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International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Venue: Annex Building 03-01
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(a) Immunities and Criminal Proceedings
The development of substantive norms of international human rights and international criminal law has not been matched by the development of mechanisms and procedures for their enforcement.
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Till today, international law imposes obligations on states to prosecute those who have committed international crimes within their territory. Likewise, human rights law includes a right to a remedy or reparation that is provided by the state that has violated the substantive human right.
However, these methods of enforcement of human rights and international criminal law often fail. Domestic law may not incorporate the relevant international human rights norm. International crimes are often committed by state agents as part of state policy, and so governments do not routinely prosecute their own officials engaged in such action (though, as has happened in Latin America, changes of government may bring a change of policy and prosecutions for past official conduct).
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This leads to human rights violations, but most of these cases are not shown to the public. It is thus essential for solutions that protect criminals’ rights to be put forward.
What actions should be done to either preserve or overrule the indigenous rights?
(b) Preserving Indigenous Rights
Indigenous Peoples worldwide number between 300-500 million, embody and nurture 80% of the world’s cultural and biological diversity, and occupy 20% of the world’s land surface. The Indigenous Peoples of the world are very diverse. They live in nearly all the countries on all the continents of the world and form a spectrum of humanity, ranging from traditional hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers to legal scholars.
However, these people have their rights at stake.
To this day, Indigenous Peoples continue to face serious threats to their basic existence due to systematic government policies. In many countries, they rank highest on underdevelopment indicators such as the proportion of people in jail, the illiteracy rate, unemployment rate, etc. Exploitation in work places, discrimination in schools are common, and in many countries, they are often no allowed to study their own languages in schools. Sacred lands and objects are plundered from them through unjust treaties.
Moreover, the rights for the Indigenous Peoples live in and manage their traditional lands are denied by governments, some who even have policies to exploit the lands that have sustained them for centuries.
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Human rights are basic and mandatory, and it is vital for them to be protected.