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Efforts to care for the sick and wounded in war
Early recognition that there exists an obligation to care for soldiers wounded in war as well as war prisoners,124 translated into nothing tangible until the nineteenth century when a number of developments precipitated efforts to care for war prisoners and wounded combatants. These factors included the improvements in technology, which made weapons more destructive; the increasing numbers of forcibly conscripted soldiers in the armies as opposed to those who entered the army as professionals and improved reporting of the horrors of war. Early efforts to care for the wounded included those made in the Crimean War125 when the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia organised some three hundred nurses, called Sisters of Mercy to care for the wounded. Clara Barton126 cared for fallen American soldiers in the American civil war. Florence Nightingale after her experience in caring for British soldiers in the Crimean became extremely influential in mobilising British public opinion. Jean- Henri Dunant, a businessman in Geneva, after witnessing the aftermath of horrific bloody war between French and Austrian armies in Northern Italy in 1859 founded an International relief society, the organisation that later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross. He was instrumental in organising the Geneva International Conference. In the year 1864, a total of sixteen European countries and American states participated in a conference in Geneva, at the invitation of the Swiss Federal Council. This diplomatic conference was called for the purpose of adopting a convention for the treatment of wounded soldiers in combat. On 22 August 1864 twelve nations127 signed the first 124As early as the fourth century BC the Chinese military theorist Sun Tzu wrote that an obligation to care for the
wounded and prisoners of war existed.
Fought between October 1853 and February 1857, this was a war in which Russia lost to an alliance between France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire and Sardina. 126A pioneer American teacher, patent clerk and humanitarian and was also the founder of the American Red Cross.
Germany (then Grand Duchy of Baden), Kingdom of Belgium, Kingdom of Denmark, French Empire, Grand Duchy of Hesse (now Germany), Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom of Netherlands, kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Prussia (now Germany) Kingdom of Spain, Swiss Confederation and Kingdom of Wurttemberg (now Germany).
Geneva Convention, also known as the Red Cross Convention targeted at improving the assistance given to the sick and wounded in war zones. The principle mandate of the first Geneva Convention in 1864 was that medical workers must provide relief and for care to wounded soldiers without distinction as to nationality while ensuring neutrality.
Concern for the workers
In 1919, countries created the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to oversee treaties protecting workers with respect to their rights, including their health and safety. Concern over the protection of certain minority groups was raised by the League of Nations at the end of the First World War. However, this organization for international peace and cooperation, fashioned by victorious European allies, never achieved its objectives. The League stumbled principally because the United States refused to join and because the League failed to prevent Japan‟s invasion of China and Manchuria (1931) and Italy‟s attack on Ethiopia (1935). It finally died with the onset of the Second World War (1939).
The Holocaust
The genesis of the modern international human rights system is often traced to the post-World War II prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg trials and the international community‟s collective desire to „prevent the recurrence of such crimes against humanity through development of new standards for the protection of human rights.‟128The world was horrified by the extermination by Nazi Germany of over six million Jews and other minorities such as homosexuals and persons with disabilities in what was known as the „holocaust‟. Some officials from the defeated countries were tried in Nuremberg and Tokyo and punished for committing war crimes, „crimes against peace‟ and „crimes against humanity.‟ Revelations coming from these war crimes trials, the effects of the atomic bomb and other atrocities gave people in a number of countries a crisis of conscious and found that they could no longer ignore autocratic oppressors who jailed, tortured, maimed and killed their neighbours. Steps were thus taken to attempt to hold all countries accountable for protecting basic human rights through some 128L B Sohn, „The New International Law: Protection of the Rights of Individuals Rather than States‟ (1982) 32 agreed standards. Governments around the world then pledged to establish a more credible body with the principle aim of reinforcing international peace and preventing future conflict. This led to the adoption of the UDHR; also referred to as the international Magna Carta. This view of the origin of modern human rights is however criticised by some thinkers and writers. Samuel Moyn129for example, has a different view as to when human rights began to make sense to broad communities of people as the proper cause of justice. He examines the myths of the historical roots of human rights. It is, however, beyond the scope of this work to interrogate his views.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the UN came into being on October 24, 1945. This intergovernmental organization had as its objective the resolve of saving future generations from the devastation of international conflict. The Declaration was adopted on December 10, 1948. The founding document of the UN, the Charter, established six primary organs, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and in relation to human rights, ECOSOC. The Charter empowered ECOSOC to establish „commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights….‟ One of these commissions was the UNHRC, which, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, saw to the conception of the UDHR.
The Declaration was drafted by representatives of all regions of the world and incorporated all legal traditions. Formally adopted by the UN on December 10, 1948, it is the most universal human rights document in existence, outlining the thirty fundamental rights that form the foundation for a democratic society.
CHAPTER ONE: MAPPING THE DISCOURSE
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Statement of the problem.
1.3. Research questions
1.4. Research rationale/motivation
1.5. Working hypothesis
1.6. Methodology
1.7. Literature review
1.8. The structure of the work
CHAPTER TWO: THE HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION SYSTEM IN PERSPECTIVE
2.1. Introduction
2. 2. Toward defining the concept of human rights: The philosophical analysis of the concept
2.2.1. What is a right?
2.2.2. Types of rights.
2.2.3. The functions of rights and approaches to their justificatio
2.2.4. Theories explaining the functions of right
2.2.5. Justifying human rights.
2.2.6. Moral and legal rights compared and contrasted
2.2.7. What is „human‟ in human rights?
2.3. Philosophical foundations and criticism of the concept of human rights
2.3.1. Natural law, natural justice and natural rights
2.3.2. Reformation and rationalism
2.4. The historical origins and development of the theory and practice of human rights
2.5. The normative foundation of international human rights
2.6. The place of duties and responsibilities in the human rights framework.
2.7. Modern ideas of natural rights and their critique
2.8. Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE: THE AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM: ESTABLISHMENT AND PURPOSE
3.1. Introduction
3.2. A historical background to the establishment of the African human rights system and genesis of duties provisions in the African Charter
3.2.1. Human rights in the pre-colonial Africa.
3.2.2. Human rights in colonial Africa.
3.2.3. Human rights in post-colonial Africa.
3,2.4. The drafting of the African Charter: the objective conditions and the steps
3.2.5. Why the African Charter?
3.3. The uniqueness of the African Charter: nature of the rights and duties
3.4. Criticism of the African Charter generally
3.5. Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR: THE NOTION OF INDIVIDUALS’ DUTIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORK
4.1. Introduction
4.2. The meaning of the term „duty‟ and various notions of the concept of duty
4.3. Philosophical and deontological arguments regarding duties, responsibilities and obligations
4.4. The categories of duties
4.5. Duties as counterparts of right
4.6. Duties independent of rights
4.7. The scheme of duty assignment in international human rights law and implications for the state and the individual
4.8. Treatment of duties in international and regional human rights instruments
4.9. Duties in domestic constitutions and legislation
4.10. Conclusion.
CHAPTER FIVE: UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS, CULTURAL RELATIVISM AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE CONCEPT OF DUTIES
CHAPTER SIX: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF INDIVIDUALS’ DUTIES IN THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS
CHAPTER SEVEN: UNPACKING THE DEBATE ON UNIVERSALISATION OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
CHAPTER EIGHT: GENERAL FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
