ULUSLARARASI KAMU HUKUKU I - Deneme Sınavı - 18

In 1963, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was adopted under the auspices of the United Nations. In 1969, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on Special Missions.

human rights are characterized by being:
•Inherent in all human beings by virtue of
their being humans;
• Inalienable;
• Equally applicable to all

The natural law theory led to the natural rights theory, which is most closely associated with the modern concept of human rights. The chief exponent of this theory was John Locke

Under positivist theory, rules of international law are merely rules of positive
morality. According to positivists, the individual has no status in international law.

the sociological approach fails to explain how the rights are interrelated or what the priorities should be; “it does not answer the logical question of how a normative conclusion about rights can be derived empirically from factual premises such as having interests”.

The concept of human rights dates back to antiquity. One can find reference to rights in many national documents. The first reference of personal liberties is found in the Magna Carta of 1215 in England

At the regional level, such conventions have been adopted:
• the European Convention on Human Rights, 1950,
• the European Social Charter, 1961,
• the American Convention on Human Rights, 1969,
• the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples’ Rights, 1981,
• the Revised Arab Charter on Human Rights, 2004.

The Human Rights Council is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. Unlike the CHR, which was a subsidiary body of the ECOSOC and reporting to the ECOSOC, the Human Rights Council reports to the General Assembly. “The Council is made of 47 Member States, which are elected by the members of the General Assembly of the United Nations through direct and secret ballot

The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, consisting of 18 independent members with legal or diplomatic background, exists under the 1966 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Unlike the committees under the two human rights Covenants, the expenses of the Committee under the CERD are borne by the states parties to the Convention

Derogation: Lessening or restriction of the authority, strength, or power of a law, right, or obligation. Specifically in the European Convention on Human Rights, a provision that enables a signatory state to avoid the obligations of some but not all of the substantive provisions of the rest of the Convention (Martin, 2003: 146).

The Council of Europe is an organization of European countries. It was founded in 1949 by ten West European countries. Currently it has 47 members

The protective principle that refers to jurisdiction according to the national interest of the state injured by the offence.

The conclusion of numerous other treaties have made the following acts international crimes: aircraft hijacking, unlawful acts against the safety of civil aviation, trafficking in women and children, trafficking in narcotic drugs, counterfeiting of currency, kidnapping of diplomats and taking of hostages. The most recent addition to this list of international crimes is international terrorism. The absence of any judicial tribunal to try the perpetrators of these crimes left the matter to the states concerned to prosecute and punish them. As a result, there is no uniformity in the substantive and procedural rules in this regard.

Mens rea: the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of a crime, as opposed to the action or conduct of the accused. A fundamental principle of Criminal Law is that a crime consists of both a mental and a physical element. Mens rea is the mental element, i.e. a person’s awareness of the fact that his or her conduct is criminal, and actus reus is the physical element, i.e., the act itself.

Following on the judgments of the Nuremberg and Tokyo International Military Tribunals, in 1951 the International Law Commission (ILC), in pursuance of the General Assembly resolution, formulated a Draft Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Mankind. The Code embodied the principles of the Nuremberg trial.
The Code made reference to “persons” as guilty of crimes against the peace and security of mankind in an attempt to prevent them from sheltering behind the abstract entity of state.

The legality of these trials and the judgments were widely criticized on the following
grounds: the trials were in violation of the principle of nullum poena sine lege (no punishment without law), trials were an imposition of ex post facto law, giving retrospective operation to a crime that was not punishable at the time of its commission, the tribunals were constituted by the victorious powers, whose impartiality in delivering the judgments was doubtful, consisting mainly of judges from the victorious States was in violation of the principle of nemo judex in causa sua (no one can be a judge in his own case), the plea of superior orders has great relevance in the discipline of the armed forces, and it was rejected by the Tribunals without any concrete reason.

Alarmed at the scale of violations of international humanitarian law and to ensure that these atrocities against civilians are halted and effectively redressed, in May 1993 the Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter, established the first International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The ICC consists of 18 judges. The number may be increased on a proposal of the Presidency, indicating the reasons for the increase. The judges shall be elected by secret ballot at a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties. Judges shall hold office for a term of nine years and shall not be eligible for re-election.

The Registry is responsible for the non-judicial aspects of the administration and servicing of the Court. The Registrar is elected by the judges by an absolute majority through secret ballot, taking into account any recommendation by the Assembly of States Parties. If the need arises, in the same manner the judges can elect a Deputy Registrar upon the recommendation of the Registrar.

An “act of aggression” has been defined as “the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations” (Art. 8bis (2)), i.e., without the justification of self-defense or authorization by the Security Council. The definition contains a list of seven acts of aggression (for example, invasion by
armed forces, military occupation, annexation by the use of force, bombardment and blockade of ports) that are identical/influenced by the UN General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974 on the definition of Aggression.