Critically analyse why treaties on human rights do not grant rights Essay

Critically analyse why treaties on human rights do not grant rights directly to individuals - Essay Example nited Nations High Commissioner for Human rights, human rights are inherent to all human beings regardless of their nationality, colour, religion, language, place of residence, sex or any other identifiable status of the individual (Ramcharan, 2010). Universal human rights are expected to be indivisible, interrelated and interdependent and human beings should enjoy such rights without any form of discrimination. Steiner arguesthat ‘human rights violations still occur within a state rather than high seas or outer space outside the jurisdiction of any one state’ (Ramcharan, 2010, p 45). In this case, states are expected to assume the obligations of protecting and fulfilling human rights to their citizens through positive actions lead to enjoyment of the basic human rights and respecting such rights (Steiner, Alston & Goodman, 2008). The UN charter that aims at ensuring global peace and fundamental human rights has led to numerous conventions that have been adopted in order to protect individual human rights and protect the citizens from atrocities such as genocide and torture (Bayefsky, 2001). Majority of the rules have been codified in to customary rules of international law thus binding even the countries that have not ratified the conventions. Each state has the responsibility of safeguarding individual human rights within its territory, but as Turkin emphasized ‘conventions on human rights do not grant rights directly to individuals’ since the rights will vary from state to the other or from region to region due to government structures and regional treaties and declarations of human rights (Provost, 2002, p 98). In this paper, I will demonstrate that all states have a duty to respect the universal fundamental rights within territories, prohibit discrimination and have the duty to respect such rights and co-operate with other states in attainment of such objectives. Thesis: treaties on human rights treaties grant rights directly to i ndividuals. State