Social, economic and political development places the problem of human rights to the forefront. An individual is beginning to take a leading role in solving problems at both national and international levels. It is human rights that make an individual an active participant in political life. Understanding the main point of human rights as an indispensable quality of an individual (the cultural indicator) is an essential element of the study on realization of human rights. This will enable the process of discovering the essence of human being as the source of human rights and freedoms as well as their role in the formation of identity and world community as a whole.
The result of the research of correlation between Political Science and Human Rights may be that in the contemporary world the actual human rights are the ones specified in some way by political system, political ideology and state political practices. Leading political forces and the state are the most efficient bodies in finding ways of solving the problem of human rights, in setting goals and priorities of this sphere.
Lately, the problem of human rights has been given a political sense. Human rights are conceived from a perspective of social understanding of what the right stands for, political, judicial and social norms based on it as well as social opportunities and responsibilities. The correlation between Political Science and Human Rights primarily deals with the absence of some social opportunities for protection and adherence to these rights. Therefore, the political sense of human rights is far more important than the philosophical, judicial, religious and ideological ones.
Despite this, human rights have not become independent and universally recognized sphere of the study in Political Science yet. Furthermore, the notion of human rights is not the central one in Political Science. The complete implementation of human rights norms is not an easy task and influences the country`s level of development. Nowadays observation and verification of human rights are the most prominent criteria for state`s internal and foreign policies.
History shows that economic and social development of the country brings about extension of self-consciousness of an individual and his/her desire for complying with his/her rights and freedoms. The term «human rights» refers to the system of norms and regulations that ensure political relations and guarantee an individual social welfare and freedoms. Human rights law provides protection and verification of individual rights and freedoms in a separate state, at the same time playing the role of a separate political body and serving as the evidence of constitutional norms and legal regulations as well as special governing bodies and organizations. Human rights and freedoms make up a comprehensive system of conditions required for normal functioning of an individual [12]. They are also universal guarantees of the judicial protection of individuals and groups from human rights abuses. Human rights law obliges the state and sources of governmental power to take certain actions and not to admit to some other actions. The peculiarities of human rights are as follows: they:
- are universal — they are inherent from the moment of birth;
- are derived from human dignity and equal human worth;
- are equal, indivisible and reciprocal;
- cannot be abolished or taken away by any power or authority;
- impose obligations on the countries and their representatives to take actions or being inactive;
- are internationally-guaranteed;
- are protected by law;
- protect individuals and groups of people to some extent.
The universal character of human rights is due to some reasons. First of all, everyone is entitled to all fundamental rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind. International standards and legislation of democratic countries guarantee the equality of human rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind, such as sex, race, national and social origin, language, property, place of residence etc. All forms of limitations of human rights on social, racial, linguistic or religious grounds shall be banned.
Secondly, all rights and freedoms are universal according to their context. No distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs. Everyone has the right to live, the right to equality before the law, the right to freedom of movement, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion etc.
Thirdly, issues in human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy or the rule of law are international as compliance to them provides the dominant basis for international order and does not belong exceptionally to Home Affairs.
Fourthly, the philosophy of human rights is based on human values, one of which is human dignity. On the one hand, dignity is individual moral self — esteem of his/ her connection with society, his/ her significance, the right to be respected by others. On the other hand, it is the acknowledgment of social value and uniqueness of a particular person by society. Human rights are justly considered to be the expression of his/ her dignity. Thus, in 1971 on the Colloquium concerning the issues of rights and freedoms, organized by the International Institute for Human Rights, one of the authors of the draft of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Nobel laureate R. Cassin defined human rights as: «a particular branch of the social sciences, the object of which is to study human relations in the light of human dignity while determining those rights and faculties which are necessary as a whole for the full development of each human being’s personality». Later on, human dignity was defined as the source of individual rights and freedoms. It was stated in Art. 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: «All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights». [8]
As a political institution, human rights establish one or another stage of implementation of general demands confirmed by democracies in a particular country. Therefore it may be concluded that implementation of human rights depends on the level of democratic character of political systems in a particular country. One of the main differences of democratic forms of political development is that these forms provide granting of the wide range of rights and freedoms to all segments of the population while non — democratic forms restrict or fully exclude certain human rights and freedoms.
Modern understanding of politics assumes the analysis of current stage of social development from the perspective of human being, conditions of his/ her rights and freedoms, legal opportunity of full participation in political life. In political science, jurisprudence and philosophy natural — historic understanding of human rights is considered to be the principal. It originates from the liberal tradition and assumes that fundamental human rights have non — governmental and non — juridical origin. The state can either guarantee or violate them but it can not take away the innate natural rights of the individual. Although the range of rights varies and expands depending on the social development.
Basic moral principles of human rights exist independently from social structure, stages of social development and its legislation. Having for humanity leading status of value they represent peculiar criterion of political and social systems, the role of individual in politics.
