IDENTIFYING THE CONTENT OF CONTEMPORARY CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

In the preceding chapter I suggested that the United Nations (U.N.) Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and statements of the various branches of national governments provide significant evidence that states generally believe that all states in the world should, immediately, have a strong persuasive obligation to respect the rights provided for in all of those instruments. This persuasive obligation therefore is now part of customary international law. It is correspondingly stronger in the case of compelling and essential rights.

In addition, particular rights listed in one or more of these instruments may well be fully binding under customary international law. I cannot analyze here all the rights that may qualify for this status. Various authorities have, however, attempted to list these rights now guaranteed by customary international law. For example, the Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States indicates that customary international law today prohibits the following human rights violations by states: “(a) genocide, (b) slavery or slave trade, (c) the murder or causing the disappearance of individuals, (d) torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, (e) prolonged arbitrary detention, (f) systematic racial discrimination, or (g) a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”