-
Essay / The situation of human rights and its evolution under the influence of the EC and the EU
Table of contentsDemarcationTheoretical frameworkNegotiation of the European ConventionProgress of the ConventionThe concept of the European UnionThe Charter of Fundamental RightsThe document examines the development of human rights in Europe since 1949 by carefully analyzing the role of the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) in the development and promotion of human rights in the region . Guided by a research question and a hypothesis, the research paper is divided into seven sections. The first section provides background information on human rights to explain the emergence of the concept before 1949. After delineating the topic, the article presents the problem statement to show the importance of this research. In light of the theoretical framework serving as a basis for a better understanding of human rights, the book examines the origin of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) and discusses the slow progress it has made over time. In this context, the paper describes the role of the EU in the development of human rights by providing an analysis of EU human rights jurisprudence and its impact on the protection of rights of man. The final section provides a final statement that supports the hypothesis. The findings suggest that European attention to human rights increased after World War II, with the help of the Council of Europe which created a Convention on Human and Human Rights EU. Finally, the book concludes that the EU itself has not advanced human rights because it was initially created for economic purposes, but that it protects human rights to through the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Development of Human Rights in EuropeSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayThe concept of human rights emerged as a result of the philosophical debate that raged two thousand years ago in within European states. However, the earliest precursor to the development of fundamental human rights is found in Babylonian laws and notions of natural rights developed by classical Greek philosophers. The phenomenon can also be traced back to Runnymede's Magna Carta, signed in June 1215, allowing British barons in medieval England to force a reluctant King John to recognize the great charter. Under the influence of John Locke, in 1690, natural laws evolved into the natural rights of individuals based on human nature. By popularizing the benefits of England's unwritten constitution, French political philosopher Montesquieu led to the advancement of human rights in 1748. Additionally, Jean-Jacques Rousseau proclaimed the revolutionary potential of human rights. man in 1762 affirming that rights can be both restrictive and liberating (Maringele, 2015). In 1789, Europe recognized and proclaimed the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. Today, almost all national constitutions protect human rights. The most radical development in the history of human rights law is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948) and the Nuremberg Judgment, as they quickly established the system of international law for states and individuals (Singh, 2016). To date, more than three-quarters of all states, including European Union (EU) countries, have ratified the UDHR treaties. This regulation has guided the development of European human rights (Varju, 2014). One of the drawbacks of the UDHR is the lack of legal mechanisms to enforce the rules against recalcitrant states, whichslows down the United Nations (UN) in developing an effective international human rights legal process on a universal basis (Ritleng, 2012). Due to this limitation, it made sense for Europe to develop a regional international human rights framework to provide a realistic enforcement mechanism. The study traces the origins and history of the European human rights system from a political and legal perspective. The paper examines the contribution of the Council of Europe and the EU to the development and promotion of human rights in European countries. BoundaryThe coverage of the subject in this study is limited to the development of human rights in Europe. The discussion highlights the origins of the Council of Europe, the negotiation and signing of the European Convention, and the progress of the convention over time. Regarding the EU, the document focuses on how the EU continues to advance the protection of human rights. The work does not take into account the evolution of the key concept in other countries, nor the decision-making procedures and structure of the Council of Europe. When it comes to safeguarding human rights, the Council of Europe and the EU play a crucial role. Human rights is a legal system administered by the European Court and its study is of crucial importance to lawyers, judges and law students for three reasons. Eckes (2013) mainly asserts that the emergence of European human rights law was an important event in Europe and that no one should claim to have a superficial knowledge of global legal systems without knowing European human rights law. man. Essentially, this concept provides insight into the nature of the legal system. However, controversy exists over whether the Council of Europe has lived up to expectations