Unit 2: Classification of Human Rights
2.1 Critics on Generations of Human Rights
The three generations frame (Karel Vasak’s name — the French Revolution’s trilogy): first generation — civil and political rights (liberty); second generation — economic, social and cultural rights (equality); third generation — solidarity rights (development, environment, peace, self-determination). The critics (the exam’s balance): (1) the generations imply a hierarchy — the “progressive realization” excuse for the second, the “aspirational” dismissal of the third — against the indivisibility doctrine (Vienna 1993: all rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated); (2) the chronology is Eurocentric — other traditions ordered rights differently; (3) the “generation” metaphor suggests the earlier ones are finished — but the first generation’s enforcement remains the weakest link; (4) the classification still organises the UN system itself (the two Covenants’ split — the ICCPR’s immediate duties vs the ICESCR’s progressive realization) — the exam’s honest conclusion: use the map, refuse the hierarchy.
2.2 Civil and Political Rights
The liberty bundle (the ICCPR’s core): life (Art 6 — the death penalty’s narrowing); freedom from torture (Art 7 — the absolute); liberty and security (Art 9 — arbitrary detention’s bar); humane treatment of detainees (Art 10); freedom of movement (Art 12); fair trial (Art 14 — the minimum guarantees); privacy (Art 17); conscience, religion, expression, assembly, association (Arts 18–22); political participation (Art 25 — the vote and be-elected); equality before the law (Art 26); minority rights (Art 27). The enforcement character: immediate obligations, judicial enforcement, the derogation clause (Art 4 — the emergency’s limited reach, U6.1). Nepal’s constitutional mirror: Articles 16–48 (the verified rights catalogue — life, liberty, the criminal-justice guarantees of Arts 20–22, expression, assembly, the remedies of Art 46).
2.3 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
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