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Human Rights in Times of Global Inequalities: A View from Slovakia

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The Universalism of Human Rights

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 16))

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Abstract

The Chapter deals with universalism of human rights from the perspective of law as inscribed in the international human rights documents, and universalism from the perspective of daily experience of millions of our fellow-humans living in deprivation of rights. It is argued that despite their positive and indispensable role, the human rights conventions, monitoring systems and even enforcement mechanisms of international human rights judicial and quasi-judicial bodies are not by themselves sufficient to secure universal enjoyment of human rights of all. Coming from standpoint that human rights do not operate in vacuum, it seems that the cosmopolitan call for systemic change of the international rules, structures and modes of functioning – often upholding and promoting unequal distribution of power, is one of the ways forward.

Having to fulfil the obligations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as global social contract guaranteeing all rights for all children, even the normative international human rights text reminds us that the debate on the universalism of rights shall shift towards the one of how to re-think and re-organise the system of international law and order to secure true enjoyment of rights by all members of our human family on a daily basis, throughout life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Boutros Boutros Ghali (1993) “The Common Language of Humanity”, United Nations World Conference on Human Rights: The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action.

  2. 2.

    Baxi (2002, 105).

  3. 3.

    http://www.ilo.org/ipec/lang--en/index.htm

  4. 4.

    http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c1d.html

  5. 5.

    UNDP Reports 1998 and 1999, in: Pogge (2002, 99)

  6. 6.

    See Kuric and others v. Slovenia (2010, ECtHR), D.H. v. Czech Republic (2009, ECtHR), K. H. and others v. Slovakia (2009, ECtHR) and other relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

  7. 7.

    Sen in: Sengupta et al. (2005, 74).

  8. 8.

    See Habermas (1992)

  9. 9.

    See Douzinas (2000) and Baxi (2002)

  10. 10.

    See Rajagopal (2003) and Anghie et al. (2003)

  11. 11.

    UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report 1999 (New York: UN Publications, 1999).

  12. 12.

    See Falk (1995)

  13. 13.

    See Marks (2000).

  14. 14.

    See Gewirth (1981).

  15. 15.

    See Articles 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32 and 36 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

  16. 16.

    See the Preamble of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

  17. 17.

    See Article. 4 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

  18. 18.

    See Chossudovsky (1997).

  19. 19.

    UNDP (2000, 73) in Einhorn (2006, 180).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Trnava, Trnava, Slovak Republic

    Darina Macková

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  1. Darina Macková
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Correspondence to Darina Macková .

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  1. , Faculty of Law, University of Regensburg, Universitätstraße 31, Regensburg, 93053, Germany

    Rainer Arnold

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Macková, D. (2013). Human Rights in Times of Global Inequalities: A View from Slovakia. In: Arnold, R. (eds) The Universalism of Human Rights. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4510-0_19

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