Berkeley University Panel and GSD on Project 2048 and a World Court on Human Rights

TUESDAY 9 MARCH 2010, ROOM XXIV, 13-15 p.m

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL SIDE EVENT

Panel on Berkeley’s Project 2048 and progress toward a World Court on Human Rights

The history of human rights consciousness and standard-setting can be seen as a sequence of religious and philosophical declarations at the national, regional and global level that put into focus the beliefs and aspirations of the times. These documents reflect the evolving understanding of the underlying principles of human dignity and equality.  They embody an agreement about the individual and collective rights that governments must both promote and protect.

The most recent constellation of texts can be traced back to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Many organizations and individuals rely on those texts to stem gross violations taking place in all regions of the world, including torture, disappearances and extrajudicial executions. While Berkeley Law School’s Project 2048 acknowledges the importance of protecting rights through existing instruments, we also ask an equally important question: what will be the next generation of instruments to ensure and protect human rights and human dignity? What will the state of human rights be in the year 2048, one hundred years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration?  Will civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights be realized?  Will the rights to peace, the right to the homeland, the right to one’s identity be effectively protected?

We are all aware of the fact that there is a considerable gap between norms and implementation. Human rights law is not mathematics – it is sometimes applied selectively and arbitrarily.  Some even speak of “international law à la carte”.  Project 2048 explores ways of bridging the gap, welcomes the monitoring activities of the Human Rights Council and the UN treaty-bodies and aims at strengthening the role of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The credibility of the system will benefit through the establishment of an international court of human rights whose decisions should be binding and enforceable.  In November 2009 Berkeley hosted a conference devoted to drafting a statute for an international court. Among the participants were the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr. José Ayala Lasso, the former Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Professor Bertrand Ramcharan, ICTY Justice Ted Meron, and Professor Manfred Nowak.

List of Speakers Professor Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture:

• Professor Bruna Molina, Moderator, Geneva School of Diplomacy

• Professor Kirk Boyd, Berkeley University Law School

• Mishana Hosseinioun, Oxford University doctoral student, member of advisory board 2048

• Professor Carlos Villan Duran, President of the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law

• Alfred de Zayas, Professor of International Law, Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, member International Society for Human Rights