The International Bill of Rights is a collection of three texts that enshrine the rights and freedoms of human beings. They were created by the United Nations between 1948 and 1966. While their importance is debated, these rights apply to every single human being.

The documents are relevant to activists in two ways. Firstly, they give us the right to participate in politics such as through freedom of association. Secondly, they give us some protection from authorities, such as the right to privacy.

Confusingly, the International Bill of Human Rights is not actually a bill, but includes a resolution and two treaties: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The first two are super relevant to activists but the last one is not. Since it is not a bill, the ‘Bill’ is not legally binding (Australian Human Rights Commission). However, this doesn't mean that it's unimportant.

“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 2)

Background #

Why it matters #

From a legal perspective, our states have to provide a way for us to address violations of the ICCPR. This means that if you believe an authority has violated this part of the International Bill of Human Rights, you can hold them accountable for this. Of course, states don’t always follow this obligation, and the documents contain a number of exeptions such as “public emergency” that allow states to break these rules.

From a more abstract perspective, human rights arguably have influence due to their status as an ‘international norm’. They are widely accepted as legitimate, which means they influence what is regarded as acceptable.

Think about it like democracy: even the most undemocratic regimes in the world pretend to be democratic ('Democratic People's Republic of Korea', anyone?). Human rights are treated in a similar way; politicians and states generally don't want to be known for human rights abuses - among their own citizens or the wider world. We, dear activist, can use this to our advantage.

Criticisms #

Among progressive activists, there are concerns about the Bill of Rights even beyond the fact it’s non-binding. Firstly, its language is astonishingly non-inclusive, with the documents regularly using the male pronoun “he” when supposedly talking about human beings in general. Secondly, there is a great deal of concern that they are western-centric or eurocentric (anon 2014; Pandey 2016; Saghaye-Biria 2018), with many experts and activists arguing they were created by western countries to solve western problems, ignoring the existence of other cultures.

Your rights #

The International Bill of Human Rights is relevant to activists in two ways. Firstly, a number of rights protect political participation. These are listed in the section ‘The right to do activism?’. Secondly, a number of rights protect individuals from the authorities. These are listed in the section ‘rights in relation to the authorities’.

Structure
For each right that is listed, a quote is given from one of the relevant documents; the ‘what this means’ section explains the right in simple English; the ‘restrictions’ section notes any limits that the texts place on this right; the ‘relevant documents’ section tells us which document(s) the right is contained in.

The right to do activism? #

The Bill includes a number of rights that protect political participation. These are listed below.

Freedom of opinion and expression #

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19)

What this means
You can hold and express opinions without being punished for doing so. If your government limits your freedom of expression, you can tell the world that they’re breaking human rights law. For example, this could include censoring individuals within your movement or banning a certain social media platform for the population.

Restrictions
The government can limit your expression if they consider it to be “propaganda for war”. This is obviously open to abuse, so be aware that if a government wants to stop you expressing yourself they are likely to label it as war propaganda.

Relevant documents
Both rights are contained in the UDHR, and Freedom of expression is also in the ICCPR.

Freedom of Assembly #

"Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 20)

What this means
You have the right to join other individuals in a public place and express your ideas. This should mean governments cannot ban protests.

Restrictions
Governments can suppress freedom of assembly to protect national security, public safety, public order, public health, morals, and the rights and freedoms of others (Article 21, ICCPR). This gives the government a lot of reasons to stop you assembling, so check out your national law to understand how this is interpreted in your country.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in both the UDHR and ICCPR.

Freedom of association #

“Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 22)

What this means
You have the right to join a collection of other individuals in an organisation that is aimed at protecting your interests, such as a trade union.

Restrictions
This is limited in precisely same way as “freedom of assembly”, which means that your national context is also extremely important.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in the ICCPR.

Political participation #

“Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity…

(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs...

(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections…

(c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.”

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 25)

What this means
You have the right to elect people and be elected. The article quoted above specifies that this includes everyone being allowed to vote anonymously and on equal terms.

Restrictions
There are no restrictions placed on this right.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in the ICCPR.

Rights in relation to the authorities #

The Bill includes a number of rights that can be used as protection from the authorities. “Authorities” can be at many levels and include many different people. In terms of levels, it could be the people in power in your city, country, workplace, or wherever you're organsing. The people could be police, policymakers, bosses, landlords, or anyone else considered powerful.

Right to privacy #

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 12)

What this means
If the authorities spy on you, you can tell the world that they're breaking human rights law.

Restrictions
There are no restrictions placed on this right.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in both the UDHR and the ICCPR.

Procedural fairness in law #

"Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 11)

What this means
The authorities in your country have to give a series of protections. They can’t assume you are guilty without it being proven in a fair public trial that doesn’t bias the outcome (for example, by having a judge that is influenced by the government). If there is anything that is not impartial in the trial, you can tell the world that the authorities are breaking human rights

Using this to your advantage
Extinction Rebellion UK is one of the many movements that has tried to “use the judicial system as a platform to force change”, as explained in this New York Times article. Of course, the same strategy in the UK will not work elsewhere without being adapted, but you can use human rights law as one tool in your arsenal.

Restrictions
There are no restrictions placed on this right.

Relevant documents
A fair and public hearing and a fair and impartial trial are contained in the UDHR and ICCPR respectively. The presumption of innocence until proven guilty is contained in both documents.

Law-based and reasonable punishment #

“No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 11)

What this means
The authorities can only punish you based on the law that existed when you did a certain thing. For example, if you held a protest that the government didn’t like, so they afterwards banned similar such protests, they could not punish you for the original protest.

Restrictions
There are no restrictions placed on this right.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in the UDHR.

Right to life #

“Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 6)

What this means
Quite simply, the authorities do not have the right to kill you. This can be used by activists to highlight the illegal nature of police killings, such as the routine killing of black civilians by white police officers in the USA (Hall, Hall, and Perry 2014).

Restrictions
The only circumstance in which police can kill a citizen is when there is a real threat of harm towards that police officer by the citizen. In practice, what is considered “a real threat of harm” is interpreted wildly differently from country to country. From looking at the statistics of police murder in the United States, we could reasonably assume that being a Black man is considered “a real threat of harm” by US Law Enforcement.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in the ICCPR.

Freedom from torture #

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 7)

What this means
The authorities cannot torture you. If this happens, then the weight of international law is on your side.

Restrictions
There are no restrictions placed on this right.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in the ICCPR.

Freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention #

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.”

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 9)

What this means
The authorities cannot arrest you without evidence that you committed a crime, and they must tell you what this crime is when they arrest you. If you think that your arrest is not lawful, then the state has to provide a way for you to report this.

Police officers throughout the world (and in all types of regimes) regularly arrest activists and break international protocol - just knowing your rights can give you more power in these situations.

Restrictions
There are no restrictions placed on this right.

Relevant documents
This right is contained in the ICCPR.

Resources #

Amnesty International. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved 13.11.2020.

United Nations (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

United Nations (1966). International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.