"Human rights are not granted—they must be fought for"--2022 Annual Report of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights ("Enforcing Human Rights Through Legal Means")

 

 

I am delighted to pass along the  2022 Annual Report of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights ("Enforcing Human Rights Through Legal Means"). It suggests both the scope and the challenges of a multi-front legality campaign against which ECCHR is well positioned to take a leading role.

The opening editorial, "Human Rights are not granted--they must be fought for," authored by Wolfgang Kaleck, ECCHR General Secretary, follows. It reminds one that among those with the power or authority to affect collective life, struggle is a central element in the (re)construction of social relations, the struggle against privilege forms a central legitimating element of the range of forms of struggle, and that social relations in this current era is negotiated by, through, and in the language of legality. Yet legality requires its own hierarchies, and sometimes an enlightened (and in this sense privileged) vanguard is necessary to shape and guide the struggle.  And thus the last temptation of the project of de-privileging social relations--the privileging of the vanguard.

Human rights are not granted—they must be fought for WOLFGANG KALECK The 10th of December 2023 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Univer- sal Declaration of Human Rights, an occasion which promises to give rise to controversial discussion. Time and again, voices have been raised, claiming that the project of universal human rights anchored within the declaration has failed. Critics point to the current situation, especially in light of Russia’s war against Ukraine, as proof that the protection of human rights is not working. More and more states have withdrawn from this normative call. The World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar and the violent suppression of the opposition in Iran only serve to furnish alterna- tive justifications of this claim. Human rights are indeed being trampled underfoot in many regions of the world. And in our efforts to enforce them through legal means, we at ECCHR also confront our share of political obstacles, in particular. All too often, states only maintain an instrumental relationship with human rights and will even go so far as to block their implementation when it suits their interests. Instead of simply writing off the enforcement of human rights, however, this should be seen as a historical process that has not yet come to its completion. As the rather conservative historian Heinrich August Winkler recently pointed out: since the Universal Declarations of Human Rights in 1776 and 1789, the history of the West has been a his- tory of struggles over the adoption or rejection of this normative pro- ject. The history of the West has also always been a history of violations of its own values. Most importantly, human rights declarations have often been wiser than many of their authors, who were mired in racial and male prejudice. A yawning gap has also always existed between normative aspirations and practical implementation. According to US sociologist Kathryn Sikkink, however, human rights have historically always emerged as the result of struggles led primarily by oppressed individuals and groups. The same was the case with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Although they had just defeated Hitler’s Germany, the European colonial states were by no means interested in adopting binding human rights covenants—as they would run the risk of being accused of excessive violence within the wars against the independence movements in Indonesia, Kenya and Algeria. Thus, a better time for human rights never existed in the past. No, human rights must be fought for, today just like yesterday, again and again, all over the world. With our legal resources, we must continue to stand in support of individuals and groups who have been denied their rights. The good news is that, in the last 25 years, successes across the globe have been achieved. 4

EDITORIAL Of course, the recent interest in international criminal law now exhib- ited by some Western states is politically motivated, as seen, for example, with calls to the International Criminal Court made shortly after the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022 and an arrest warrant against Putin issued in March 2023. But we can nonetheless see this as something positive: it is reassuring to know that so many governments around the world share our legal position that civilians require better protection within wartime conflicts. It is also gratifying to see that the United States and the United Kingdom, who have historically stood in the way of the project of universal justice, are now clamoring for it. So, let us hold them to their word! Successful trials in Germany under the principle of universal jurisdiction against Syrian torturers, as seen with the Koblenz judgment of January 2022,→ P. 14 must now be followed by criminal proceedings against Western actors if they are suspected of complicity in war crimes—for example, for supplying weapons to the war criminals in Saudi Arabia and their allies in the Yemen war.→ P. 27 Until recently, there was rarely any talk of transnational corporations having to submit to universal standards for their activities beyond national borders. But this is precisely the idea behind the Supply Chain Act, which came into force in Germany on 1 January 2023 and will soon be followed by EU-wide legislation.→ P. 24 The introduction of a new, and especially imperfect, law is however by no means sufficient. Those excluded from their rights must be given access to justice. In each individual case, the claims and rights of those affected must be enforced. To be more successful, we must also approach our work together with others and in a multidisciplinary manner. When we com- bine legal, political and psychosocial approaches, we can support indi- viduals and communities more effectively. As ECCHR’s ever-growing case portfolio consistently shows, we leave no avenue unexplored. There is no question that the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the cases of so-called pushbacks in Spain or Macedonia are disastrous, as the court clearly gave in to political pres- sure.→ P. 58 + 59 But we will keep up the fight on this legal front. One thing is absolutely certain: we are seeking more human rights for everyone— and as part of this process, we must learn to contend with temporary legal defeats or setbacks. And who could say what the world would look like right now if all of us weren’t here, fighting together for human rights? In this spirit, we thank all those who are working with us to realize the concrete utopia of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Because, in reality, there is no alternative to it. WOLFGANG KALECK IS GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE EUROPEAN CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS (ECCHR).