Dignity, Equality, and Equitable Life Chances

Ramcharan, Robin; Ramcharan, Bertrand

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-2104-7_7

Robin Ramcharan^3,4 &
Bertrand Ramcharan⁵

281 Accesses

Abstract

Asian delegates participating in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made eloquent pleas that the Declaration should lay the basis for human dignity and equitable life chances for all the peoples of the world. This chapter briefly outlines Asian propositions on human dignity, equality, and non-discrimination in the drafting process. It then outlines key elements of a life of dignity—development, democracy, and the rule of law—and content in international human rights law and policy, including the emergence of the right to development.

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Notes

1.
E/HR/6 29 April 1946 Summary Record of Meetings [of the “Nuclear” Commission on Human Rights] First meeting held on Monday, 29 April 1946, at 3 p.m.
2.
E/CN.4/AC.1/3 4 June 1947 in Schabas, p. 282. The Preamble shall refer to the four freedoms and to the provisions of the Charter relating to human rights and shall enunciate the following principles:
1. 1.
  that there can be no peace unless human rights and freedoms are respected;
2. 2.
  that man does not have rights only; he owes duties to the society of which he forms part;
3. 3.
  that man is a citizen both of his State and of the world;
4. 4.
  that there can be no human freedom or dignity unless war and the threat of war is abolished.
3.
“Essentials of Peace”, GA Res. 290(IV), OP 6.
4.
E/CN.4/SR.7, 31 January 1947 Summary Record of the Seventh Meeting [of the Commission on Human Rights] Held at Lake Success, New York, on Friday, 31 January 1947, at 11:00 a.m.
5.
E/CN.4/SR.7 31 January 1947, Summary Record of the Seventh Meeting [of the Commission on Human Rights] Held at Lake Success, New York, on Friday, 31 January 1947.
6.
E/CN.4/11 31 January 1947, Draft of a Resolution for the General Assembly Submitted by the Representative of India.
7.
E/SR.69, p. 5.
8.
E/CN.4/SR.14 4 February 1947 Original Text: French Summary Record of the Fourteenth Meeting [of the Commission on Human Rights] Held at Lake Success, New York, on Tuesday, 4 February 1947 at 2:00 p.m.
9.
E/CN.4/AC.1/SR.2 11 June 1947 160 Summary Record of the Second Meeting [of the Drafting Committee of the Commission on Human Rights] Held at Lake Success, New York, on Wednesday, 11 June 1947 at 11:00 a.m.
10.
E/CN.4/132 14 June 1948 Lebanon: Suggested Preamble for the Draft International Declaration on Human Rights, Schabas p. 1870.
11.
E/CN.4/AC.2/SR.2 5 December 1947 Original Text: French Summary Record of the Second Meeting [of the Working Group on the Declaration of Human Rights] Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Friday 5 December 1947, at 3 p.m.
12.
E/SR.69, p. 5.
13.
E/CN.4/SR.15, 5 February, 1947. (Schabas, 205).
14.
E/CN.4/AC.1/SR.21 4 May 1948 Summary Record of the Twenty-First Meeting [of the Drafting Committee, Second Session] Held at Lake Success, 4 May 1948 at 10.30 a.m.
15.
A/PV.139 23 September 1948 Verbatim Record of the One Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Meeting [of the General Assembly] Held at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris, on Thursday, 23 September 1948, at 10.30 a.m.
16.
A/C.3/243 7 October 1948 Recapitulation of Amendments to Article 1 of the Draft Declaration (E/800)
17.
A/C.3/SR.9624 7 October 1948 Summary Record of the Ninety-Sixth Meeting [of the Third Committee ] Held at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris, on Thursday, 7 October 1948, at 10:30 a.m.
18.
A/C.3/314/Rev.1* 20 November 1948 Recapitulation of Amendments to the Preamble of the Draft Declaration (E/800) (In the chronological order of their submission to the Committee)
19.
See, for example, the American Federation of Labor ’s Draft International Bill of Human Rights proposed to the Commission.
20.
E/CT.2/2 20 August 1946 Committee on Arrangements for Consultation with Non-Governmental Organizations, in Schabas, p. 71–77.
21.
E/CN.4/W.4 13 January 1947, Working Paper on an International Bill of Rights, Schabas p. 109.
22.
E/CN.4/AC.1/3/Add.2 9 June 1947 Plan of the Draft Outline of an International Bill of Rights (Prepared by the Secretariat), Schabas pp. 305–306.
23.
E/CN.4/SR.14 4 February 1947 Original Text: French Summary Record of the Fourteenth Meeting [of the Commission on Human Rights] Held at Lake Success, New York, on Tuesday, 4 February 1947 at 2:00 p.m.
24.
E/CN.0.4/SR 14, 4 February, 1947, (Schabas, 200).
25.
E/CN.4/11 31 January 1947.
26.
E/CN.4/AC.2/SR.7 9 December 1947 Summary Record of the Seventh Meeting [of the Working Group on the Declaration of Human Rights] Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 9 December, 1947
27.
CESCR General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12), E/C.12/2000/4, 11 August 2000. Available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cescr/pages/cescrindex.aspx
