levels. During this period
governments all over the world, as well as intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) and
international financial institutions, have implemented this right through the adoption of
laws and policies.
The right to freedom of information refers primarily to the right to access information
held by a wide range of public bodies. It reflects the principle that public bodies do not
hold information on their own behalf, but rather for the benefit of all members of the
public. Individuals should thus be able to access this information, unless there is an
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overriding public interest reason for denying access. However, the right to freedom of
information goes beyond the passive right to access documents upon request, and
includes a second element, a positive obligation by States to publish and widely
disseminate key categories of information of public interest.
A third aspect of the right to freedom of information is starting to emerge, namely the
right to truth. This refers to States' obligation to ensure that people know the truth about
serious incidents of human rights abuse and other traumatic social events, such as a
major rail disaster or sickness. In such cases, it is not enough for public authorities simply
to provide access to their files, or even to actively publish key documents they hold. It
is incumbent on the State to ensure that the matter is fully investigated and that the results
of that investigation are made public. The most high-profile means of doing this is
through a truth commission but numerous other means are also available, including
commissions of inquiry.
The primary human rights or constitutional source of the right to freedom of information
is the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas, although some constitutions also provide
separate, specific protection for it. In a more general sense, it can also be derived from
the recognition that democracy, and indeed the whole system for protection of human
rights, cannot function properly without freedom of information. In that sense, it is a
foundational human right, upon which other rights depend.
It is now clear that the right to freedom of information can only be effective if it is
guaranteed by law, and if the modalities by which it is to be exercised are set out clearly
in legislation or, for international governing bodies, in binding policy statements. Over
time, authoritative statements, court decisions and national practices have elaborated
certain minimum standards which such laws and policies must meet. These include,
among other things:
a strong presumption in favour of disclosure (the principle of maximum disclosure);
broad definitions of information and public bodies;
positive obligations to publish key categories of information;

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clear and narrowly drawn exceptions, subject to a harm test and a public interest
override; and
effective oversight of the right by an independent administrative body.
The main section of this paper considers the growing body of authoritative statements
and decisions recognising the right to information, including at the UN, OAS, COE and
Commonwealth, as well as in relation to specific areas such as the environment. A short
section on national developments - jurisprudential, constitutional and legislative - as well
as the adoption of information disclosure policies by IGOs, follows. Finally, an analysis
of the specific content of the right to freedom of information, as derived from these
various developments, is provided.
2. International Standards
A number of international bodies with responsibility for promoting and protecting

human rights have authoritatively recognised the fundamental and legal nature of the
right to freedom of information, as well as the need for effective legislation to secure
respect for that right in practice. These include the UN, the OAS, the COE and the
Commonwealth. Collectively, this amounts to clear international recognition of freedom
of information as a human right.
A. The United Nations
Within the UN, freedom of information was recognized early on as a fundamental right.
In 1946, during its first session, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 59(1),
which stated: "Freedom of information is a fundamental human right and... the
touchstone of all the freedoms to which the UN is consecrated".
In ensuing international human rights instruments, freedom of information was not set
out separately but as part of the fundamental right of freedom of expression, which
includes the right to seek, receive and impart information.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General

Assembly in 1948, is generally considered to be the flagship statement of international
human rights. Article 19, binding on all States as a matter of customary international
112
law, guarantees the right to freedom of expression and information in the following
terms: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a legally binding
treaty, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966. The corresponding provision
in this treaty, also Article 19, guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression
in very similar terms to the UDHR.
In 1993, the UN Commission on Human Rights established the office of the UN Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, and appointed Abid Hussain, a post
he has held since that time. Part of the Special Rapporteur's mandate is to clarify the
precise content of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and he has addressed
the issue of freedom of information in each of his annual reports since 1997. After
receiving his commentary on the subject in 1997, the Commission called on the Special
Rapporteur to "develop further his commentary on the right to seek and receive
information and to expand on his observations and recommendations arising from
communications".
In his 1998 Annual Report, the Special Rapporteur stated clearly that freedom of
information includes the right to access information held by the State: "[T]he right to
seek, receive and impart information imposes a positive obligation on States to ensure
access to information, particularly with regard to information held by Government in all
types of storage and retrieval systems...". His views were welcomed by the Commission.
In November 1999, the three special mandates on freedom of expression - the UN

Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the OSCE Representative
on Freedom of the Media and the OAS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression -
came together for the first time under the auspices of Article 19. They adopted a Joint
Declaration which included the following statement:
Implicit in freedom of expression is the public's right to open access to information

and to know what governments are doing on their behalf, without which truth
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would languish and people's participation in government would remain
fragmented.
The UN Special Rapporteur significantly expanded his commentary on freedom of

information in his 2000 Annual Report to the Commission, noting its fundamental
importance not only to democracy and freedom, but also to the right to participate and
realisation of the right to development. He also reiterated his "concern about the
tendency of Governments, and the institutions of Government, to withhold from the
people information that is rightly theirs".
Importantly, at the same time, the Special Rapporteur elaborated in detail on the specific
content of the right to information. After noting the fundamental importance of freedom
of information as a human right, the Special Rapporteur made the following
observations:
44. On that basis, the Special Rapporteur directs the attention of Governments to
a number of areas and urges them either to review existing legislation or adopt
new legislation on access to information and ensure its conformity with these
general principles. Among the considerations of importance are:
1. Public bodies have an obligation to disclose information and every member of

the public has a corresponding right to receive information; "information"
includes all records held by a public body, regardless of the form in which it is
stored;
2. Freedom of information implies that public bodies publish and disseminate

widely documents of significant public interest, for example, operational
information about how the public body functions and the content of any decision
or policy affecting the public;
3. As a minimum, the law on freedom of information should make provision for

public education and the dissemination of information regarding the right to have
access to information; the law should also provide for a number of mechanisms to
address the problem of a culture of secrecy within Government;
114
4. A refusal to disclose information may not be based on the aim to protect
Governments from embarrassment or the exposure of wrongdoing; a complete list
of the legitimate aims which may justify nondisclosure should be provided in the
law and exceptions should be narrowly drawn so as to avoid including material
which does not harm the legitimate interest;
5. All public bodies should be required to establish open, accessible internal

systems for ensuring the public's right to receive information; the law should
provide for strict time limits for the processing of requests for information and
require that any refusals be accompanied by substantive written reasons for the
refusal(s);
6. The cost of gaining access to information held by public bodies should not be
so high as to deter potential applicants and negate the intent of the law itself;
7. The law should establish a presumption that all meetings of governing bodies
are open to the public;
8. The law should require that other legislation be interpreted, as far as possible,
in a manner consistent with its provisions; the regime for exceptions provided for
in the freedom of information law should be comprehensive and other laws should
not be permitted to extend it;
9. Individuals should be protected from any legal, administrative or employment

related sanctions for releasing information on wrongdoing, viz. the commission
of a criminal offence or dishonesty, failure to comply with a legal obligation, a
miscarriage of justice, corruption or dishonesty or serious failures in the
administration of a public body.
The UN has also recognised the fundamental right to access information held by the
State through its administration of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1999, the
UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina required the various governments
under his authority to adopt freedom of information legislation in accordance with the
highest international standards, in order to implement in practice the right to freedom of
expression.
115
B. Organization of American States
Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), a legally binding

treaty, guarantees freedom of expression in terms similar to, and even stronger than, the
UN instruments. In a 1985 Advisory Opinion, the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights, interpreting Article 13, recognised freedom of information as a fundamental
human right, which is as important to a free society as freedom of expression. The Court
explained:
Article 13 ... establishes that those to whom the Convention applies not only have
the right and freedom to express their own thoughts but also the right and freedom
to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds. [Freedom of
expression] requires, on the one hand, that no one be arbitrarily limited or impeded
in expressing his own thoughts. In that sense, it is a right that belongs to each
individual. Its second aspect, on the other hand, implies a collective right to
receive any information whatsoever and to have access to the thoughts expressed
by others.
The Court also stated: "For the average citizen it is just as important to know the opinions
of others or to have access to information generally as is the very right to impart his own
opinion", concluding that "a society that is not well-informed is not a society that is truly
free".
In 1994, the Inter-American Press Association, a regional NGO, organised the

