Carnegie Council

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Examples of Violations

Human Rights Dialogue 1.10 (Fall 1997) "Efforts, East and West, to Improve Human Rights Assessments"

September 5, 1997

Violations Resulting from Government Action, Policy, or Legislation

Refusal to grant the covenant full legal status under domestic legislation or to allow complainants to cite provisions of the covenant in cases before national courts and tribunals (Article 2(1)).
Interference with the rights of association, to form labor unions, and to strike (Article 8(1)).
Forced evictions and removals of persons from their homes by state agencies (Article 11(1)).
Coercive birth control practices, including abortions and large-scale sterilizations, as a matter of state policy to accomplish fertility control (Article 12).
Destruction of the cultural heritage of minority communities (Article 15).

Violations Related to Patterns of Discrimination

Failure to provide legal protection against discrimination consistent with the requirements of the covenant (Article 2).
Systematic discrimination against particular ethnic, religious, or cultural minorities (e.g., the Kurdish people in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey).
Failure to protect women’s equal rights to work or to the enjoyment of just and favorable conditions of work (Articles 6 and 7).
Persistence of gender differences in laws regulating marriage and family relations (Article 10).
In countries where single-sex schooling is common, a serious imbalance in the number of school places available and the quality of schools designated for boys and girls, resulting in a lack of equality of educational opportunity (Article 13).
The denial to ethnic and linguistic minorities of the right to use their language for schooling or broadcasting (Article 15(1a)).

Violations of Omission or State Failure to Fulfill Obligations

Failure of states parties to adopt legislative measures to implement provisions of the covenant into domestic law (Article 2).
Failure to implement laws and regulations related to obligations enumerated in the covenant. (For example, child labor continues in many countries despite laws prohibiting employment of children under the age of 14.)
Failure to universally implement the introduction of free and compulsory primary education (Article 13) and, for those countries that lack free and compulsory primary education, failure to develop a detailed plan of action within two years of becoming a state party (Article 14).
Failure to conform to the reporting requirements specified in Articles 16 and 17.

About Human Rights Dialogue

Human Rights Dialogue promotes a global discussion of human rights ideas and practices by presenting firsthand accounts of human rights issues as they arise within specific real-life contexts. In so doing, it helps to clarify the significant and ongoing evolution that is taking place within the human rights movement to make the human rights framework more relevant and effective in addressing the social, economic, and political challenges of the twenty-first century.

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Series One (1993–1998)examines all sides of the Asian values debate—the argument that Asian cultural values imply different human rights standards and priorities from those in the West.

Series Two(2000–2005)addresses the problem of the “human rights box”—the constraints that have enabled the human rights framework to gain currency among elites while limiting its advance among the most vulnerable. Specifically, the essays aim to locate the barriers to greater public legitimacy of human rights and to demonstrate how those barriers can be overcome.