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Discuss the limitations of Human Rights

      

Discuss the limitations of Human Rights

  

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Faith
(a) Reservation: The Vienna Convention on the law of treaties read ?reservation? means unilateral statement however phrased or named by a state when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to a treaty, where it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to the state (article 2.d). Reservation precludes the legal enforcement of these provisions for that state, thus limiting the effectiveness. This therefore means that the state is under no obligation to guarantee provision of the right.
(b) Circumstances: Circumstance may force a state to suspend some rights. Rigts that can be suspended are called dirigible rights, while those that cannot be suspended are called non-dirigible rights. Once derogation is effected, the state is not obliged to observe those rights during war or insecurity; the state may effect a curfew consequently curtailing the freedom of movement. Human Rights instruments usually specify which rights can be suspended and they emphasize that the suspension is only temporary.

(c) Interaction with other People?s Rights: An individual can only exercise his or her rights to the extent that it does not interfere with those of other(s). For example, freedom of movement does not allow one to move into somebody?s house without permission as this will violate the others rights of privacy.

(d) Practical Considerations: Human Rights may be limited due to the costs involved in its provisions e.g. a state may lack the economic base or strength to provide to all its citizens the right to food, housing, healthcare, social security, etc. Human Rights instruments are aware of the resource limitation and they therefore stipulate that a state provides these rights ?to the maximum of its available resources?.

(e) Religions of the World: Certain doctrines of some religions violate the rights of others. For example, among Islam community, men and women are not equal. This contravenes Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that ?All human beings are bron free and equal in dignity and rights?..’

(f) Governance: Provision of Human Rights and their protection rely on the governments? good will. For example, in a dictatorial or authoritarian political regime, the rights of the citizens are likely to be violated. In some African states, governments promulgated laws legalizing detention without trial which have tended to violate human rights. Similarly, people have been charged for sedition.

(g) International Financial Institutions: In the 1980s and 1990s, the IFI?s as the Breton Wood institution (IMF and World Bank) have been at the forefront in instituting policies that violate the rights of citizens in various states. For example, the civil servants retrenchment policy in Kenya in the 1990s and the early 2000s can be said to have violated their right to work.


Titany answered the question on August 11, 2021 at 10:17


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