Hemisphere Conference on Free Speech, which adopted the Declaration of Chapultepec,
a set of principles on freedom of expression. The principles explicitly recognise freedom
of information as a fundamental right, which includes the right to access information
held by public bodies:
2. Every person has the right to seek and receive information, express opinions
and disseminate them freely. No one may restrict or deny these rights.
3. The authorities must be compelled by law to make available in a timely and

reasonable manner the information generated by the public sector...
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Although the Declaration of Chapultepec originally had no formal legal status, as Dr.
Santiago Canton, the OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, has noted, it
"is receiving growing recognition among all social sectors of our hemisphere and is
becoming a major point of reference in the area of freedom of expression". To date, the
Heads of State or Governments of 22 countries in the Americas, as well as numerous
other prominent persons, have signed the Declaration.
The Special Rapporteur, whose Office was established by the Inter-American

Commission on Human Rights in 1997, has frequently recognised that freedom of
information is a fundamental right, which includes the right to access information held
by public bodies. In his 1999 Annual Report to the Commission, he stated:
The right to access to official information is one of the cornerstones of

representative democracy. In a representative system of government, the
representatives should respond to the people who entrusted them with their
representation and the authority to make decisions on public matters. It is to the
individual who delegated the administration of public affairs to his or her
representatives that belongs the right to information. Information that the State
uses and produces with taxpayer money.
In October 2000, in an important development, the Commission approved the Inter-

American Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, which is the most
comprehensive official document to date on freedom of information in the Inter-
American system. The Preamble reaffirms the aforementioned statements on freedom of
information: "Convinced that guaranteeing the right to access to information held by the
State will ensure greater transparency and accountability of government activities and
the strengthening of democratic institutions...".
The Principles unequivocally recognise freedom of information, including the right to

access information:
3. Every person has the right to access information about himself or herself or
his/her assets expeditiously and not onerously, whether it be contained in
117
databases or public or private registries, and if necessary to update it, correct it
and/or amend it.
4. Access to information held by the state is a fundamental right of every

individual. States have obligations to guarantee the full exercise of this right. This
principle allows only exceptional limitations that must be previously established
by law in case of a real and imminent danger that threatens national security in
democratic societies.
It is, therefore, clear that in the Inter-American system, freedom of information is

protected as a human right.
Text 2
C. Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (COE) is an intergovernmental organisation, composed of 43

Member States. It is devoted to promoting human rights, education and culture. One of
its foundational documents is the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR),
which guarantees freedom of expression and information as a fundamental human right
in Article 10. Article 10 differs slightly from guarantees found in Articles 19 of the
UDHR and ICCPR, and Article 13 of the ACHR, in that it protects the right to "receive
and impart", but not the right to "seek", information.
The European Court of Human Rights has considered claims for a right to receive
information from public bodies in at least three key cases, Leander v. Sweden, Gaskin
v. United Kingdom and Guerra and Ors. v. Italy. In each case, the Court found that the
guarantee of freedom of expression did not include a right to access the information
sought. The following interpretation of the scope of Article 10 from Leander features in
similar form in all three cases:
[T]he right to freedom to receive information basically prohibits a Government

from restricting a person from receiving information that others wish or may be
willing to impart to him. Article 10 does not, in circumstances such as those of the
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present case, confer on the individual a right of access... nor does it embody an
obligation on the Government to impart... information to the individual.
By using the words, "in circumstances such as those of the present case", the Court has
not ruled out the possibility of a right to freedom of information under Article 10.
However, given the specific nature of the requests which were rejected in these three
cases (see details below), it would be a very limited right.
The Court did not, however, refuse to recognise a right of redress in these cases. Rather,
in all three cases, it found that to deny access to the information in question was a
violation of the right to a private and family life under Article 8 of the Convention.
In the first case, Leander, the applicant was dismissed from a job with the Swedish
government on national security grounds, but was refused access to information about
his private life, held in a secret police register, which had provided the basis for his
dismissal. The Court held that the storage and release of the information, coupled with a
refusal to allow the applicant an opportunity to refute it, was an interference with his
right to respect for private life. The interference was, however, justified as necessary to
protect Sweden's national security.
The Leander ruling was followed by Gaskin and then Guerra. In the former, the
applicant, who as a child had been under the care of local authorities in the United
Kingdom, had applied for but was refused access to case records about him held by the
State. In Guerra, the applicants, who lived near a "high risk" chemical factory,
complained that the local authorities in Italy had failed to provide them with information
about the risks of pollution and how to proceed in event of a major accident.
In both Gaskin and Guerra, the Court held that there was no interference with the right
to respect for private and family life, but that Article 8 imposed a positive obligation on
States to ensure respect for such rights:
[A]lthough the object of Article 8 is essentially that of protecting the individual

