What is the Human Rights Law? How is it appplied?

The Human Rights Law is a “universal and internationally protected code to which all nations can subscribe and to which all people can aspire” (The UN Today 239).

The United Nations has defined a broad range of internationally accepted economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as, political and civil rights. These rights have been extended through many decisions that have established the universality, indivisibility, and interrelatedness with the development of a country.

The rights are universal because they are supposed to encompass every human being and also because every nation has the obligation not to infringe on the rights of the population.

The rights are indivisible and interdependent because it is hard to ensure some rights at the expense of other rights.

Finally, all of the rights are interrelated with the development of a country because it is the tendency to see less developed countries as the ones that infringe in the Human Rights Law. These countries do not have the resources to ensure its population their rights, thus they are mostly living in poverty and in unsanitary conditions.

The United Nations has also established mechanisms to promote and protect all human rights and to assist governments in carrying out their responsibilities. The UN’s role and scope in promoting and protecting human rights has continued to expand through education campaigns that have informed the public of their inalienable rights, and by enhancing the judicial and penal systems of many nations. The United Nations is at work on many aspects of this front:
  • Global conscience
  • Lawmaking
  • Monitoring
  • Defending
  • Researching
  • Serving as a mediator between countries
The Organization’s machinery to monitor compliance with human rights’ treaties has acquired cohesiveness among nations because of the enthusiasm the defense of human rights has gained in the last years.

We were very pleased to find out that virtually every United Nations Organization body and specialized agency is involved in the protection of human rights such as the Security Council, the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, there are still some injustices being committed. We will highlight the case of Uganda.