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13 - Does enforcement matter?

from Part III - Platforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

By
Gerd Oberleitner
Edited by
Conor Gearty  and
Costas Douzinas
Conor Gearty
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Costas Douzinas
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
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Summary

With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, a continuing process of human rights standard-setting was set in motion, which has produced a remarkable breadth of human rights norms, standards and principles. Their importance, the changes they have introduced in the relationship between governments and individuals and the impact they exercise on the development of international law are beyond doubt, despite critical comments on the very process of creating these standards and on the future of human rights standard-setting. Enforcing these norms is, however, a different story. Decades of attempts to reduce human suffering through the creation of human rights supervisory and enforcement mechanisms have dishearteningly few results to show. Despite an elaborate institutional framework for protecting these rights, gross human rights violations continue to occur and all too often seem to make a mockery of the proliferation of procedures, committees and commissions on human rights.

As a consequence, human rights activists together with supportive political leadership and scholarly voices keep on calling for the strengthening of human rights enforcement. They are motivated by the realisation that there is little value in abstract rules which do not lead to visible change and that allowing states to consistently ignore human rights obligations derides and damages these very standards, discourages co-operative states and alienates civil society. Enforcing human rights is seen as important beyond the immediate effects on victims of human rights violations as it touches upon the legitimacy of the rules and the stability of the human rights system. The move from standard-setting to enforcement (or from rhetoric to action) is usually perceived as decisive for the success of human rights.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law , pp. 249 - 268
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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