A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

48 Id. art. 26.
49 1951 UN Refugee Convention, supra note 6; OAU
Refugee Convention, supra note 9, art. 4.
50 Universal Declaration of Human Rights art. 2, G.A.
Res. 217A, at 71, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., 1st plen.
mtg., U.N. Doc. A/810 (Dec. 10, 1948) [hereinafter
UDHR].
51 ICESCR, supra note 2, art. 2.2 (“The States Parties
to the Present Covenant undertake to guarantee that
the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be
exercised without discrimination of any kind as to
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or
other status.”).
52 ICCPR, supra note 2, art. 2.1(“Each State Party to
the present Covenant undertakes to respect and
to ensure to all individuals within its territory and
subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the
present Covenant, without distinction of any kind,
such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political
or other option, national or social origin, property,
birth or other status.”).
53 CEDAW, supra note 2. Although CEDAW does
not include a specific non-discrimination provision
similar to those included in other treaties, there are
no restrictions or limitations on which women are
covered; rather, is aimed to protect all women.
54 Conv. on Rights of the Child, supra note 2 (Article
1 defines a “Child” for the purposes of the
Convention as “every human being below the age of
eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the
child, majority is attained earlier,” and Article 2(1)
provides “States Parties shall respect and ensure the
rights set forth in the present Convention to each
child within their jurisdiction without discrimination
of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her
parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, disability, birth or other status.”).
55 CERD, supra note 2, art. 1(2).
56 Gen. Rec. 30, supra note 14, 2.
57 African Charter, supra note 20, art. 3.
58 Id. art. 2.
59 It should be noted that territorial or jurisdictional
scope of this obligation is undetermined. It
appears less restrictive than that of the European
Convention on Human Rights, Article 1 which
restricts a State’s obligations to those within its
“jurisdiction.” Convention for the Protection of
562
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as
amended by Protocol No. 11 art. 1, Nov. 4, 1950,
213 U.N.T.S. 222.
Perhaps more comparable would be
Article 1 of the American Convention
on Human Rights, which also prohibits
discrimination against “any individual.”
American Convention on Human Rights art.
1, O.A.S.Treaty Series No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S.
123, entered into force July 18, 1978. The Inter-
American Court has read this clause, and
thus the Convention generally, to apply to all
within the “authority and control” of the State
Party. See Coard and Others et al. v. the United
States (‘US military intervention in Grenada’), § 37,
IACHR Report No. 109/99, Case No. 10.951,
(Sept. 29, 1999). See also The Human Rights
Committee, General Comment 31: Nature of the
General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties
to the Covenant: 26/05/2004, § 10, UN Doc.
CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13. (May 26, 2004)
on the jurisdictional scope of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article
2, and The Committee Against Torture, Draft
General Comment 2: Implementation of article 2
by States Parties, § 16, http://www.ohchr.org/
english/bodies/cat/docs/AdvanceVersions/
CAT.C.GC.2.CRP.1.Rev.2.pdf on the
jurisdictional scope of the Convention against
Torture, article 2 (last visited April 20, 2008).
60 African Charter, supra notes 20, 57 art. 4.
61 Id. art. 5.
62 Id. art. 5.
63 Id. art. 6.
64 Id. art. 16.
65 Id. art. 17.
66 Id. art. 7.
67 Id. art. 1.
68 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,
Tenth Annual Activity Report of the African Commission
on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1996/97, Annex X, at
49-69.
69 The Resolution on Refugees, Returnees and
Displaced Persons in Africa held that States should
“encourage voluntary repatriation of refugees to
their countries of origin, once the conditions that
caused their exile have disappeared.” Organization
of African Unity, Resolution on Refugees, Returnees
and Displaced Persons in Africa, 18, CM/Res.1521