Non-citizens include asylum seekers, rejected asylum seekers, immigrants, non-immigrants, migrant workers, refugees, stateless persons, and trafficked persons. This book argues that regardless of their citizenship status, non-citizens should, by virtue of their essential humanity, enjoy all human rights unless exceptional distinctions serve a legitimate State objective and are proportional to the achievement of that objective. Non-citizens should have freedom from arbitrary arrest, arbitrary killing, child labor, forced labor, inhuman treatment, invasions of privacy, refoulement, slavery, unfair trial, and violations of humanitarian law. Additionally, non-citizens should have the right to consular protection; equality; freedom of religion and belief; labor rights (for example, as to collective bargaining, workers' compensation, healthy and safe working conditions, etc.); the right to marry; peaceful association and assembly; protection as minors; social, cultural, and economic rights.
There is a large gap, however, between the rights that international human rights law guarantee to non-citizens and the realities they face. In many countries, non-citizens are confronted with institutional and endemic discrimination and suffering. The situation has worsened since September 11, 2001, as several governments have detained or otherwise violated the rights of non-citizens in response to fears of terrorism. This book attempts to understand and respond to the challenges of international human rights law guarantees for non-citizens human rights.

For more than half a century, the world community has sought to codify a series of fundamental precepts intended to prevent such abuses of human rights as torture, discrimination, starvation, and forced eviction. The United Nations, other international organizations, regional institutions, and governments have developed various procedures for protecting against and providing remedies for human rights violations."International Human Rights Law" is a comprehensive introductory treatise, intended for all concerned about this critical area of international law, including students, lawyers, other advocates, teachers, and academics. The book contains an overview of the development of human rights as a domain of international law; a collection of brief summaries of each of the rights specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other critical human rights instruments; and a review of the national, regional, and international procedures for implementing human rights precepts.The overview traces the history of human rights, from early philosophical and religious ideas and theories of natural law to modern formulations. The second section provides concise summaries of the substantive principles of and practices relevant to self-determination, equality, life, slavery, torture, fair trial, detention, privacy, health, food, housing, and clothing, as well as emerging rights such as sustainable development, environmental health, peace, and security from terrorism. A final section describes UN human rights procedures (both Charter-based and treaty-based); criminal procedures; African, European, inter-American, and other regional systems; national institutions and processes, truth and reconciliation commissions, and nongovernmental organizations. Throughout, example cases are cited, and each chapter concludes with a list of the most useful print and web resources.

The essays selected for this volume, written by some of the world's most respected experts on human rights, encompass the development of human rights law from its philosophical underpinnings and address many of its current controversies. The collected essays explore the drafting of major human rights instruments, including the political challenges that shaped those instruments; examine the interrelationship of various claimed rights; and identify factors producing compliance with - and violation of - human rights law. Other contributions analyze the role of non-governmental organizations in achieving better human rights protections as well as the danger of claiming too many rights, and the tension between rights and security. Contrasting viewpoints in several essays highlight some of the key conflicts in the field. An introductory essay provides a roadmap marking the collection's major themes, and tracing the relationship between those themes. Taken together, the essays emphasize the legal underpinnings of the human rights regime and as such, the collection provides an essential, wide-ranging account of this important part of international law, procedure and practice.