United Nations and Human Rights

Human rights - along with peace, justice and freedom - is one of the founding principles of the United Nations. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which laid the groundwork for more than 80 conventions and declarations on human rights, recognizes human rights as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace. Other landmark human rights documents, like Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted unanimously by the majority of states, also affirm that democracy, development, and respect for human rights are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. With its standards-setting work nearly complete, the United Nations is shifting the emphasis of its human rights efforts to the monitoring or implementation of human rights laws.

In the United Nation Programme for Reform that was launched in 1997, the Secretary-General noted that human rights is a cross cutting issue and that it should be integrated in all UN activities. The UN Country Team (UNCT) in Ukraine have started incorporating a human rights-based approach through the Common Country Assessment (CCA) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). All individual UN Agencies of the UNCT in Ukraine have accepted the Secretary General's challenge and are working on the policy and practice of human rights integration in their respective programmes. Their common understanding of human-rights based approach can be summarized in the following three points:

• All programmes of development co-operation, policies and technical assistance should further the realisation of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments;
• Human rights standards contained in, and principles derived from, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments guide all development cooperation and programming in all sectors and in all phases of the programming process;
• Development cooperation contributes to the development of the capacities of ‘duty-bearers' to meet their obligations and/or of ‘rights-holders' to claim their rights. For example, States and other duty-bearers are answerable for the observance of human rights and should comply with the legal norms and standards enshrined in human rights instruments. Where they fail to do so, aggrieved rights-holders (e.g. common citizens and legal residents of Ukraine) are entitled to institute proceedings for appropriate redress before a competent court or other adjudicator in accordance with the rules and procedures provided by law.

The human-rights based approach allows to adopt a holistic approach to human rights where economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights are fully integrated and given equal weight. Moreover, such approach allows to identify and address the root causes of the problem: poverty in Ukraine, for example, is not merely lack of basic necessities for survival but stems also from choices made by various actors. Hence, we have the possibility to address not only the effect - e.g. the actual situation of poverty with the lack of resources, amenities, etc. - but also the system (like the system of choice- and decision-making) that reproduces the conditions leading to poverty.

Thus, human rights principles guide all programming in all phases of the programming process, including assessment and analysis, programme planning and design (including setting of goals, objectives and strategies); implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Among these human rights principles are:

• Universality and inalienability: Human rights are universal and inalienable. All people everywhere in the world are entitled to them. The human person in whom they inhere cannot voluntarily give them up. Nor can others take them away from him or her. As stated in Article 1 of the UDHR, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". Thus, all the people of Ukraine should be able to enjoy all their human rights;

• Indivisibility: Human rights are indivisible. Whether of a civil, cultural, economic, political or social nature, they are all inherent to the dignity of every human person. Consequently, they all have equal status as rights, and cannot be ranked, a priori, in a hierarchical order. Therefore, all the people of Ukraine are entitled to enjoy all the rights, be it civil, cultural, economic, political or social in nature.

• Inter-dependence and Inter-relatedness. The realization of one right often depends, wholly or in part, upon the realization of others. For instance, realization of the right to health may depend, in certain circumstances, on realization of the right to education or of the right to information. Therefore, in its day-to-day and programming work the Government of Ukraine - and all the relevant stakeholders - should be able to address the human rights problems in a systemic way, i.e. by recognizing the inter-relatedness and inter-dependence of all rights.

• Equality and Non-discrimination: All individuals are equal as human beings and by virtue of the inherent dignity of each human person. All human beings are entitled to their human rights without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, ethnicity, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, disability, property, birth or other status as explained by the human rights treaty bodies. Therefore, all the people of Ukraine, including non-citizens, are entitled to all their human rights regardless of their sex, race, etc.

• Participation and Inclusion: Every person and all peoples are entitled to active, free and meaningful participation in, contribution to, and enjoyment of civil, economic, social, cultural and political development in which human rights and fundamental freedoms can be realized. Therefore, we should ask ourselves: are all the people of Ukraine able to participate in their own development and are there opportunities for participation?

• Accountability and Rule of Law: States and other duty-bearers are answerable for the observance of human rights. In this regard, they have to comply with the legal norms and standards enshrined in human rights instruments. Where they fail to do so, aggrieved rights-holders are entitled to institute proceedings for appropriate redress before a competent court or other adjudicator in accordance with the rules and procedures provided by law. By voluntarily accepting the obligations in the human rights instruments and the corresponding domestic laws, the Ukrainian State and its wide range of actors who are recognized as duty-bearers, have a duty to respect, protect and fulfill human rights and to take steps toward their realization by undertaking legislative, administrative, judicial and other appropriate measures. Therefore, we should ask if the relevant authorities in Ukraine at the State, local and community levels comply with their duties. If not, do they lack the capacity for compliance? Are there mechanisms in place for those deprived of their rights and entitlements to seek appropriate redress? How can the relevant UN agencies render help to government bodies to cope with a particular human rights problem?

These guiding human rights principles can enable the UNCT in Ukraine to determine the most vulnerable and deprived sections of Ukrainian population, get a better understanding of the structural causes preventing the realization of their rights, and thus - to concentrate and implement the development- and human rights-oriented programs in a more informed, efficient and cost-effective manner.

» Selected international human rights treaties 

» Links to international organizations, NGOs, human rights centres, educational and research instituions