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	Protecting economic and social rights by Irene Khan, David Petrasek International Development Law Organization, agencies   The overlapping and interdependent nature of human rights suggests efforts to protect only some rights in law are misguided. The reason for legalizing economic and social rights is not only to make them justiciable in court; it is to create the political and societal impetus to make rights a reality.   Are economic and social rights just “soft” rights, too woolly to pin down in laws or constitutions? Yes, some would argue. When a policeman tortures a political prisoner, the state can be readily blamed, but when a child dies because her parents are too poor to feed her, who’s responsible? Rights imply duties, and to be meaningful they must be fulfilled. Many developing countries simply don’t have the resources to provide food, education or health services to all citizens who need them. What’s the point, therefore, in turning economic and social rights into solid legal entitlements, and asking courts to enforce them?   We disagree, for two reasons. First, from a development perspective, the notion that some rights are more worthwhile and deserving of legal protection than others simply does not make sense. And second, giving economic and social rights legal protection has an impact far beyond the courts.   Dividing rights into categories—civil and political or economic and social—serves no useful purpose in fighting poverty. When an African widow’s right to own land is recognized, what sort of right are we talking about? Is it a civil right, because it addresses discrimination? Is it an economic right because it concerns property? Or is it a social right because the land ensures the woman’s right to feed herself and her family?   When an Afghan woman flees from violence in her home, she wants justice but she also to wants a safe place to stay, medical care to heal her wounds, and a job to sustain her in the future. Weaken one claim and you weaken them all.   The lived experience of poor people demonstrates that freedom is indivisible from education and nutrition; education and nutrition from livelihood; and livelihood from life and freedom.   The reality is that rights are rather like eggs. Crack them open, and rights will flow and join up and spread around individuals and communities like social protein: they are good for you in all sorts of ways. And often there will be no telling where one right ends and the next one begins, and therefore it is difficult to separate out just some rights for legal protection.   The reason for legalizing economic and social rights is not only to make them justiciable in court; it is to create the political and societal impetus to make rights a reality legalizing economic and social rights, basing their arguments around judicial enforcement—that is, on the advisability and feasibility of courts adjudicating claims in matters of education, health care, social security or housing.   Should laws and constitutions give you the right to sue your government for clean water, say, or schooling? Yes, says one camp: a judicial decision gives poor people something to wave in the authorities’ face. No, says the other: this is impractical, counterproductive, and may only serve to divert the state’s scarce resources to the vocal and the litigious rather than the vulnerable and the needy.   For us, this exclusively jurisprudential analysis misses the point. Of course, courts have a role to play in prodding recalcitrant governments, although it is worth remembering that in many developing countries courts are often slow and expensive to use, or lacking in independence to enforce decisions that hold the authorities to account.   But the reason for legalizing economic and social rights is not only to make them justiciable in court; it is to create the political and societal impetus to make rights a reality.   Legalizing economic and social rights gives formal expression to progressive ideals; it builds political legitimacy behind them; it creates a horizon of societal expectations. When the needs essential to a life lived in dignity—housing, education, basic health care—are elevated to the rank of legal entitlements, they have the power to change the political discourse and decisions on resource allocation. Policymakers are obliged to take legal rights into account when designing and carrying out development plans. Lawmakers find it difficult to ignore the obligations set by law—or do so at their peril, especially in democratic societies where an angry electorate often carries more weight than a learned judge.   Incorporating rights into law produces an environment conducive to change and provides a framework for successful interventions. The International Development Law Organization’s (IDLO) health law program has shown that to fight discrimination and ensure access to medical treatment, the right to health must be enshrined in national law, and implemented with a focus on those most at risk.   Furthermore, as the threat of non-communicable diseases grows, countries that have weak or inadequate health laws with no reference to human rights obligations find themselves at a considerable disadvantage against the tobacco, alcohol and food industries. Needless to say, there is also evidence that governments in countries with strong health laws are more likely to invest in the health sector, which in turn pays off in higher social and economic dividends.   Laws can be the vanguard of change, driving popular attitudes and policy shifts. True, there is plenty of evidence out there that laws alone do not eradicate racial prejudice or gender inequality. But it would be hard to find any country in the world that has successfully tackled entrenched discrimination without any constitutional or legal reform.   