Page 21 - DIVA_1_2024

international

backfires. Far from inspiring the targeted countries to
open up and grant more rights, it causes them to
retrench. The result is that civil and political rights,
particularly the right of peaceful manifestation, are
further curtailed in countries that feel threatened by
unilateral coercive measures or even military
intervention.

What progress has been achieved in the enjoyment of
human rights? Garzon Freiburg
Since 1948 enormous progress has been achieved, e.g.
with the advancement of women’s rights, with the
progressive abolition of capital punishment, the
universal condemnation of torture (even if it persists
in some countries), the active measures adopted on
behalf of persons with disabilities, the recognition that
everyone has a right to privacy, a right to development,
a right to a safe environment.

In your books and articles you also speak of
retrogression. Can you elaborate?
Back in 1984, the General Assembly adopted
Resolution 39/11 on the right of peoples to live in
peace[2]. The Spanish Association on International Emmerson
Human Rights Law and hundreds of civil society
organizations worldwide expanded on that resolution
and produced the Declaración de Santiago de
Compostela on 10 December 2010. This declaration
was adopted by the Advisory Committee to the Human
Rights Council, then an open-ended inter-
governmental working group was established in which
I actively participated. The result was that the Advisory
Committee text was eviscerated and what was adopted
by the Human Rights Council and later the General
Assembly [3]was less than we had already had in
1984.

Most economic, social and cultural rights have now
been side-lined. The Council is mainly concerned with Ramsey Clark
civil and political rights, what I would call the “business-
friendly” rights. There has been a hijacking by the “rich”
countries and transnational corporations, which for
example refuse to adopt a legally binding treaty on
corporate responsibility. The minimal Ruggie principles
on business and human rights are noteworthy more for
being breached than by being observed. Not without
reason I have called the Forum on Business and Human
Rights, the Forum on the Business of Human Rights.
Meanwhile free-trade and bilateral investment treaties
have been developed and become a bonanza for the rich
countries and for transnational corporations. And we
now have the infamous investment-state-dispute-

w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h