Безземельная О.А., Николаева Е.A.
Уфимский юридический институт МВД
России, Россия
Implementation of the provisions of the International
Bill of Human Rights in the Russian Constitution.
Only in the XX century after the World War II the
unified development of world civilization, understanding the uniqueness of the
person, its key rights and freedoms has led to law being a civilized means of
regulating public relations, tool for the protection of everyone in democratic
countries. The most important international legal principles and standards are
set forth in declarations and conventions within the UN documents. One of them
is the International Bill of Human Rights.
The International Bill of Rights is a set of
international documents, which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, the Second Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at the abolition of the death
penalty.
The
International Bill is the most important document in the history, a true
"Compendium of Human Rights", which marks a vital stage in the
development of a human being: the conscious gaining of human dignity and values
of human life by international community.
Recognition, respect and protection of rights and freedoms of a man and a citizen is
an obligation of the State". That is the spirit of the Russian
Constitution, which declared the Russian Federation as a democratic and legal
state.
As for the functions of the legal state, it is
important to note that they do not remain unchanged, they are being transformed
and filled with new content with the development of the legal state. An
important step in this direction is the creation of the legal social state. The
social state, as Article 7 of the Russian Constitution says is one of the
foundations of the constitutional system and one of the characteristics of the
Russian Federation. The provision of a social state holds a special place in
the Russian Constitution, as characterizes the internal, substantive and value
side of the state, while the majority of constitutional provisions are aimed at
regulating the external, structural and functional aspects of statehood.
It should be noted that the 1993 Constitution of the
Russian Federation is the first document in the history of our country that
calls rights and freedoms of the highest value and entrusts the recognition,
observance and protection of the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the
state.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation sets forth
the basic rights and freedoms set out in the International Bill of Rights, but
not all. For instance, Article 25, Paragraph 1 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living,
including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social
services, which is essential for the health and well-being of oneself and
family", and Article1, Paragraph 11 of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states "the right of everyone to an
adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including food, clothing
and housing, as well as the continuous improvement of living conditions".
This right does not exist in the Russian Constitution or in a sectoral legislation. It can be stated that Russia has not
fulfilled its obligations in this part under the international treaty.
There is only one solution to this problem. It is
necessary to originate the human right to an adequate standard of living,
including food, clothing, housing and medical care, the continuous improvement
of living conditions and social services necessary for the health and
well-being of oneself and family to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Briefly this right is called "the right to a decent life".
Alongside with the provisions of the Bill, which were
not included in the Basic Law of the country, we can also note several words of
limitation of the Constitution, compared with the International Bill of Rights.
Thus, the Article 31 of the Constitution establishes: "Citizens (emphasis
added) of the Russian Federation shall have the right to assemble peacefully,
without weapons, hold rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets". This
article formulates restrictively the provisions of the Article 20, Paragraph 1
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to
freedom of peaceful demonstrations and associations" and Article 21 of the
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: "The right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
This right is not subject to any restrictions except those imposed in
conformity with the law". Under the Covenant, the law may restrict the
right to peaceful assembly. For instance, the Federal Law No. 54-FZ on June 19,
2004 "On rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets", where Article
6, Paragraph 1 states that "Voluntarily participating citizens, members of
political parties, members and participants of other public associations and
religious organizations are recognized as participants of the public
event". There are no restrictions on the right of noncitizens. Therefore,
the participants of demonstrations, marches, etc. may be
not only the citizens of Russia. A different matter that in accordance with
Paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Federal Law No. 54-FZ, the organizer of public
events "may be one or more citizens of the Russian Federation." In
other words the Federal law specifies exactly the status of the organizer of
such events, so only the citizens of Russia have the right to organize such
events, and the participation of foreign citizens is not forbidden by the
54-FZ.
Thus, the International Bill of Human Rights as no
other document represents the rights and freedoms recognized in the world.
Provisions of the Russian Constitution conceding the rights and freedoms of the
people of the country to a greater extent than is required by the Covenants or
having no analogues in the Bill should be left unchanged. Wordings of
provisions that narrowly interpret the rights and freedoms under the Bill of
Rights should be reviewed and amended accordingly.
Literature:
1. Billias, George Athan (2011). American
constitutionalism heard round the world, 1776-1989 : a global perspective. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780814725177.
2. Lock, Geoffrey (1989). "The
1689 Bill of Rights". Political
Studies. 37 (4): 540–561. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1989.tb00288.x.
3. Walker, Aileen; Gay, Oonagh;
Maer, Lucinda (2009). "Bill
of Rights 1689". House
of Commons Library.