Introduction to Human Rights Week 4: Typology II. First generation: Civil and Political Rights Let us see what Karel Vasak has sorted out into the first drawer. We can find there the rights of the first generation. The so-called Civil and Political Rights. These rights go back to the 18th century, they embody the value of freedom and express liberalism from an ideological point of view. In which instruments are these rights protected? These rights are both protected at the universal and regional levels. At the universal level, we find them in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as in the covenant called Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This is not a surprise. This covenant is also often called "the ICCPR". This is the expression I will use from now on. At the regional level, all the general conventions on Human Rights also protect the rights of the first generation. They are: The European Convention on Human Rights, The American Convention on Human Rights, The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and also the Arab Charter on Human Rights. According to Vasak, these rights embody the value of freedom. Nevertheless, freedom is understood in two different ways depending on whether we are talking about civil or political rights. The idea of freedom that underlies civil rights is a defensive vision of freedom. The idea is that individual autonomy must be defended against the State. We do not really talk about individual autonomy when we mention political rights. We rather place the emphasis on autonomy as participation. Underlying autonomy as participation, is the idea that each person, as a citizen, is a member of the people. Therefore, everyone can take part in the exercise of public affairs. Let us return to the two major subcategories of civil and political rights. Let us first talk about civil rights. As I have already said, civil rights have a defensive function. Their aim is to safeguard an area of freedom to civil society against the arbitrary interference by the State. This is why these rights have also been named "rights as shields" or "resistance rights". From the State point of view, these rights impose a negative duty: the duty of abstention. The State must refrain from interfering into the freedom of individuals. For example, freedom of speech imposes on the State the duty not to censor the press. The right to respect for private and family life imposes on the State the duty not to spy on citizens. Which rights belong to civil rights? First of all, there is the right to life. It is the primary right. The right without which the practice of other rights is not possible. In second position comes the guarantee of physical integrity. This is guaranteed in Human Rights treaties with the prohibition against torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment. You already got to know this right last week when you read the Soering case. Regarding torture, it is important to highlight that torture does not only concern the violation of physical and mental integrity of the person. It is also an attack on freedom. Torture aims at extorting confessions and at breaking the free will of the person. It is therefore also an assault on freedom. An important subcategory of rights belonging to the first generation is called "liberties". Liberties aim at protecting human actions and human behavior. It is typical for liberties to imply a choice. They have what we call a positive and a negative dimension. We have the right to exercise freedom but we also have the right not to exercise it. For example, freedom to marry includes the right to marry: the right to marry the person of our choice but also the right not to marry. Let us take another example: freedom of assembly includes the right to take part in a demonstration but also the right to keep out of it. Let us take a last example: freedom of worship. Freedom of worship confers the right to practice a religion, to belong to a religious group but it also entails the right not to take part in religious acts. So, freedom of worship protects believers, agnostics, atheists and people who have no interest in religion. The last important subcategory of liberties concerns procedural guarantees. What is the point of speaking freely if one runs the risk of being detained arbitrarily? Procedural guarantees therefore play an important role in the field of criminal law but they are not restricted to this field. We find many components of this right in criminal law, notably the presumption of innocence or equality of arms, the right to be defended in a criminal procedure and there is also a very old guarantee: the one of "habeas corpus" which is the right to be brought before a judge who checks the legality of the detention. The right to life, physical integrity, liberties and procedural guarantees. The protection of these so called "civil rights" is linked to the emergence of the sovereign State, the State which has the monopoly of the use of force and which might represent a threat to freedom. The generation of rights belonging to the second subcategory - political rights - are also linked to the emergence of the sovereign State. This time, the emphasis is placed on the monopoly of the State to adopt legal norms. Nowadays, legislation is made by the state. Norms are created by the State organs. The idea which underlies political rights is that individuals are not just passive beneficiaries of liberties. They are associated with the exercise of public power. The democratic ideal is therefore at the basis of political rights. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen already referred to this ideal. Article 6 reflects Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s words and holds that: "Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation." At the international level, there is no right guaranteeing the right to a democratic regime. This can be explained by obvious political reasons. Nevertheless, several components of political rights exist. These rights are formulated in Article 25 of the ICCPR. It notably holds: [1] The right to take part in the conduct of public affairs [in his country], directly or through freely chosen representatives; [2] The right to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors; And the last component is [3] the right to have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country. It is important to note that there is a link between the so called political rights and liberties, especially liberties of communication. In the political sphere, the media play a major role in shaping public opinion. We will come back to this point later in this course. We can see that the division into different categories and subcategories are not watertight. We could also classify the freedom of the media as a political right. We can also observe that there are synergies and mutual reinforcement between different rights.