against arbitrary interference by public authorities, it does not merely compel the
State to abstain from such interference: in addition to this primarily negative
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undertaking, there may be positive obligations inherent in effective respect for
private or family life.
In Gaskin, the Court held that the applicant had a right to receive information necessary
to know and understand his childhood and early development, although that had to be
balanced against the confidentiality interests of third parties who contributed
information. Significantly, this placed a positive obligation on the government to
establish an independent authority to decide whether access should be granted if a third
party contributor is not available or withholds consent. Since it had not done so, the
applicant's rights had been breached.
In Guerra, the Court held that severe environmental problems may affect individuals'
well-being and prevent them from enjoying their homes, and thereby interfere with their
right to private and family life. As a result, the Italian authorities had a positive obligation
to provide the applicants with the information necessary to assess the risks of living in a
town near a high risk chemical factory. The failure to provide the applicants with that
essential information was a breach of their Article 8 rights.
Although these decisions of the European Court did recognize a right of access to
information, they are problematic. First, the Court has proceeded cautiously, making it
clear that its rulings were restricted to the facts of each case and should not be taken as
establishing a general principle. Second, and more problematical, relying on the right to
respect for private and family life places serious limitations on the scope of the right to
access information. This is clear from the Guerra case, where it was a considerable leap
to find, as the Court did, that severe environmental problems would affect the applicants'
right to respect for their private and family life. Although the Court made that leap in
Guerra, due to the clear demands of justice and democracy, it is far from clear that this
will always be possible. In effect, the Court has backed itself into a corner. It would have
been far more logical and coherent if the Court had simply recognised freedom of
information as part of the right to freedom of expression.
In a separate set of developments, the political bodies of the Council of Europe have
made important moves towards recognising the right to freedom of information as a
120
fundamental human right. In 1981, the Committee of Ministers, the political decision-
making body of the Council of Europe (composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs
from each Member State) adopted Recommendation No. R(81)19 on the Access to
Information Held by Public Authorities, which stated: "I. Everyone within the
jurisdiction of a member state shall have the right to obtain, on request, information held
by the public authorities other than legislative bodies and judicial authorities...".
In 1994, the 4th European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy adopted a
Declaration recommending that the Committee of Ministers consider "preparing a
binding legal instrument or other measures embodying basic principles on the right of
access of the public to information held by public authorities". Instead, the Committee
of Ministers opted for a recommendation on access to information, which is expected to
be finalised in spring 2002. The latest draft includes the following provisions:
III General principle on access to official documents
Member states should guarantee the right of everyone to have access, on request, to
official documents held by public authorities. This principle should apply without
discrimination on any ground, including national origin.
IV Possible limitations to access to official documents
1. Member states may limit the right of access to official documents. Limitations should
be set down precisely in law, be necessary in a democratic society and be proportionate
to the aim of providing protection on:
i. national security, defence and international relations;
ii. public safety;
iii. prevention, investigation and prosecution of criminal activities;
iv. privacy and other legitimate private interests;
v. commercial and other economic interests, be they private or public;
vi. equality of parties concerning court proceedings;
vii. nature;
121
viii. inspection, control and supervision by public authorities;
ix. economic, monetary and exchange rate policies of the state;
x. confidentiality of deliberations within or between public authorities for an authority's

internal preparation of a matter.
2. Access may be refused if the disclosure of the information contained in the official
document would or would be likely to harm any of the interests mentioned in paragraph
1, unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.
3. Member states should consider setting maximum time limits beyond which the
limitations mentioned in paragraph 1 no longer would apply.
IX Review Procedure
1. An applicant whose request for a document has been refused, whether in part or in
full, or dismissed, or has not been dealt with within the time limit set out in principle
VI.3 shall have access to a review procedure before a Court of law or another
independent and impartial body established by law.
D. The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 54 countries based on historical links,

