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The Protection of Human Rights in British State Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Georg Schwarzenberger
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Extract

The international protection of human rights has in recent years become a prominent topic in the literature on international law and on the agenda of international conferences. The explanation for this is not far to seek. The experiences of two world wars and the ‘oppression of dictators’ would in themselves be sufficient reasons for such interest. Re-assertion of the inalienable rights of man serves as a reminder of the truth that man is not meant to be merely a means to the attainment of transient ends. Though the academic character of the many schemes propounded is only too apparent, they evoke sympathy; for they voice widely-felt anxiety over the ever-increasing pressure of organized groups upon the individual, the ultimate basis of life in national and international society. Charters of human rights, suitably formulated in the abstract, have also an undeniable utility value in war and peace. They provide a convenient common denominator for allies who are primarily united in negatives, that is to say, by common enmity towards their adversaries. Once victory has eliminated the unifying element, the functions of such wartime ideologies change. They become ‘artillery of popular excitation’ in the peacetime struggles of world power politics and, like religion in former times, a ‘cloak to shadow divers factious designes.’

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , April 1948 , pp. 174 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1948

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References

1 United Kingdom Draft of an International Bill of Human Rights (1947), p. 3.Google Scholar

2 See for the proposals of the early war years the present writer's Pomer Politics (1941), Chapter 28Google Scholar. Cf. also the Resolutions on Human Rights adopted by various Conferences of the Inter-Parliamentary Union since 1923 (Bulletin of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (1947), p. 87et seq.Google Scholar); the Draft Declaration of the International Rights and Duties of Man formulated by the Inter-American Juridical Committee, 1946Google Scholar; the Bill of Human Rights prepared by the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (International Conciliation (1946), No. 426Google Scholar) and Lauterpacht, H., An International Bill of the Rights of Man (1945)Google Scholar. Cogent criticism of these schemes is expressed in Brierly's, J. L.Outlook for International Low (1944), p. 109et seq.Google Scholar

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12 On the more recent State practice of Great Britain see the German Convention concerning the Status of Refugees coming from Germany, February 10th 1938 (League Doc. C. 75. M. 30. 1938. XII) and the Agreement on the Adoption of a Travel Document for Refugees, October 15th, 1946 (Cmd. 7933 (1947). Cf. also Simpson, J. M.The Refugee Problem (1937)Google Scholar and Jennings, R. Y., Some International Aspects of the Refugee Question (20 B.Y.I.L., 1939, p. 98et seq.).Google Scholar

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20 Report of February 16th, 1816 (4 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 517).Google Scholar

21 Cf., for instance, Canning to Sir W. à Court, Madrid, January 30th 1824 (11 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 61Google Scholar). See on this Despatch also Lauterpacht, H., Recognition in International Law (1947), pp. 13–14Google Scholar, and further the Memorandum of a Conference between the Prince de Polignac (France) and Canning, held on October 9th, 1823 (11 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 50Google Scholar) and the Treaty between the Argentine Confederation and Great Britain of February 2nd, 1825 (3 Hertslet's Commercial Treaties, p. 44Google Scholar). To choose a more recent instance, de jure recognition of Lithuania was made dependent by the Conference of Ambassadors on the acceptance by Lithuania of the provisions of the Peace Treaty of Versailles of 1919 regarding freedom of navigation of the Niemen (1 Hackworth's Digest of International Law (1940), pp. 201–202).Google Scholar

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29 Despatch from the Earl of Clarendon to Petrie, G. G. (Naples), October 10th, 1856Google Scholar (46 ibid., p. 773).

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31 See, for example. Article 14 of the Treaty of Peace and Alliance between the Commonwealth and Portugal, July 10th, 1654: “Forasmuch as the Rights of Commerce and Peace would be null and void, if the People of the Republick of England should be disturbed for Conscience sake, while they pass to and from the Kingdoms and Dominions of the said King of Portugal, or reside there for the sake of exchanging their wares, … therefore, within the limits of the Article, freedom of religion was granted to the English merchants.

32 See below under note 36.

33 See further l.c. in note 9 above.

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50 Bulwer, H. L. to the Spanish Foreign Minister, April 16th, 1848Google Scholar (38 ibid., p. 962).

51 See, for instance, Palmerston to Bulwer, April 20th, 1848 (ibid., pp. 954–955).

52 See, for instance, Palmerston's Note to the Spanish Minister in London of June 12th. 1848 (38 ibid., pp. 1047–1048).

53 See, for instance, the Protocol of the London Conference on the Greek Question, February 20th, 1830 (17 ibid., p. 203) or the Despatch from the Earl of Aberdeen to Sir Stratford Canning (Constantinople), October 4th, 1843 (32 ibid., p. 905).

54 Reference is made here to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.

55 Viscount Leveson to the Glasgow East India Association, May 27, 1841 (31 ibid., p. 257).

56 L.c. in note 1 above.

57 Ibid., p. 4.

58 See Power Politics, l.c. in note 2 above.

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The problem has been put in a nutshell in a recent leading article in The Times (December 1st, 1947): “No advantage can be gained by glossing over differences in the desire to discover here and now a set of formulas vague enough and innocuous enough to obtain universal assent.”

61 Note from the British Political Representative in Bulgaria to the Bulgarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, September 11th, 1947.