Territorial Division and a New Territorial Typology of Human Rights

Abstract

The main proposition of the study is that the rights recognised in the International Bill of Human Rights (IBHR) are (also) divided territorially, namely into a) non-territorial rights (which everyone has everywhere in the world), b) territorial rights (which everyone has somewhere in the  world) and c) territorially mixed rights (which everyone has  partly everywhere and partly somewhere in the world). This territorial division or typology is in contradiction with those provisions of the main documents of the IBHR which imply that all human rights recognised in the said documents are  non-territorial rights, that is, rights which everyone has everywhere in the world. However, the study explores the logical or mathematical basis of the new typology and highlights that in light of this basis, the provisions in question are results of a conclusion and as such are  logically false. Further, the study shows that approximately 40 per cent of the rights recognised in the IBHR are either  territorial or partly territorial rights and therefore, the said  provisions of the IBHR are not even statistically defensible. Also, the study deals with those clauses of the IBHR which  relate to the origin of human rights, as well as with the  thesis of triple universality of human rights and argues that there is no real contradiction between these and the territorial typology. Finally, the study touches on the importance of the new typology.