common institutional and legislative frameworks and shared values, has taken concrete
steps during the last decade to recognise human rights and democracy as a fundamental
component of its value system. In 1991, it adopted the Harare Commonwealth
Declaration which enshrined its fundamental political values, including respect for
human rights and the individual's inalienable democratic right to participate in framing
his or her society.
In March 1999, a Commonwealth Expert Group adopted a document setting out a

number of principles and guidelines on the right to know and freedom of information as
a human right, including the following:
Freedom of information should be guaranteed as a legal and enforceable right

permitting every individual to obtain records and information held by the
122
executive, the legislative and the judicial arms of the state, as well as any
government owned corporation and any other body carrying out public functions.
These principles and guidelines were adopted by the Commonwealth Law Ministers at
their May 1999 Meeting. The Communiqué from this Meeting was considered by the
Committee of the Whole on Commonwealth Functional Co-operation whose report, later
approved by the Heads of Government, stated:
The Committee took note of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information

Principles endorsed by Commonwealth Law Ministers and forwarded to Heads of
Government. It recognized the importance of public access to official information,
both in promoting transparency and accountable governance and in encouraging
the full participation of citizens in the democratic process.
Text 3
E. Information on the Environment

During the last decade, there has been increasing recognition that access to information
on the environment is key to sustainable development and effective public participation
in environmental governance. The issue was first substantively addressed in the 1992
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, in Principle 10:
Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned
citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have
appropriate access to information on hazardous materials and activities in their
communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes...
In 1998, as a follow-up to the Rio Declaration, Member States of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Union signed the legally
binding Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making
and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention). The Preamble,
which sets out the rationale for the Convention, states in part:
Considering that, to be able to assert [the right to live in a clean environment]
citizens must have access to information...
123
Recognizing that, in the field of environment, improved access to information and
public participation in decision-making enhance the quality and the
implementation of decisions, contribute to public awareness of environmental
issues, give the public the opportunity to express its concerns and enable public
authorities to take due account of such concerns ...
The Convention, which is came into force in October 2001, will require State Parties to
take legal measures to implement its provisions on access to environmental information.
Most of those provisions are set out in Article 4, which begins by stating in subsection
(1): "Each Party shall ensure that ... public authorities, in response to a request for
environmental information, make such information available to the public ... (a) Without
an interest having to be stated".
The Convention recognises access to information as part of the right to live in a healthy
environment, rather than as a free-standing right. However, it is the first legally binding
international instrument which sets out clear standards on the right to freedom of
information. For example, it requires States to adopt broad definitions of "environmental
information" and "public authority", to subject exceptions to a public interest test, and
to establish an independent body with the power to review any refusal to disclose
information. As such, it represents a very positive development in terms of establishing
the right to information.
3. Global Trends
A. National Developments
The proposition that the right to information is a fundamental human right finds support
in the constitutional recognition of this right in a number of countries, either through
judicial interpretation of general guarantees of freedom of expression or through specific
constitutional provisions. The former is of particular significance as national
interpretations of constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression are of some
relevance to understanding the content of their international counterparts.
a. Constitutional Interpretation
A number of senior courts in countries around the world have held that the right to access
information is protected by the general constitutional guarantee of freedom of
124
expression. For example, as early as 1969, the Supreme Court of Japan established in
two high-profile cases the principle that shiru kenri (the "right to know") is protected by
the guarantee of freedom of expression in Article 21 of the Constitution.
In 1982, the Supreme Court of India ruled that access to government information was an
essential part of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression in Article 19
of the Constitution:
The concept of an open Government is the direct emanation from the right to know which
seems implicit in the right of free speech and expression guaranteed under Article
19(1)(a). Therefore, disclosures of information in regard to the functioning of
Government must be the rule, and secrecy an exception justified only where the strictest
requirement of public interest so demands. The approach of the Court must be to
attenuate the area of secrecy as much as possible consistently with the requirement of
public interest, bearing in mind all the time that disclosure also serves an important
aspect of public interest.
In South Korea, the Constitutional Court ruled in two seminal cases in 1989 and 1991
that there was a "right to know" inherent in the guarantee of freedom of expression in
Article 21 of the Constitution, and that in certain circumstances the right may be violated
when government officials refuse to disclose requested documents.
In some countries, notably the United States, national courts have been reluctant to
accept that the guarantee of freedom of expression includes the right to access
information held by the State. The US Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment
of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press, does not
"[mandate] a right to access government information or sources of information within
government's control". However, this may be because the First Amendment is cast in
exclusively negative terms, requiring Congress to refrain from adopting any law which
abridges freedom of speech. International, and most constitutional, protection for
freedom of expression is more positive, recognising that in some cases State action is
necessary to ensure respect in practice for the right to freedom of expression.
b. Specific Constitutional Provisions
125
A number of countries specifically include the right to information among the
constitutionally guaranteed human rights. Sweden is an interesting example, as the
whole of its Freedom of the Press Act, adopted in 1766, has constitutional status. This
Act includes comprehensive provisions on freedom of information. During the last
decade, many countries which have recently adopted multi-party systems, or are
