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The Right to Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2009

B.G. Ramcharan
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Extract

International law developed originally as a body of norms concerning, and for the benefit of, States and governments. The protection of the rights of the individual was of secondary concern in its early history. Even today, most of its basic premises, rules and principles are still shaped by the inter-State system characterising contemporary international relations. However, in modern times, there has been rising global insistence that States, governments, institutions and laws exist to serve the people and there is a persistent, universal outcry for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the individual to be respected and assured. The human factor is emerging, at last, as the factor which should govern in every situation. With this objective in mind, the norms of international law are coming under persistent scrutiny from the point of view of whether they are conducive to the promotion and protection of the rights of the individual. And where the law has not yet developed responses for dealing with problems, old or new, affecting the rights of the individual, the international community expects of it that it should quickly show its capacity for imaginativeness and innovation and that it should demonstrate its ability to discharge its basic function: respecting, ensuring and advancing the dignity and rights of individuals throughout the world.

Type
Articles
Information
Netherlands International Law Review , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , December 1983 , pp. 297 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1983

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References

1. Fawcett, J.E.S., The Application of the European Convention on Human Rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1969) pp. 30–31Google Scholar.

2. Ibid. p. 31.

3. Dinstein, Y., “The Right to Life, Physical Integrity and Liberty”, in Henkin, L. (Ed.) The International Bill of Human Rights (1980) pp. 114–116 at p. 115Google Scholar.

4. Przetacznik, F. “The Right to Life as a Basic Human Right”, IX Human Rights Journal (1976), pp. 585–609.Google Scholar

5. GA Res. 37/189A, paras. 1 and 6.

6. World Bank Sector Policy Paper on Health (1980), p. 5.

7. GA Res. 833 (IX).

8. E/2573, annex 1.

9. GAOR, Tenth Session, Annexes X 28–1, p. 12, emphasis added.

10. GAOR, Thirty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 4 (A/37/40), p. 93.

11. Inter-American CHR. Ten Years of Activities, 1971–1981 (1982) p. 322.

12. Decision on Admissibility, Application 7154/75.

13. Inter-American CHR. Report on Guatemala.

14. See A/37/564, para. 22.

15. E/1681, p. 15.

16. E/1681, p. 15.

17. A/C.3/L.460 in GAOR, Tenth Session, Annexes (X), 28–1, p. 24.

18. See the Nuclear Test Cases ICJ Reports 1974 p. 253 (Australia v. France) p. 457 (New Zealand v. France).

18a. ICJ Reports 1970, p. 3.

18b. ILC Yearbook 1976 II (Part II) p. 73 et seq.

19. A/37/564, para. 22.

20. The rest of this section is excerpted from The Report of the Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary and Summary Executions, E/CN.4/1983/16, paras. 29–37.

21. A/36/40.

22. A/37/40, p. 93.

23. See Hassan, Marcoux.

24. Cf., The general comments of the Human Rights Committee on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: “States have the supreme duty to prevent wars, acts of genocide and other acts of mass violence causing arbitrary loss of life” loc.cit. p. 93, para. 2.

25. See E/CN.4/1983/16 para 621. “If a person dies as a result of torture or of cruel”, inhuman or degrading treatment that amounts to “arbitrary execution”.

26. Views of the Human Rights Committee concerning communication no. R11/45 submitted by Pedro Pablo Camargo on behalf of the husband of Maria Fanny Suarez de Guerro, Report of the Human Rights Committee to the 37th Session of the General Assembly, A/37/40, p. 137, at p. 146.

27. Ibid, p. 146, para. 13.3. See also E/CN.4/1983/16, para. 60: “If a law enforcement agent uses greater force than is necessary to achieve a legitimate objective and a person is killed that would amount to an ‘arbitrary execution”.

28. See E/CN.4/1983/16, para. 54.

29. Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Report by Mr. S. Amos Wako, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/1983/16.

30. Ibid., para. 55.

31. These include: in the “Civil and Political” Covenant, Art. 6: “In countries which have not abolished the death penalty sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime”. Nor must such penalty constitute genocidal conduct or deny the right to seek commutation. The European Convention, although also non-derogable as regards the right to life in Art. 2, provides in para. 2 three circumstances where deprivation of the right by use of necessary force is not illegal. The American Convention, Art. 4, follows the Civil and Political Covenant more closely but allows deprivation as a death penalty lawfully imposed under the terms of the Convention, which also excludes deprivation for political offences as related common crimes and attaches age limits to those subject to it. (Arts. 4(4); 5). The African Charter says in Art. 4 that no-one may be arbitrarily deprived of his life, but there is no mention of this as a nonderogable right.

32. UN Press Release HR 1140, 1 February 1982, p. 3.

33. E/CN.4/1983/16, paragraphs 74–75.

34. Ibid.

34a. G.A. Res. 3452 (XXX) 1975, Art. 1.

35. Sub-Commission resolution 1983/24.

36. Report of the Human Rights Committee (1982), A/37/40, pp. 146–147.

37. Amnesty International, Report on Torture, Second Edition 1975, pp. 241–242.

38. E/CN.4/1983/14.

39. This summary of the relevant rules on State responsibility is based on the articles on State responsibility adopted by the International Law Commission in 1979.

40. F. Ermacora. A/34/583/Add.l, Chap. V.