and whether the EU or the Charter has facilitated the development of human rights. The present study helps resolve these uncertainties by discussing the role of the Council of Europe in the development of fundamental rights in Europe from 1949 until today in order to show whether it has successfully contributed to the process. The paper also examines how the EU has facilitated the promotion of human rights through the establishment of the Charter. Theoretical Framework The development of human rights has progressed over time, particularly in the 21st century. Human rights have become a widely accepted global standard, encoded in more than 100 national constitutions and regional agreements since the proclamation of the UDHR (Maringele, 2015). They seek to protect human dignity everywhere and at all times. However, the notion of human rights is very controversial. Liberal and religious philosophers emphasize the need to theoretically ground human rights or to achieve political or legal consensus. The notion that the idea of human rights is secular has sparked widespread debate in theological, philosophical, and academic circles. The UDHR and subsequent human rights laws exclude religious explanations which raise serious concerns about the possibility of theoretically justifying that all human beings have fundamental rights (Eckes, 2013). Religious and philosophical theories of human rights have failed due to lack of inclusiveness. Religion-based theories hold that human rights are based on religious doctrines. Secular theories of human rights, such as those of Ronald Dworkin, Michael Perry, and John Rawl, have failed to support the position that inherent human value is equal by excluding certain religions and individuals who are not the same (Little, 2015).To illustrate this, Dworkin's theory of secular sanctity argues that there is a religious interpretation of human rights and that human life has intrinsic value. Additionally, Perry's theory provides a religious justification for human rights by asserting that the notion of human rights is religious. The academic recognizes that there is no intelligible religious version of human rights. In contrast, Rawls views human rights as conceptually and politically independent of any metaphysical, philosophical, or religious doctrine. The model omits political and civil rights, such as political participation and freedom of expression, leaving room for human oppression. According to Little (2015), Rawls' model also overlooks the fact that the violation of human rights primarily occurs in sovereign states and excludes individuals who live outside of society. Philosophical doctrines establish that religious theory does not meet the criteria for inclusion. They also believe that the protection of human rights is inclusive and possible. In particular, the theory of the generic coherence principle emphasizes that all human beings have the right to well-being and freedom. It also states that human beings should accept that all other people have the same rights to well-being and freedom (Eckes, 2013). On the other hand, political theories argue that one must abandon foundationalism rooted in religious and philosophical rights to achieve equality in human rights. However, philosophical and religious doctrines have enriched the theoretical dimension of human dignity and universal rights. Through these theories, the natural law that deals with human rights became part of the positive rights that became effective through legal systems. In this regard, the origin of human rights discourse took a form of resistance with the aim of freeing people from oppression. Building on Nanopoulos (2015), the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 positively enshrined human rights. Both revolutions demonstrated that human rights must be universal and inalienable, meaning they are independent of government. Eckes (2013) argues that the above two events tied individuals to government through a privatization of rights that reinforced the legitimacy of state oppression. At the same time, since the creation of the UDHR, the evolution of human rights has accelerated. Numerous international human rights treaties that define the rights that must be protected across all categories of civil, political, and economic rights have succeeded the UDHR. Maringele (2015) asserts that the UDHR marked the beginning of a new era in the evolution of human rights by being recognized as a legal framework for human rights mechanisms at the national, regional and international levels . This declaration therefore served as a source for European human rights law. How have the Council of Europe and the EU contributed to the development and establishment of European human rights from their creation to the present? The EU has played a central role in the series of international treaties through which EU member states have committed to promoting civil rights and fundamental freedoms within their jurisdiction. The Council of Europe has contributed to the development of human rights in Europe through the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (ECHR), the most successful and advanced international legal system in the world. The Council of Europe was created on May 5, 1949 after theSecond World War and currently brings together 47 member states (Singh, 2016). After World War II, many Europeans created movements in favor of forming an organization that would prevent the human rights violations suffered during the two world wars by supporting the fundamental principles of democracy, peace and of freedom. The negotiation of the European Convention Human rights became a priority for Europeans in favor of political union in May 1948 (Varju, 2014). The European government has advocated for a treaty that would establish a Council of Europe as a formal institution to achieve European unity. On May 5, ten nations signed the act creating the Council of Europe. It was agreed that the role of the agency would be to design and implement a human rights convention. Delegates suggested that it would be desirable to create not only the European Court but also the European Commission of Human Rights. Initially, the role of the commission was to protect the judicial function. The commission served as an intermediary between individuals and the courts and between individuals and the government. On July 12, 1949, Professor Fernand Dehousse, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe and Pierre-Henri Teitgen prepared a draft statute for the European Court and the ECHR (Varju, 2014). On August 9, delegates from Sweden, France and Norway opposed the human rights agenda, saying the issue had already been widely discussed at the UN during the debate that led to the UDHR. However, the delegates drafted a special convention on human rights for Europe. On August 13, 1949, Danish representative Rasmussen opposed the idea that human rights efforts in Europe would not duplicate the work of the UN. On August 19, the Teitgen of France linked the development of a new legal system to the violation of the foundations in Nazi Europe (Eckes, 2013). The commission agreed that only essential and fundamental freedoms could be guaranteed which are today defined and widely accepted by democratic regimes (Singh, 2016). He prepared a draft convention setting out rights that would lead to the creation of the European Court and the Commission on Human Rights and grants European individuals and countries the right to petition the commission. Ungoed-Thomas of the United Kingdom and Rolin of France opposed the commission and tribunal proposals, but ultimately all countries accepted the human rights listed while disagreeing on the role of individual petition rights and court. The Council signed the ECHR on November 4, 1950 and applied it after almost three years on September 3, 1953 (Maringele (2015). Today, the ECHR continues to safeguard human rights. Progress of the Convention The UDHR inspired the ECHR which deals largely with political and civil rights. The convention did not offer much exceptional in the international context. However, the Strasbourg enforcement mechanism was extraordinary because of its. effectiveness for almost 50 years thanks to two crucial optional clauses which remained relevant until November 1998, namely the old Article 25 and Article 46, which are now mandatory (Varju, 2014). More crucial in the early days of the Convention was whether or not a European state would accept judicial jurisdiction and individual petitions. Another debate revolved around whether Europeans would empower the Court and the International Commission to do so. human rights. At first, European state governments were reluctant to accept the optional clauses. Over theAt the time, the members of the Council of Europe accepted the two optional clauses. In 1995, the 30 European member states of the Council of Europe accepted both clauses (Maringele, 2015). The system experienced development and challenges from the 1960s to the 1990s. for example, Greece left the Council of Europe and rejected the ECHR in 1959. However, the number of states approving individual recourse and the jurisdiction of the Court increased. In 1974, Greece joined the Council of Europe, and by the end of the decade, 17 states had consented to the Court's jurisdiction and 14 had accepted individual applications. Nanopoulos (2015) argues that the 1980s saw an increase in activities under the Convention. By the end of the decade, 222 states supported court jurisdiction and the right to individual petition. The court received 169 judgments and the commission found 455 applications admissible (Eckes, 2013). In the 1990s, the judicial system expanded in terms of the number of cases and members. Non-compliant states in Central and Eastern Europe joined the system. From just 22 states in 1989, state participation has nearly doubled in ten years. 