[governance] rights of states (was Re: Reply to Milton's blog post)

[Norbert Bollow]

Joy Liddicoat <joy at apc.org> wrote:

> >>>> Collective rights are a recognised category under UN human
> >>>> rights system. Why do you think that the collective entity of
> >>>> a country should *not* have a right to international telecom
> >>>> networks....
> 
> Simply, under the UN human rights framework "the collective entity of
> a country" is not recognised as a holder of human rights. Assertion of
> other "rights" by a State (such as the sovereign "rights" of States to
> defend it's own borders or private trade or treaty rights negotiated
> between States) are quite different matters as they are not "human
> rights". Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN
> Charter, these are in any event subject to human rights. I'm just
> concerned to be sure that these different categories are not lumped
> together as if they are all the same.

Ok, let's be careful to not use words that could be interpreted as
giving undue weight to whatever rights states have or claim to
have.

But IMO the fact remains that if country A takes some action that
causes human rights of the residents of country B to be violated, that
action of country A is a human rights violation.

And I would not hesitate to assert that it is also a violation of an
implied obligation that country A has towards country B under
international human rights law.

Even if, as I will gladly agree, states do not qualify as being
entitled to human rights, I would assert that international human
rights law implies the right of states to not be obstructed from
fulfilling any of their various obligations which are recognized in
international human rights law.

From this perspective, I view it as not problematic at all that the
revised ITRs "recognize the right of access of Member States to
international telecommunication services", since when/if an
entire country is cut off from access to "international
telecommunication services", clearly that has a corresponding human
rights impact on the people who live in that country. 

Quite on the contrary, if any country is not prepared to recognize that
right of all other countries of access to what is called "international
telecommunication services" in the ITRs, I would suggest that there
should be international outrage and an international campaign of civil
society to get the government of that country to change its position.

Greetings,
Norbert

implying that any right giving the logical consequences of human
rights on a country level in any way 

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