28.
CESCR, General Comment No.3, The nature of States parties’ obligations, 1990. Available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cescr/pages/cescrindex.aspx
29.
HRI/GEN/1Rev.9, pp. 90–91. See similarly, p. 105 ff on violations of the right to water; pp. 116–117 and 121–122 violations of article 3 on equal rights between men and women; pp. 133–134 on violations of article 15; pp. 147–148, violations of the right to work.
30.
A/RES/41/128, 4 December 1986.
31.
See, generally, S.R. Chowdhury, M.G. Denters and P. J. de Waart Eds., The Right to Development in International Law (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1992); and P. De Waart, P. Peters and E Denters, eds., International Law and Development (Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff, 1988).
32.
Oscar Schachter, “Implementing the right to development: programme of action,” in S.R. Chowdhury, M.G. Denters and P. J. de Waart Eds., The Right to Development in International Law (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1992), pp. 27–30.
33.
Yash Ghai, Redesigning the State for ‘Right to Development’, in Nobel Foundation, The Right to Development . Edited by B. Andreassen (Oslo….) 2006, pp. 140–141 (pp. 140–166).
34.
See, generally, M. Salomon, “The Nature of a Rights: The Right to a Process in the Right to Development” in Franciscans International, Geneva, The Right to Development . Reflections on the First Four Reports of the Independent Expert on the Right to Development (2003), pp. 82–104.
35.
E/CN.4/1999/WG.18/2, 27 July 1999, para. 37.
36.
Ibid., para. 47.
37.
A/55/306, para. 15.
38.
Ibid. para. 16–17.
39.
Ibid., para. 20.
40.
Ibid., para. 21.
41.
Ibid., para. 22. In this same paragraph the Independent Expert stated that “the process must be distinguished from the outcomes of the process.” In the preceding footnote, he had written that “the human rights approach to development is not the same thing as realizing the right to development.” In paragraph 24 of his report, he stated that “the right to development at as whole will also have to be realized in a rights-based manner that is transparent accountable, participatory and non-discriminatory as well as equitable and just.”
42.
E/CN.4/2002/WG.18/4, para. 18.
43.
Ghai, op. cit., p. 141.
44.
Ibid.
45.
IPU, Democracy : Its Principles and Achievement (Geneva: IPU, 1998), iv–vii).
46.
Second meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, 27 January, 1947; E/CN.4/SR.2, 27 January, 1947, p. 1. (Schabas pp. 161–162).
47.
Second meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, 27 January, 1947; E/CN.4/SR.2, 27 January, 1947, p. 1. (Schabas pp. 161–162).
48.
E/CN.4/SR.1, 27 January, 1947. (Schabas, 159).
49.
Carlos P. Romulo with Beth Day Romulo , Forty Years. A Third World Soldier at the UN. New York, Greenwood Press, 1986, pp. 71–72.
50.
Hersch Lauterpacht, An International Bill of the Rights of Man (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 115. (First published in 1945).
51.
Bertrand Ramcharan, Contemporary Human Rights Ideas: Rethinking theory and Practice (London, New York: Routledge, 2015), p. 70. See also Steve Farrior, Equality and Non-Discrimination under International Law, Volume 2, (New York: Routledge, 2015).
52.
Ibid., p. 75.
53.
Ibid.
54.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 16: The Equal Right of Men and Women to the Enjoyment of All Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Art. 3 of the Covenant), 11 August 2005, E/C.12/2005/4, para.2, Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/43f3067ae.html [accessed 20 May 2018].
55.
Ibid., para.6.
56.
Ibid., para 10.
57.
See ICESCR, General Comments 4 and 18.
58.
E/SR.69, pp. 7–9.
59.
Millennium Declaration, adopted by Heads of State and Government at the United Nations General Assembly, 2000, para. 31.
60.
Working Group on the Right to Development, A/HRC/4/47, 14 March 2007, para. 19.
61.
Working Group on the Right to Development, A/HRC/4/47, 14 March 2007, para. 20.
62.
Working Group on the Right to Development, A/HRC/4/47, 14 March 2007, para. 60.
63.
Working Group on the Right to Development, A/HRC/4/47, 14 March 2007, paras. 61–62.
64.
Working Group on the Right to Development, A/HRC/4/47, 14 March 2007, paras. 63–64.

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Webster University, Bangkok, Thailand
Robin Ramcharan
Asia Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
Robin Ramcharan
Emeritus President, UPR Info, Alyth, Perthshire, UK
Bertrand Ramcharan

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Ramcharan, R., Ramcharan, B. (2019). Dignity, Equality, and Equitable Life Chances. In: Asia and the Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2104-7_7

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2104-7_7
Published: 20 November 2018
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