The notion «human rights» is used generally and properly. In the narrow sense they mean only such rights that are not granted but protected and guaranteed by the state and operate independently of their constitutional legal consolidation. There are the following rights among them: the right to life and bodily integrity, respect of human dignity, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of belief and conscience, the right to resist oppressors, etc., id est. natural- historic rights. In the broad sense human rights are represented in terms of integrated complex of individual rights and freedoms that can differ in one or another country. [10]
It is a common practice in political science and jurisprudence to divide all rights into negative and positive. For example, in a positive sense freedom is regarded as a lack of enforcement and in positive — as a freedom of choice. In accordance with such distinction of freedom negative rights determine duties of the state and other people to refrain from one or other actions towards the individual. Unlike negative rights positive establish duties of the state, organizations and individuals to grant the citizen one other benefits. [7]
Implementation of human rights is a necessary condition of normal development of political processes in society, functioning of democratic institutes, formation of civil society, assurance of political and social balance in society. Transition from a totalitarian to democratic and legal state, in which the human being, his/ her life, rights and freedoms are considered to be the highest value — is a difficult and lengthy process. All political and socioeconomic transformations in society must base on the supreme goal of providing human rights and freedoms.
Democratization of political system is a condition of implementation of civil and political human rights. In international legislation in the sphere of human rights (as well as in the sphere of its usage on the negative level) civil and political rights are in many respects considered to be the object of negative attention. From the point of view of juridical codification and court interpretation they penetrated in social conscience in comparison with economic, social and cultural rights. In this regard in some cases false assumptions are promoted that only civil and political rights (the right to justified proceedings, the right to equal appeal, the right to life, the right to vote, not to be discriminated, etc.) may be objects of violation, compensation measures within the framework of international legal routes.
Civil rights are natural and inalienable human rights. Here usually refer the right to life, freedom and personal security, the right to honor protection and protection of reputation, the right to justified independent public trial that assumes existence of all democratic elements.
Political rights determine possibilities of active participation of citizens in state administration and civil life. There are the following rights among them: electoral rights, freedom of associations, demonstrations and meetings, the right to obtain information, liberty of speech, press, radio and television, etc. There are problems with adequate implementation of declared political rights and freedoms in many countries.
The duties of an individual appear simultaneously with his rights. Another reason to pay attention to this fact is that an objective analysis of the development duties of a human and a citizen contributes to the adequate assessment of the modern constitutional practice. There is a difference, which is very important, between the notions of a human and an individual given in a philosophical literature. An individual is a human in the system of social duties and, in this sense, he or she can really be considered as a unity of all the social relations. How there is no clear distinction between the two notions in juridical literature.
A terminological analysis of the basic international documents of human rights such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Final Act of European Security and Collaboration Council (1975) and others documents allows to claim that the notion of a human in the international law is used in a juridical rather than socio-biological meaning. Universal declarations. covenants and conventions of human rights classify them in a number of criteria. These include:
- Human and civil rights;
- Absolute and inalienable rights and rights in personal and progressive rights;
- Natural and universal rights and positive and acquired rights.
They all, in turn, are divided into:
a) human rights, which are aimed at the protection of life and freedom, and, moreover, of physical and mental integrity of an individual (the right to life, to freedom from slavery, serf and forced labour, freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, freedom of unlawful arrest or detention, the right to lawful trial, the right to private life, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion);
b) civil and political rights (the right to freedom of thought and speech, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the right to vote and to be elected, etc.);
c) economic, social and cultural rights in all their varieties.
Another criteria for the classification of human rights and liberties — is the way they are exercised. In this relation human rights and liberties are divided into: personal, group and collective. Such a division is somewhat relative, because it is not always possible to distinguish which rights to what group belong to.
Human and civil rights and liberties, being the expression of individual freedom, have a double nature. Firstly, their aim is to guarantee an individual in his or her relations with a state, they provide the autonomy of an individual from state interference in some of spheres, which are the most significant for a human and his or her vital activity. The other aspect is that these rights and freedoms oblige a state to guarantee legally the constitutional status of an individual.
Human rights and freedoms consider the right to be included into the life of a state and society as a sovereign and autonomous individual, who, due to the effective mechanisms and political and legal institutions, has real opportunities for the realization of his or her competences and participation in life of a state and society/
Every new stage in the recognition of human rights and freedoms is a result of interaction of some political factors and political powers.
Human rights and freedoms are referred to in a political struggle and nowadays, in the conditions of globalization: quite often leaders of some countries, pretending to protect human rights, use the possibilities UNO and regional international organizations in order to achieve their own foreign policy and domestic policy goals. Theoretically, for their wide realization human rights should be depoliticalizated and deideologizated. However, as the practice shows, human rights and freedoms have always been and still are the most important tool of a political struggle [9].