For individuals and communities living in poverty, recasting their lack of education, health care, housing or clean water not as failures of government policy but as a denial of their rights is a mobilizing factor. When these rights are affirmed by law, coupled with legal literacy and empowerment programs and supported by a dynamic civil society, they become a significant force for change. IDLO’s research shows that this top-down, bottom-up approach, combining grass roots empowerment with constitutional and legal protection of rights, is particularly relevant for women who, more often than not, are compelled to turn to informal set-ups in their communities to settle grievances.   Legal empowerment strategies are not just about litigation, although that may be an important element. They are more often about helping poor people gain the knowledge and tools to engage with those who actually administer the laws that affect their daily lives—land registration offices, local government agencies, rural relief schemes, to give some examples—so that they can protect their property, fight discrimination, receive the health, education and other services to which they are entitled and participate in community and government decision-making that vitally affects their lives and livelihoods.   When economic and social rights are legalized, the greatest impact is likely not to be in litigation, but in the political and policy realms; not in more red tape, but in improved elbow room for development initiatives; not in courts but in communities and people’s lives.   (David Petrasek is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. He was formerly Senior Policy Director and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Irene Khan is Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), since 2011, and was Secretary General of Amnesty International from 2001 - 2009)   http://www.idlo.int/what-we-do/access-justice/legal-empowerment http://www.idlo.int/what-we-do/social-development/health http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ESCR/Pages/ESCRIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CESCR/Pages/CESCRIndex.aspx http://www.icj.org/theme/economic-social-and-cultural-rights/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol34/001/2014/en/ http://www.social-protection.org/gimi/gess/ShowMainPage.do http://www.fao.org/righttofood/en/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ESCR/Pages/Water.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ESCR/Pages/Health.aspx http://www.who.int/hhr/en/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/toolkit/Pages/RighttoAdequateHousingToolkit.aspx http://unhabitat.org/expertise/5-housing-and-slum-upgrading/   http://cesr.org/ http://www.escr-net.org/ http://www.escr-net.org/caselaw http://www.right-to-education.org/ http://globalinitiative-escr.org/ http://www.socialwatch.org/   http://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/irene-khan-david-petrasek/beyond-courts-%E2%80%93-protecting-economic-and-social-rights http://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/helena-hofbauer/winners-and-losers-how-budgeting-for-human-rights-can-help-poor http://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/stuart-wilson/without-means-there-are-no-real-rights http://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/stanley-ibe/yes-economic-and-social-rights-really-are-human-rights http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/gencomm/epcomm3.htm
	Grave crimes committed on "unimaginable scale" in Syria & Iraq, UN Human Rights Council told by OHCHR, UN commission of inquiry on Syria Syria, Iraq   February 2015   Impunity prevails as little progress is made towards securing peace and justice for Syrians   Unthinkable crimes continue to occur daily in Syria with victims’ voices in danger of being lost amidst the horrors of a conflict now approaching its fifth year, a group of UN experts warned today.   In its latest report, the UN commission of inquiry on Syria calls for urgent attention to be paid to the shocking crimes that continue to be perpetrated against the Syrian people. The report, the Commission’s ninth to the Human Rights Council, charts the major trends and patterns of international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed from March 2011 to January 2015. It draws on more than 3,550 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses in and outside the country, collected since September 2011.   The report emphasises the need for concerted and sustained international action to find a political solution, to stop grave violations of human rights, and to break the seemingly intractable cycle of impunity.   “It is unconscionable that Syrians should continue to suffer as they have for the last four years and have to live in a world where only limited attempts have been made to return Syria to peace, and to seek justice for the victims,” said Commission Chair Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro.   Violence in the Syrian Arab Republic, which began with civil unrest in March 2011, has mutated since February 2012 into a protracted and increasingly violent non-international armed conflict. The increasing number of warring parties continues to demonstrate a complete disregard for their obligations under international law.   Government authorities responded to the civil unrest with increased arbitrary arrests, disappearances and torture, and carried out increasingly indiscriminate and highly lethal attacks on civilian areas perceived to be affiliated with the opposition. That such violations are still being perpetrated underline the impunity with which the Government continues to operate.   