First-generation human rights[edit] First-generation human rights, often called blue rights, deal essentially with liberty and participation in political life. They are fundamentally civil and political in nature: They serve negatively to protect the individual from excesses of the state. First-generation rights include, among other things, freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion and voting rights. They were pioneered by the United States Bill of Rights and in France by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in the 18th century, although the right to due process goes back to the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Rights of Englishmen. They were enshrined at the global level and given status in international law first by Articles 3 to 21 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Second-generation human rights[edit] Second-generation human rights are related to equality and began to be recognized by governments after World War II. They are fundamentally economic, social and cultural in nature. They guarantee different members of the citizenry equal conditions and treatment. Secondary rights would include a right to be employed, rights to housing and health care, as well as social security and unemployment benefits. Like first-generation rights, they were also covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and further embodied in Articles 22 to 27 of the Universal Declaration, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. In the United States of America, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a Second Bill of Rights, covering much the same grounds, during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944. Today, many nations, states, or groups of nations have developed legally binding declarations guaranteeing comprehensive sets of human rights, e.g. the European Social Charter. Some states have enacted some of these economic rights, e.g., New York State has enshrined the right to a free education,[2][3] as well as the right to organize and to bargain collectively,[4] and workers compensation,[5] in its constitutional law. These rights are sometimes referred to as red rights. They impose upon the government the duty to respect and promote and fulfill them, but this depends on the availability of resources. The duty is imposed on the state because it controls its own resources. No one has the direct right to housing and right to education. (In South Africa, for instance, the right is not, per se, to housing, but rather to have access to adequate housing,[6] realised on a progressive basis.[7]) The duty of government is in the realisation of these rights is a positive one. Third-generation human rights[edit] Third-generation human rights are those rights that go beyond the mere civil and social, as expressed in many progressive documents of international law, including the 1972 Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and other pieces of generally aspirational soft law. Because of the present-day tilting toward national sovereignty and the preponderance of would-be offender nations, these rights have been hard to enact in legally binding documents.[citation needed] The term third-generation human rights remains largely unofficial, just as the also-used moniker of green rights, and thus houses an extremely broad spectrum of rights, including: Group and collective rights Right to self-determination Right to economic and social development Right to a healthy environment Right to natural resources Right to communicate and communication rights Right to participation in cultural heritage Rights to intergenerational equity and sustainability Some countries have constitutional mechanisms for safeguarding third-generation rights. For example, the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations,[8] the Parliament of Finland’s Committee for the Future, and the erstwhile Commission for Future Generations in the Knesset in Israel. Some international organizations have offices for safeguarding such rights. An example is the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission has as its mission protecting, preserving and improving the environment for present and future generations, and promoting sustainable development. A few jursidictions have enacted provisions for environmental protection, e.g. New Yorks forever wild constitutional article,[9] which is enforceable by action of the New York State Attorney General or by any citizen Ex rel with the consent of the Appellate Division.[10]
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:21:57 +0000
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