41 states were members of the Convention in 1999 and the Court issued 809 judgments, almost four times the number of cases handled during the first four decades of Convection (Ziemele, 2013). The increase in membership and caseloads persuaded the Council of Europe to reform Strasbourg's legal system, leading to the merger of the Court and Commission in 1999. The sixth decade of the European Convention, which began in 2000, has faced challenges in ensuring that the international human rights legal system maintains its responsibilities. In 2007, six more European states ratified the convention, bringing the total number to 47 member states. From 2000 to 2005, the Court opened 220,254 provisional files, declared 5,022 applications admissible and delivered 4,954 judgments (Varju, 2014). Currently, the Council of Europe provides strong legal protection for political and civil rights through the ECHR. It regulates the activities of member countries in areas related to human rights and uses monitoring bodies to make recommendations for improvement. The Convention has either direct effect through its incorporation into a national court or indirect effect through its application to the national legislation of all European states. Citizens whose human rights have been violated have the right to appeal to the European Court in Strasbourg. According to Maringele (2015), the Convention develops sophisticated jurisprudence on various human rights through a large number of decisions and reports based on the ECHR as well as jurisprudence encompassing more than 2,000 court judgments. In the international context, the ECHR is used in the development of legal tests, techniques and criteria. The doctrine of margin of appreciation is the main component of the EHCR that helps it fulfill its function. The role of margin of appreciation doctrines includes the expression of judicial deference, a tool for interpreting human rights and a means of expressing the European Convention as subsidiary to member state legislation. The international human rights system applies this doctrine as a strategy to balance uniformity and diversity. A margin of appreciation is granted if the court wishes to leave room for diversity. The court does not mention the margin of appreciation when it wants to impose uniformity (Maringele, 2015). The Strasbourg Court makes extensive reference to this concept, particularly in cases relating to limitations of fundamental rights. The concept of the European Union The EU has played an active role inpromoting the universal recognition of human rights. The EU was initiated by states concerned with the coal and steel industries as well as the development of trade in Europe. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), created after the Second World War, brought together German and French coal and steel producers in a framework of cooperation which was then opened to other states Europeans. The role of the ECSC was to harmonize activities in these sectors in Western Europe. The first member states of the ECSC, such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany, France and Belgium, signed the Treaty of Paris on July 23, 1953 (Singh, 2016). The ECSC contributed to rapid economic growth by removing trade barriers. Another role of the ECSC was to close unprofitable and inefficient coal and steel mines and eliminate excess production. Thus, the ECSC contributed to economic expansion and the improvement of living standards. The initial objective of the EU was therefore economic. Gradually, the union implemented political initiatives by evolving from the EESC to the European Economic Community (ECC), then to the EU created by the Treaty of Rome and the Treaty on European Union. In its early days, the EU had no intention of getting involved in human rights issues. The Union was also unwilling to cede significant power to an international organization due to the disorientation of the founding states after World War II (Ritleng, 2012). Nevertheless, human rights became a topical concern after the promulgation of the UDHR. The Court has ruled in several cases that the principles of EU law enshrine fundamental human rights. As an example, in 1963 and 1964 the Court established the supremacy of EU law over national laws, which showed that the European Court had to take measures to prevent human rights violations .abuse. In 1969, the Court recognized its responsibility to protect human rights based on decisions in Stauder v. City of Ulm which resulted in the union officially recognizing human rights (Maringele, 2015). The decision recognized advanced human rights by recognizing that human rights were the principles of EU law. Additionally, in 1970, the Internationale Handelsgesellschaft case challenged the supremacy of EU law. The Court's ruling forced the EU to develop its doctrine of fundamental rights so that the Union could protect these rights and avoid any conflict with national laws. In 1974, in the Nold case, the Court made it clear that international human rights are another source of EU fundamental rights and that EU measures in conflict with fundamental rights must be declared invalid (Ritleng , 2012). Following the judgment of these and other cases, the European Court of Justice developed the doctrine of human rights, leading to the development of a coherent declaration of the human rights protected by the EU. The Charter of Fundamental Rights The EU contributed to the advancement of human rights through the creation of a Charter of Fundamental Rights in June 1999. The Charter helps the EU to galvanize and extend human rights. 'man. In 2000, European countries adopted the Charter to make human rights more visible to citizens. The Charter brings citizens closer to the EU and covers almost all fundamental rights enshrined in the ECHR (Ritleng, 2012). In addition to the political and civil rights protected by the Convention, the Charter includes social and economic rights. This means that compared to the ECHR, the Charter makes cultural, social and economic rights visible to the EU, allowing.