Human Rights Committee Part 1

Constitutional Review in the Caribbean
Avril Anande Trotman-Joseph
European Journal of Law Reform
Volume 12, Issue 1/2, 2010 p.134-144

Guyana, South America, is a former colony of Britain and the only English-speaking country in South America, but has more in common with its English-speaking Caribbean neighbours. Constitutional reform and resulting constitutional amendments were precipitated in 1999-2000 by civil unrest following national elections and dissatisfaction by the major opposition with the outcome of an election characterized by ethnic differences between respective supporters of parties backed by followers of traditionally Indian, African and Amerindian origin. This process was a brokered effort to ameliorate the national dissatisfaction and an opportunity for civil society representatives and political representatives of the unicameral House of Parliament to work together in recommending electoral and constitutional reform. The outcome was the radical reform and modernization of the constitutional entrenchment of the modern concepts of International human rights law . In this regard Guyana is ahead of the other sister nations of the Caribbean, CARICOM grouping in terms of constitutional advancements. However, the political will to realize farreaching electoral and governance reforms, as well as the effective implementation of the entrenched human rights reforms, still lags behind, despite the amendment of the constitution, the appointment of several commissions and the establishment of a parliamentary oversight committee tasked with continuous constitution review.

Progressing Norm Socialisation: Why Membership Matters. The Impact of the Accreditation Process of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
Brodie, Meg
Nordic Journal of International Law
Volume 80, Number 2, 2011 p.143-192

Human Genetic Manipulation and the Right to Identity: The Contradictions of Human Rights Law in Regulating the Human Genome
Norberto Nuno Gomes de Andrade
SCRIPTed: a Journal of Law, Technology & Society
Volume 7, Issue 3, 2010 p.429-452

This paper analyses an overlooked tension between the right to personal identity and the collective right to human identity in the context of human rights law as it applies to prospective human genetic modification. While the right to personal identity may justify a valid interest in the modification of one’s individual genome, the collective right to identity defends a global interest in the preservation of the human genome. Taking this tension into account, the article identifies a number of contradictions and problematic issues in the current international legal regulation of the human genome that undermine the right to personal identity. These are the cases of the notion of the human genome as common heritage of humanity and the unfounded idea of species integrity, among others. The article also argues that the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (UDHGHR) and the Oviedo Convention, together with the UNESCO Bioethics Committee, adopt a “geneticist-identity framework” which favours a conception of human identity solely based on genetic components. By prohibiting any change to the constitution of that shared genetic inheritance, those international legal instruments place an unjustified brake on the possibility for human genetic modification. This, as the article explains, is at odds with the “personality-identity framework” of the European Convention on Human Rights Law (ECHR), which privileges a narrative and developmental idea of individual identity.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Encyclopedia of Public International Law updates, European Convention on Human Rights, Human Rights Committee Part 2, Human Rights Committee Part 3, Human Rights Committee Part 4, Human Rights Committee Part 5, Human Rights Committee Part 6, Human Rights Committee Part 7, Human Rights Committee, Human Rights resources, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 4, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Part 2, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Part 3, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Family Law, International Law Encyclopedia 4, International criminal law: Crimes against Humanity, International human rights law Part 21, International human rights law Part 26, International human rights law Part 32, International human rights law Part 49, International human rights law, International law index H, International law index, Law Journals Abbreviations and Acronyms, List of African online resources, List of international online resources, List of international public law topics, MPEPIL: Human rights, MPEPIL: Public Law: H, MPEPIL: Universal international organizations and institutions, country.