otherwise in transition to democracy, have explicitly included the right to freedom of
information in their constitutions. Examples include Bulgaria (Article 41), Estonia
(Article 44), Hungary (Article 61(1)), Lithuania (Article 25(5)), Malawi (Article 37),
Moldova (Article 34), the Philippines (Article III(7)), Poland (Article 61), Romania
(Article 31), the Russian Federation (Article 24(2)), South Africa (Section 32) and
Thailand (Section 58).
In Latin America, constitutions have tended to focus on one important aspect of the right
to information, namely the petition of habeas data, the right to access information about
oneself, whether held by public or private bodies and, where necessary, to update or
correct it. For example, Article 43 of the Constitution of Argentina states:
Every person shall have the right to file a petition (of habeas data) to see any
information that public or private data banks have on file with regard to him and
how that information is being used to supply material for reports. If the
information is false or discriminatory, he shall have the right to demand that it be
removed, be kept confidential or updated, without violating the confidentiality of
news sources.
c. Freedom of Information Legislation
Freedom of information laws, giving practical effect to the right to access information,
have existed for more than 200 years, but very few are more than 20 years old. However,
there is now a veritable wave of freedom of information legislation sweeping the globe
and, in the last ten years, numerous such laws have been passed, or are being developed,
in countries in every region of the world. The history of freedom of information laws
can be traced back to Sweden where, as noted above, freedom of information has been
protected since 1766. Another country with a long history of freedom of information
legislation is Colombia, whose 1888 Code of Political and Municipal Organization
126
allowed individuals to request documents held by government agencies or in government
archives. The USA passed a freedom of information law in 1967 and this was followed
by legislation in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, all in 1982.
A large number of countries have passed freedom of information laws since then
including:
Asia: Hong Kong, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand.
Middle East: Israel.
Africa: South Africa.
Americas: Peru, the Autonomous Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Belize, and
Trinidad and Tobago.
Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine and the
United Kingdom.
In addition, a number of States in all regions have prepared and are considering draft
legislation. There is, therefore, a very significant global trend towards adopting freedom
of information legislation.
Text 4
B. Intergovernmental Organisations
These national developments find their parallel in the adoption of information disclosure
policies by a growing number of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs). Many IGOs,
which for most of their existence operated largely in secret, or disclosed information
purely at their discretion, are now acknowledging that public access to the information
that they hold is a right, not a privilege. A significant milestone in this process was the
adoption of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which put
enormous pressure on international institutions to implement policies on public
participation and access to information.
Since the adoption of the Rio Declaration, the World Bank and all four regional
development banks - the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development
Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction
127
and Development - have adopted information disclosure policies. Although the World
Bank's Policy is flawed in important respects, the Bank has taken concrete steps to
review it - in 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 - resulting in progressively more
openness and an increase in the number of documents subject to disclosure. The regional
development banks have largely followed the World Bank's lead and the disclosure
policies that they have adopted are very similar.
In 1997, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also adopted a Public
Information Disclosure Policy, on the basis that information is key to sustainable human
development and also to UNDP accountability. The Policy enumerates specific
documents that shall be made available to the public and provides for a general
presumption in favour of disclosure, subject to a number of exceptions. In terms of
process, the Policy establishes a Publication Information and Documentation Oversight
Panel which can review any refusal to disclose information. The Panel consists of five
members - three UNDP professional staff members and two individuals from the not-
for-profit sector - appointed by the UNDP Administrator.
In May 2001, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted
a regulation on access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
Article 2(1) states: "Any citizen of the Union, and any natural or legal person residing
or having its registered office in a Member State, has a right of access to documents of
the institutions, subject to the principles, conditions and limits defined in this
Regulation."
The Regulation has several other positive features, including a narrow list of exceptions,
all of which are subject to a harm test. The Regulation also provides for an internal
review of any refusal to disclose information, as well as an appeal to the courts and/or
the Ombudsman. However, there are also problems with the Regulation. For example,
some key exceptions are not subject to a public interest override. Furthermore, the
Regulation allows a Member State to require other States not to disclose documents
without its prior approval.
4. The Content of the Right to Information
128
It is now clear that individuals do have a human right to freedom of information. The
specific content of that right has been elaborated by a number of authoritative sources,
including the detailed statements of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion
and Expression, as well as the draft Recommendation of the Council of Europe. The
content can also be derived from the Aarhus Convention, the many national laws on
freedom of information and the policies and guidelines of IGOs.
The exceptions are often the most controversial aspect of a freedom of information law
or policy and an excessively broad or subjective exceptions regime can fundamentally
undermine an otherwise good law. A table setting out the exceptions regime in access to
information systems of different countries and bodies - the UK, Japan, South Africa, the
World Bank Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the USA - is found in the
Appendix. If some countries manage effectively without a given exception, the
legitimacy or necessity of it in other countries needs to be questioned.
Article 19 has set out the international standards and best practice on freedom of
information legislation in The Public's Right to Know: Principles on Freedom of
Expression Legislation. These standards were endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur
in his 2000 Annual Report. The OAS Special Rapporteur has also endorsed them,
describing them as "the fundamental basis and criteria to secure effective access to
information".The Principles may be summarised as follows:
Nine Principles Underpinning Freedom of Information Legislation
Principle 1: Maximum Disclosure - Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation

should be guided by the principle of maximum disclosure, which involves a
presumption that all information held by public bodies is subject to disclosure and
that exceptions apply only in very limited circumstances. Exercising the right to
access information should not require undue effort and the onus should be on the
public authority to justify any denials.
Principle 2: Obligation to Publish - Freedom of information requires public

bodies to do more than accede to requests for information. They must also actively
publish and disseminate key categories of information of significant public
129
interest. This obligation covers information about the public body, including
operational information, finances, information on complaints, procedures for
public input and any decisions affecting the public.
Principle 3: Promotion of Open Government - FOI legislation needs to make

provision for informing the public about their access rights and promoting a
culture of openness within the government. At a minimum, the law should make
provisions for public education and dissemination of information regarding the
right to access information, the scope of information available and the manner in
which rights can be exercised. In addition, to overcome the culture of secrecy in
government, the law should require training for public employees and encourage
the adoption of internal codes on access and openness.
Principle 4: Limited Scope of Exceptions - Requests for information should be

met unless the public body shows that the information falls within a narrow
category of exceptions. The exceptions regime should conform to the following
three-part test:
-The information must relate to a legitimate aim listed in the law;
-Disclosure must threaten substantial harm to that aim; and
-The harm must be greater than the public interest in disclosure.
Principle 5: Processes to Facilitate Access - All requests for information should

be processed quickly and fairly by individuals within the public bodies responsible
for handling requests. In the case of denial, a procedure for appeal to an
independent administrative body, and from there to the courts, should be
established.
Principle 6: Costs - The cost of access to information should never be so high that
it deters requests. Public interest requests should be subject to lower fees, while
higher fees may be charged for commercial requests.
Principle 7: Open Meetings - FOI legislation should establish the presumption

