Chapter 7: The New Human Rights-Advocacy Approach and the Ten Criteria for the Formal Universal Recognition of New Human Rights eBook and Book (Paperback)

The New Human Rights-Advocacy Approach and the Ten Criteria for the Formal Universal Recognition of New Human Rights

By Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee, PhD in international human rights law, legal information technology (legal informatics), indigenous customary law and indigenous rights

Chapter 7: The New Human Rights-Advocacy Approach and the Ten Criteria for the Formal Universal Recognition of New Human Rights in The New Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information and its Proposed United Nations Convention (ISBN 9789083108520) which is Volume 1 of the New Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series (Publisher: Koinonia Legal Research and Book Publishing, Tilburg, The Netherlands 2020)

Book Chapter Description (Abstract)

The unique function of human rights as arguably the most potent weapon in the ceaseless war against various manifestations of universal grave injustice has led to the tendency towards the formulation of merely conjectural and frivolous claims that certain legal rights (and even non-legal rights) are human rights, and that tendency can cause the problem of human rights inflation—the unwarranted proliferation of human rights. The often-cited claim by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) that ‘tourism has become increasingly a basic need, a social necessity, a human right’ is one of such unimaginably spurious claims. Whilst human rights inflation is a genuine concern, a real danger is that an unbridled antagonism against the recognition of new human rights that deserve such recognition is counterproductive and will lead to the perpetuation of diverse manifestations of grave injustice that are detrimental to human existence and dignity worldwide. This study, in a book chapter, used a legal analysis approach (based on scholarly literature and international legal instruments) to examine the existing different sets of substantive criteria for the formal universal recognition of new human rights that several scholars (including Philip Alston) have formulated and the institutional criteria that the United Nations General Assembly has developed for that purpose, but which appear to be unknown to many contemporary scholars. The study found that the existing sets of criteria are inadequate because of their insufficient scope, their fragmented nature, their lack of proper coherence, and the absence of the discussion of each of the criteria beyond merely listing them. The study has filled those gaps by formulating the new human rights-advocacy approach (NHRAA) as a specific conceptual framework that has harmonised the existing sets of criteria and incorporated additional requirements to provide a set of ten more onerous substantive criteria that are robust enough to eliminate frivolous proposals that can cause human rights inflation. NHRAA can help to streamline the institutional process for recognising new human rights. It can also guide human rights advocacy and contemporary legal scholarship on the development and discussion of new human rights ideas and principles (which include advocacy of new human rights) under the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This study contains developments in human rights law that the United Nations and her specialised agencies, regional intergovernmental organisations, human rights advocates, human rights researchers, students, and all those who are interested in human rights law may find useful.

Keywords: Human right of free access to public legal information, Human right of free access to law, New human rights-advocacy approach, Ten criteria for recognition of new human rights, Huricompatisation customary law ascertainment, Human rights inflation, Characteristic definitions of human rights, United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)