Armed groups, which emerged following armed confrontations in June 2011, have fractured and proliferated. Two terrorists groups, Jabhat Al-Nusra and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, are characterised by their brutality towards civilians and attacks on minorities. They have flourished as the conflict dragged on. In 2014, as ISIS gained control of significant economic resources and expanded the area under its control, it escalated its use of tactics that instil terror among the civilian population, including public executions and mutilation.   Over the course of the spiralling violence in Syria, the Commission’s reports have extensively shown that it is civilians who have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed. Half of the country’s population have fled their homes, becoming refugees or internally displaced persons. Fighting-age men, women, children, detainees, the sick and wounded, medical and humanitarian workers, and internally displaced persons have been particularly targeted.   Current needs for basic assistance of all types outstrip the existing humanitarian response. Many people are hard to reach, making basic and essential protection efforts virtually impossible. Based on the prevailing trends the Commission documents in this report, the extreme hardship endured by millions of ordinary Syrians will only grow more acute unless immediate action is taken to stop the violence.   The Commission once again emphasised the shared responsibility of States, particularly those with influence over the warring parties, to find an effective, political solution to the conflict. Accountability, it stated, must form part of any future negotiations if the resulting peace is to ensure. The Commission also called upon the Security Council to work to realise the demands it set out in its Resolution 2139.   Mr. Pinheiro noted that Resolution 2139 stressed the need to end impunity and reaffirmed the necessity of bringing perpetrators to justice.   “Victims deserve more than our compassion. We cannot continue to urge an end to the conflict, and its many crimes, without there being some prospect, some means, of bringing about that end,” he said.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/IndependentInternationalCommission.aspx   Nov 2014   UN Commission of Inquiry: Syrian victims reveal ISIS’s calculated use of brutality and indoctrination.   The UN commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic has documented shocking accounts of the armed group’s use of terror to subjugate Syrians living in its areas of control, as well as the use of extreme violence against both civilians and captured fighters, in its latest report, “Rule of Terror: Living under ISIS in Syria”.   “Those that fled consistently described being subjected to acts that terrorise and aim to silence the population,” said Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the commission. Based on over 300 first-hand victim and witness accounts, the report provides a unique insight from Syrian men, women and children who fled or who are living in ISIS-controlled areas. The paper was also informed by the publications, photographs and video footage distributed by the armed group.   The commission paints a devastating picture of civilian life inside ISIS-controlled areas in northeastern Syria. Executions, amputations and lashings in public spaces have become a regular occurrence. The display of mutilated bodies has only further terrorised and traumatised Syrians, in particular children. ISIS has sought to exclude Syrian women and girls from public life. Women have been killed, often by stoning, for unapproved contact with the opposite sex.   ISIS regulations dictate what women must wear, with whom they may socialise, and where they may work. Distressing accounts were collected of forced marriages of girls as young as 13 to ISIS fighters. The paper details ISIS’s horrific abuse of Yazidi women and girls, some of whom, after being abducted in Iraq in September 2014, were taken into Syria and sold into sexual slavery in markets in locations across Ar-Raqqah governorate.   Children have also been the victims, perpetrators and witnesses of ISIS executions. The armed group employs education as a tool of indoctrination, aiming propaganda at children to foster a new generation of recruits. In Raqqah city, children are gathered for screenings of videos depicting mass executions of Government soldiers, desensitising them to extreme violence.   Where ISIS has occupied areas with diverse ethnic and religious communities, minorities have been forced either to assimilate or flee. “There is a manifest pattern of violent acts directed against certain groups – notably Christians, Shias and Kurds - with the intent to curtail and control their presence within ISIS areas,” said Commissioner Vitit Muntarbhorn.   The group has attacked journalists and activists trying to communicate the daily suffering of those living under its yoke. Scores have been abducted, disappeared, tortured and executed.   The paper also details ISIS’s killing of captured belligerents during its recent military assaults, including the killings of over 200 captured soldiers from Tabqa airbase in Ar-Raqqah and the killing of hundreds of members of the Al-Sheitat tribe in Dayr Az-Zawr, both in August 2014.   As an armed group bound by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and customary international law, ISIS has violated its obligations toward civilians and persons hors de combat, amounting to war crimes.   In areas where ISIS has established effective control, ISIS has systematically denied basic human rights and freedoms and in the context of its attack against the civilian population, has perpetrated crimes against humanity.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15295&LangID=E   September 2014   United Nations officials have urged an immediate end to the acts of violence and abuses committed against civilians in Iraq, particularly against children and people from various ethnic and religious communities, as the Human Rights Council met to discuss the ongoing crisis.   “The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale,” Flavia Pansieri, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in her opening remarks to the UN Human Rights Council"s special session on Iraq.   During the session, the Council adopted a resolution requesting the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to urgently dispatch a mission to Iraq to investigate alleged violations and abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups.   It also condemned “in the strongest possible terms” systematic violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law resulting from the terrorist acts committed by ISIL and associated groups “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity…”   The 47-member body, based in Geneva, also strongly condemned in particular all violence against persons based on their religious or ethnic affiliation, as well as violence against women and children.   In her briefing, Ms. Pansieri said that the OHCHR team in Iraq continues to gather strong evidence that serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law have been committed in areas under the control of ISIL and associated groups.   This includes targeted killings, forced conversions, abductions, slavery, sexual and physical abuse and torture, and the besieging of entire communities on the basis of ethnic, religious or sectarian affiliation. Mosques, shrines, churches, and other religious sites and places of cultural significance have also been deliberately destroyed, she reported.   “The effect of the ongoing conflict on the children of Iraq has been catastrophic,” said Ms. Pansieri, noting that many have become direct victims of the conflict, while others have been subjected to physical and sexual abuse, whose scars may remain with them throughout their lives.   “Children belonging to ethnic and religious communities targeted by ISIL have endured particularly extensive violations of their rights,” she added.   Christian, Yezidi, Turkmen, Shabak, Kaka"e, Sabaeans and Shi"a communities have been targeted through “particularly brutal persecution,” as ISIL has ruthlessly carried out what she said may amount to ethnic and religious cleansing in areas under its control.   “The full extent of casualties is difficult to determine. Many have been killed directly; others have been besieged and deprived of food, water or medication,” she stated.   Ms. Pansieri also voiced concern at the situation of civilians who remain in areas under ISIL control, particularly in cities such as Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit, Tal Afar and Mosul.   “Their living conditions are intolerable. Medical facilities lack medicine and basic supplies, and health sector employees have not received a salary for months. Reports indicate a near-total breakdown in rule of law and an increase in criminality in Mosul and other cities. This insecurity compounds the difficulty for the civilian populations to access essential services.”   OHCHR has also received reports that in recent months the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and anti-ISIL armed groups have perpetrated violations of human rights and humanitarian law that may amount to war crimes, the official noted.   “I am profoundly concerned at the grave impact the current conflict is having on civilians, including children and people from Iraq"s ancient and diverse ethnic and religious communities. Systematic and intentional attacks on civilians may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Individuals, including commanders are responsible for these acts.”   Leila Zerrougui, the Secretary-General"s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, told the Council that the most reported violation by ISIL was the killing and maiming of children: 693 child casualties have been reported since the beginning of the year.   There are also reports – both verified and as-yet unverified – of children, especially young boys, being executed by armed opposition groups, including ISIL; of schools and hospitals being destroyed; and of young girls from minority groups being abducted for the purposes of sexual violence and forced marriage.   “The images that we see through media reporting of indiscriminate and brutal killings of civilians, including children is deplorable,” she stated.   “While violations against children have sadly been a consequence of the instability in Iraq over the years, the impact of the armed violence on children has reached unprecedented levels during the current crisis.”   Of grave concern, she noted, are the continued reports on child recruitment and use. Children continue to be recruited by armed opposition groups, including ISIL and affiliated entities, and used as informants; for patrolling and for manning checkpoints, and in some cases as suicide bombers.   Also briefing the Council was Chaloka Beyani, the Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures and Special Rapporteur, who noted that an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis had been internally displaced to date and over the past weeks over 250,000 members of religious groups had been forced to flee their homes. The international community must be prepared for a rapid escalation in the humanitarian crisis as the conflict continues, he added.   Mr. Beyani stated that the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures joined their voices to those who stressed that atrocities by ISIL currently ongoing in Iraq appear to amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity and reveal a risk of genocide. Visit the related web page
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