that all meetings of governing bodies are open to the public, so that the public is
130
aware of what the authorities are doing and is able to participate in decision-
making processes. Meetings may be closed, but only where this can be justified
and adequate reasons are provided. To facilitate attendance, adequate notice of
meetings should be provided.
Principle 8: Disclosure Takes Precedence - Other legislation should be

interpreted in a manner that renders it consistent with the disclosure requirements
of the FOI legislation. In particular, in case of a conflict between the FOI law and
a secrecy law, the former should prevail.
Principle 9: Protection for Whistleblowers - FOI legislation should include

provisions protecting individuals from legal, administrative or employment-
related sanctions for releasing information on wrongdoing.
5. Conclusion
As this paper has shown, freedom of information is now widely recognised as a

fundamental human right, most commonly as an aspect of the right to freedom of
expression. This is clear from the numerous authoritative statements to this effect, as
well as the policy and practice of national governments, IGOs and international financial
institutions. Freedom of information most prominently includes the right to access
information held by public bodies, upon request. However, it is now clear that it goes
beyond this, placing a positive obligation on public bodies to actively publish and widely
disseminate key categories of information. Human rights are not, however, static, and
freedom of information is increasingly being understood as including a right to truth,
which imposes a positive obligation on States to ensure that citizens know the truth about
serious incidents of human rights abuse and other traumatic social events.
No democratic government can now seriously seek to deny members of the public the
right to freedom of information. Indeed, the rapid proliferation of freedom of information
laws among IGOs, and in countries in all regions of the world, is a dramatic global trend
and one of the most important democratic developments of recent times.
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Пособие по правам человека Кузнецова Туранова

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HUMAN RIGHTS:

the present state

Кузнецова Л.В. старший преподаватель кафедры лингвистики и

Туранова Д.С. старший преподаватель кафедры лингвистики и

Москва, 2018 год

Настоящее учебное пособие предназначено для студентов юридического

Пособие построено на аутентичном фактическом материале, а также

Основной целью данного пособия является развитие языковой и

Данное пособие состоит из 5 разделов, каждый их которых содержит в

Пособие может быть использовано для обучения специалистов правовой

Unit 1: History of Human Rights

Text 1. Early Civilization. The Foundation………………7

Text 2. Eastern tradition…………………………………..16

Text 3. The role of the West in defining Universal

Unit 2: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Text 2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights……… 49

Unit 3: The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights

Unit 4: Human Rights violations

Unit 5: Human Rights activists

Additional texts………………………………………………….... 110

What are your human rights?

Let’s start with some basic human rights definitions:

A member of the Homo sapiens species; a man, woman or child; a person.

Human Rights: noun

The rights you have simply because you are human.

3. the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action

4. high or special regard

5. an assuming that something is true, a fact or statement (such as a proposition, axiom)

6. of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior, conforming to a standard

7. to annoy persistently, to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by

8. improper or excessive use or treatment, physical maltreatment

9. an expression of intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage

11. to remove from position or service

12. to take in or include as a part, item, or element of a more inclusive whole

Task 2. Give Russian equivalents for the following word combinations.

Task 3. Answer the questions.

1. What are human rights? What are they based on?

5. Do you ever feel your human rights are being violated?

10. What human rights do you know about?

13. Do you always respect other people’s rights?

1. What are human rights?

1. What do you know about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

4. What human right is the most important?

History of Human Rights

Early Civilization. The Foundation

• Honor your mother and father.

• You shall not murder.

• You shall not steal.

• You shall not bear false witness.

• You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

The record of Jesus Christ's sermons is a significant contributor to human rights

Task 1. Give Russian equivalents for the following word combinations.

Task 2. Give English equivalents for the following word combinations.

получить распространение, существенное неравенство, определять поведение человека,

Words Synonyms Antonyms

Task 4. Find the definitions of the following words.

Task 5. Answer the questions.

1. Is the concept of human rights new or old?

2. What determined the laws that dictated early human rights?

3. What is the Code of Hammurabi?

4. What shaped human behavior in the ancient world?

5. What is natural law concept?

6. What was king Cyrus’s contribution to the development of human rights?

7. What ideas were developed with the rise of Grecian city-states?