2 Human Rights and the Charter of the United Nations

Dr. Vesselin Popovski

Learning Outcomes

After completing this chapter, readers should know and understand:

The context in which human rights provisions in the UN Charter must be read
The concepts of universality, inalienability, indivisibility, equality and non-discrimination of human rights.
The specific UN Charter articles that contain human rights provisions and the obligations of member states to comply with these provisions.

Human Rights and the UN Charter

This module introduces readers to the concept of human rights, based on universality, inalienability, indivisibility, interdependence, equality and non-discrimination. It explores the provisions of the UN Charter that explicitly refer to human rights and the roles that they play in promoting international co-operation. Human rights are a concern in all parts of the world and it is important that we study the provisions in the UN Charter that seek to promote and protect these rights and bring about greater international collaboration.

The Charter of the United Nations was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945. Human Rights, since the inception of the United Nations, have been an important part of its purposes, ideals and functions. Human rights are mentioned as early as in the Preamble of the UN Charter of the United Nations, emphasizing that the UN Organization seeks “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small” and “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”.

The Charter’s operative part contains six articles with explicit references to human rights, making the subject one of the central themes of the legal instrument. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights brought human rights into the realm of international law. Since then, the Organization has diligently protected and promoted human rights through legal instruments and on-the-ground activities.

What are Human Rights?

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever their nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Universal and inalienable

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems.

All States have ratified at least one, and 80% of States have ratified four or more, of the core human rights treaties, reflecting consent of States which creates legal obligations for them and giving concrete expression to universality. Some fundamental human rights norms enjoy universal protection by customary international law across all boundaries and civilizations.

Human rights are inalienable. They should not be taken away, except in specific situations and according to due process. For example, the right to liberty may be restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime by a court of law.

Interdependent and indivisible

All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political rights, such as the right to life, equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to work, social security and education, or collective rights, such as the rights to development and self-determination, are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the others.

Equal and non-discriminatory

Non-discrimination is a cross-cutting principle in international human rights law. The principle is present in all the major human rights treaties and provides the central theme of some of international human rights conventions such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The principle applies to everyone in relation to all human rights and freedoms and it prohibits discrimination on the basis of a list of non-exhaustive categories such as sex, race, colour and so on. The principle of non-discrimination is complemented by the principle of equality, as stated in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Both Rights and Obligations

Human rights entail both rights and obligations. States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights. The obligation to respect means that States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfil means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights. At the individual level, while we are entitled our human rights, we should also respect the human rights of others.

Human Rights in the UN Charter

It has been noted by several commentators that the Charter is unsatisfactory as regards its human rights provisions, because it nowhere specifies these rights. For the representatives of the fifty governments who met in San Francisco in 1945 to write and sign the Charter, like the parliamentarians in the signatory states who ratified it – indeed, like most people in civilized countries – did share a common understanding of what were the most basic human rights, broadly defined. So nobody could say in good faith in San Francisco or in the United Nations that, as the Charter did not specify any human rights.

The provisions of promotion of human rights are present in article 1(3), part IX and article 76(c) of the UN Charter.

According to Article 1(3), one of the purposes of the United Nations is

“to achieve international co-operation…in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”

It is self-evident that the Organization is obliged to pursue and try to realize its purposes. At the San Francisco gathering the chairman of the United States delegation Secretary of State Edward Stettinius expressed the sense of the Conference when he stated that the purposes listed in Article 1 of the Charter “are binding on the Organization, its organs and its agencies, indicating the direction their activities should take and the limitations within which their activities should proceed.”

Article 1(3) may be compared with a similar provision in Article 55:

With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote:

c) universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

Under Article 55(c), the United Nations is obliged to promote a certain end which is essentially identical with the end which, under Article 1(3), the Organization is obliged to promote and encourage by achieving international co-operation. In fact the two articles are more similar in meaning than they may appear. On a superficial reading, the obligation imposed on the United Nations by Article 1(3) relates to the achievement of international co-operation for the purpose of promoting respect for human rights, whereas the obligation imposed by 55(c) relates directly to the promotion of this end itself.

These two articles may now be compared with Article 76, which states “the basic objectives of the trusteeship system, in accordance with the Purposes of the United Nations laid down in Article 1.” These objectives include:

c) to encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion…

Objective (c) concerns the encouragement of a certain end which is identical with the end referred to in Article 1(3), and also is essentially identical with that in Article 55(c). By Article 76(c) the United Nations, under whose authority the trusteeship system functions, is obliged to encourage the realization of this end.

The weightage given to Human Rights by the Charter is high considering that there is a repetition of the aims and means to attain the aim in various articles of the Charter and the Preamble.

Obligations by Member nations to comply with the Human Rights provisions in the UN Charter

Granted that the United Nations is obliged by its own Charter to pursue the purpose or objective of promoting and encouraging respect for human rights, what obligation does this fact impose on the Member States? A general kind of understanding of the matter may be achieved by considering certain provisions in Article 2 of the Charter. The article begins with the words: “The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles” – and proceeds to specify seven principles. In the present connection, the most significant of the principles are the following:

All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter…
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state…

It may be argued that paragraph (2) merely affirms the Members’ general obligation to fulfil their various obligations under the Charter – which is tautological and superfluous. However, it is important to point out that the principle expressed in the paragraph is linked to, and must be read in conjunction with, the introductory words which refer to the purposes of the United Nations. The underlying idea is that the United Nations’ purposes, or rather the requirement and duty of the Organization to pursue them, imply for all the Members certain relevant obligations. What obligations? A general sort of answer is suggested by paragraph (5), namely: obligations in the form of giving assistance to whatever the Organization does in pursuit of its purposes. This must be taken to mean that Member States ought not only to refrain from obstructing the efforts of the Organization, but also to participate actively in these efforts. If Member States merely refrained from being obstructive, but they never did anything positive in connection with the purposes of the Organization, nothing much would ever be achieved. It follows, then, that the obligation of the United Nations to make efforts to develop international co-operation for the purpose of promoting respect for human rights implies that all Member States have an obligation to participate actively in these efforts.

Nothing more specific can be established from a study of Article 2 about the Member States’ human rights obligations, except a negative point contained in paragraph (7). According to this paragraph, the United Nations has no authority to undertake any action which constitutes an intervention in the domestic affairs of any state. In other words, the Organization is not permitted by its Charter – and therefore it is not obligated – to impose on any state, or compel it to accept, any arrangements in its internal administration or its relations to its own inhabitants, for whatever purpose. It was clearly understood by the authors of the Charter that whereas the United Nations and its Members should assume obligations for the promotion of respect for human rights, the actual observance of human rights was primarily the concern of each state.

In summary, the UN Charter imposes on the United Nations the obligation to initiate international co-operation, and on the Member States the obligation to participate actively and in good faith in such co-operation, for the purpose of promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, by bringing about the adoption of suitable legislative and administrative measures in all independent states and dependent territories. Indeed, the whole United Nations system may be seen as a framework of organs, agencies and other formal institutions, operating under international law, for the achievement of international co-operation in pursuit of the various purposes of the Organization. Co-operation for the promotion of human rights, carried out through the appropriate organs – basically the General Assembly and ECOSOC together with the Human Rights Council – may take a variety of forms, which must always be consistent with the principle of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of any state. Among permissible forms of co-operation are:

(A)Conduct studies and investigations, writing reports, holding debates on human rights problems, and in due course preparing recommendations and draft conventions embodying measures for the protection of human rights.

Exercise as effectively as possible the moral authority of the Organization with a view to persuading or inducing all states to accept the recommendations and ratify the conventions.

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