The Red Cross and Raising Human Rights Awareness in Europe
| Author | Koen de Feyter |
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/016934419100900104 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
NQHR
1/1991
THE RED CROSS AND RAISING HUMAN RIGHTS AWARENESS IN
EUROPE'
Koen De Feyter"
This article looks at
the
Red
Cross Movement's role in raising human rights
awareness in
Europe
as a
part
of its dissemination activities. It notes
that
aselection of
human
rights norms is incorporated in humanitarian law,
but
that
disseminationof these
norms
will
only be
undertaken
by
the
Red
Cross
under
certain conditions, such as a favourable attitude of the government
concerned
and
the absence of
other
organizations in
the
same line of work.
It
suggests
that
current
conditions in former
Eastern
Europe
allow
and
require
the
development of a sustained
human
rights policy by the
Red
Cross Movement, and in particular by the relevant National
Red
Cross
Societies,
and
offers some suggestions in this respect.
I
Human
Rights
and
Humanitarian
Law
Human
rights instruments usually contain aderogation clause allowing
ratifying States to limit their obligations in a time
of
public emergency,
under
certainproceduralconditions.Article 4 of
the
InternationalCovenant
on
Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) provides an example:
the
article states
that
"in times of public emergency which treathens
the
life of
the
nation
and
the
existence of which is officially proclaimed, (States) may
take
measures derogating from their obligations
under
the
Covenant to
the
extent strictly required by the exigencies of
the
situation, provided that such
measures
are
not
inconsistentwith their obligations
under
internationallaw
and
do not involve discrimination (...)."
The
concept of public emergency
was introducedto eliminate
the
notion of "war", which was outlawed by
the
United Nations Charter.
The
wording in
the
Covenant requires
that
the
public emergency shouldbe
of
such magnitude
that
it threathens the life
of
anation as a whole;
the
threshold of "armed conflict" triggering application
" An earlierversion of this text was presented to the Sozopol Workshop on the Promotion
and Implementation ofInternational HumanitarianLaw,24-30 September 1990,organized
by
the BUlgarian Red Cross.
** University of Antwerp.
36
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