Human rights cannot be secured without a state, which, by implication and sense, has a political nature. All of the international law acts on human rights consider a state as a basic instrument for the consolidation of these rights and secure the corresponding responsibilities for it. Acting as an organized political power, a state should provide these huge potential opportunities with a ruling influence on all of the spheres of social life. In this case, a state policy should be considered in more details.
The state policy reflects profound processes and condition of the state and of society. By the scale of influence state policy comprises all the society, main spheres of its vital activity. State policy is a conscious, purposeful activity, connected with the development and acceptance of governmental decisions, organization of their fulfillment, regulation of social processes, concluding of this activity. As a kind of activity, state policy has a peculiar nature, other sources and foundations. State policy, as a form used to express state interests, can be realized on legislative base only. The sources of state policy are laws and other normative legal acts. In a distinction between the nature and the sources of origin, there is the main difference of a state policy from a civil, social or policy of any other kind. To the peculiarities of the social policy belong the following facts: 1) ways of expression of a state policy can be only the subjects of public right, including authorized governmental institutions, executives or citizens, entitled in an established order with a right to express the will of the people as subject of power; 2) state policy may be carried out only through the entitled subjects of governmental authorities, who, in turn, may undertake their activities only in a legislative order; 3) state policy, objects of which are kinds of activity, can be practiced through legal measures of governmental support and limitation of kinds of activities. Its objects may be both jural relationships between citizens, institutions of power and organizations to the extent they determine, expand or restrict definite types of activities, which mediate the realization of measures, envisaged by a state policy.
The history of development of human rights reflects all the biggest world events and struggle for dignity, freedom and equality all around the World. However only with the creation of United Nation Organization in 1945 human rights eventually received official and general acknowledgement. Human rights were mentioned in the UNO Charter, which was a basis for UNO, as one of the major objects of its activity and continue to be such objects till now. Universal Declaration of Human Rights was one of the first basic achievements of newly-created United Nation Organization and it was adopted by UN General Assembly on December, 10 in 1948. This most significant document has a great impact on human life all over the world even today. For the first time human rights and fundamental freedoms were detailed in the international document. In the preamble of Universal Declaration of Human Rights UNO determined human rights as the purpose, all nations and states should direct their acts to achieve. Both political and civil rights are declared to be political aim in it.
Regional organizations also play a big role in settling conflicts and diffusion of values of human rights and freedoms. For instance, Council of Europe in relation to this identifies oneself as an international body, which contributes to strengthening of human rights and freedoms in modern European political culture. Therefore protection of human rights is one of the most significant functions of Council of Europe. Such mission of this organization comes from the wide range of regulations in its Statute, which declare such principles as respect for individual and political freedom. Article 8 of the Statute envisages that serious human rights and freedoms abuse is a reason for suspension of membership in Council of Europe [2]. Both Convention on human rights and fundamental freedoms and European Social Charter are the oldest and the most significant judicial documents on human rights of Council of Europe. Taking into consideration the time of conclusion of Convention on human rights and fundamental freedoms (1950), economic, social and cultural rights were not included in it, as European community rather needed guaranty of human rights respect, strengthening of rights and political democracy supremacy. European Social Charter (1961) stresses the fact that the problem of human rights is first of all political problems, so securing of human rights and their fulfillment depends completely on the state political aim and they realize themselves only within current policy. At first the rights, declared in European Social Charter were not given juridical character in the meaning that physical persons, which live in any European country can’t stand on their rights actionably neither at home nor internationally. The authors of the Charter considered its regulations as the one which determine only regulatory standards — orientation points for contracting parties, which had intention to provide with the lapse of time gradual fulfillment of rights listed in it. Nowadays European Charter is a binding tool, which regulates a wide range of social and economic rights. Fulfillments of commitments assumed by the states according to this Charter are subjected to international control [4].
These and other regulatory acts attach fundamental importance to the problem of human rights. In conclusion we can point out that political will and professionalism of state structures should be directed to the securing of vested human rights and interests, search for decent answers for severe challenges, strengthening of constitutional foundations of a state, consolidation of law supremacy, principles of social justice, protection of democratic achievements of people.
Литература:
1. The Charter of the United Nations: 26 June 1945 // [Электронный ресурс] / www.un.org/ru/.
2. The Charter of the Counsil of Europe: 5 may 1949 года // [Электронный ресурс] / http://hub.coe.int/ru/web/coe-portal/.
3. Всеобщая декларация прав человека: 10 декабря 1945 года // [Электронный ресурс] / portal.rada.gov.ua/.
4. The European Social Charter: 18 october 1961 года // [Электронный ресурс] / http://www.coe.int/T/DGHL/Monitoring/SocialCharter/.
5. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: 04 november 1950 года // [Электронный ресурс] / http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/treaties/html/005.htm.
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