Human Rights: A Handbook For Parliamentarians

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New York; Geneva: United Nations; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2005. — 198 p. (Автор не указан).Human rights have pervaded much of the political discourse since the Second World War. While the struggle for freedom from oppression and misery is probably as old as humanity itself, it was the massive affront to human dignity perpetrated during that War, and the need felt to prevent such horror in the future, which put the human being back at the centre and led to the codification at the international level of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations declares promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion as one of the purposes of the Organization. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, was the first step towards achieving this objective. It is seen as the authoritative interpretation of the term human rights in the Charter of the United Nations. The Universal Declaration together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both adopted in 1966, constitute what has become known as the International Bill of Human Rights. Since 1948, human rights and fundamental freedoms have indeed been codified in hundreds of universal and regional, binding and non-binding instruments, touching almost every aspect of human life and covering a broad range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the codifiation of human rights has largely been completed. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has recently pointed out, today’s main challenge is to implement the adopted standards. In previous years, attention has increasingly turned towards the parliament as the State institution through which people exercise their right, enshrined in article 21 of the Universal Declaration, to participate in the conduct of the public affairs of the country. Indeed, if human rights are to become a reality for everyone, parliaments must fully play their role and exercise to this effect the specific powers they have, namely legislating, adopting the budget and overseeing the Government.

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