1.
Costa Rica
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It has a population of around 4.5 million, of whom nearly a quarter live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San José. Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by people before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, following a brief civil war, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army. Costa Rica is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. The country has consistently performed favourably in the Human Development Index, placing 69th in the world as of 2015 and its rapidly developing economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, pharmaceuticals, and ecotourism. Costa Rica is known for its environmental policies, being the only country to meet all five UNDP criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. Costa Rica officially plans to become a country by 2021. In 2012, it became the first country in the Americas to ban recreational hunting, historians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped. More recently, pre-Columbian Costa Rica has also described as part of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. The oldest evidence of occupation in Costa Rica is associated with the arrival of various groups of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 to 7,000 years BCE in the Turrialba Valley. The presence of Clovis culture type spearheads and arrows from South America opens the possibility that, in this area, agriculture became evident in the populations that lived in Costa Rica about 5,000 years ago. They mainly grew tubers and roots, for the first and second millennia BCE there were already settled farming communities. These were small and scattered, although the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture as the livelihood in the territory is still unknown. The earliest use of pottery appears around 2,000 to 3,000 BCE, shards of pots, cylindrical vases, platters, gourds and other forms of vases decorated with grooves, prints, and some modelled after animals have been found. The impact of indigenous peoples on modern Costa Rican culture has been small compared to other nations. Costa Rica was described as the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America by a Spanish governor in 1719, for all these reasons, Costa Rica was, by and large, unappreciated and overlooked by the Spanish Crown and left to develop on its own. Costa Rica became a democracy with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class. It was not long before Spanish settlers turned to the hills, where they found rich volcanic soil, like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain
2.
Organization of American States
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The Organization of American States, or the OAS or OEA, is a continental organization founded on 30 April 1948, for the purposes of regional solidarity and cooperation among its member states. Headquartered in Washington, United States, the OASs members are the 35 independent states of the Americas, as of 26 May 2015, the Secretary General of OAS is Luis Almagro. Bolívars dream of American unity was meant to unify Hispanic American nations against external powers, the pursuit of regional solidarity and cooperation again came to the forefront in 1889–1890, at the First International Conference of American States. These two bodies, in existence as of 14 April 1890, represent the point of inception to which the OAS and its General Secretariat trace their origins. At the Fourth International Conference of American States, the name of the organization was changed to the Union of American Republics, the Pan American Union Building was constructed in 1910, on Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D. C. In the mid-1930s, U. S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt organized a conference in Buenos Aires. One of the items at the conference was a League of Nations of the Americas, an idea proposed by Colombia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. At the subsequent Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace,21 nations pledged to remain neutral in the event of a conflict between any two members. The experience of World War II convinced hemispheric governments that unilateral action could not ensure the integrity of the American nations in the event of external aggression. This was the event that saw the birth of the OAS as it stands today, the meeting also adopted the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the worlds first general human rights instrument. The transition from the Pan American Union to OAS would have been if it had not been for the assassination of Colombian leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. The Director General of the former, Alberto Lleras Camargo, became the Organizations first Secretary General, the current Secretary General is former Uruguayan minister of foreign affairs Luis Almagro. Significant milestones in the history of the OAS since the signing of the Charter have included the following,1959,1969, American Convention on Human Rights signed. 1970, OAS General Assembly established as the Organizations supreme decision-making body,1979, Inter-American Court of Human Rights created. 1991, Adoption of Resolution 1080, which requires the Secretary General to convene the Permanent Council within ten days of a coup détat in any member country,1994, First Summit of the Americas, which resolved to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005. 2009, OAS revokes 1962 suspension of Cuba,2009, OAS suspends Honduras due to the coup which ousted president Manuel Zelaya. 2011, OAS lifts the suspension of Honduras with the return of Manuel Zelaya from exile, article 2 then defines eight essential purposes, To strengthen the peace and security of the continent. To promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention, to prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement of disputes that may arise among the member states
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Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
4.
Grenada
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Grenada is an island country consisting of Grenada itself and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent, Grenada is also known as the Island of Spice because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops, of which it is one of the worlds largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres, with a population of 110,000. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada dove, before the arrival of Europeans, Grenada was inhabited by indigenous Arawaks and, subsequently, Island Caribs. Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498 during his voyage to the Americas. Although it was deemed the property of the King of Spain, French settlement and colonisation began in 1650 and continued for the next century. On 10 February 1763 Grenada was ceded to the British under the Treaty of Paris, British rule continued, except for a period of French rule between 1779 and 1783, until 1974. From 1958 to 1962 Grenada was part of the Federation of the West Indies, on March 3,1967, Grenada was granted full autonomy over its internal affairs as an Associated State. Herbert Blaize was the first Premier of the Associated State of Grenada from March to August 1967, Eric Gairy served as Premier from August 1967 until February 1974. Independence was granted on February 7,1974, under the leadership of Eric Gairy, Bishop was later freed by popular demonstration and attempted to resume power, but was captured and executed by soldiers. On October 25,1983, combined forces from the United States, the invasion was highly criticised by the governments of Britain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Canada, along with the United Nations General Assembly. Elections were held in December 1984 and were won by the Grenada National Party under Herbert Blaize who served as minister until his death in December 1989. On September 7,2004, after being hurricane-free for 49 years, the island was hit by Hurricane Ivan. On July 14,2005, Hurricane Emily struck the northern part of the island, the origin of the name Grenada is obscure, but it is likely that Spanish sailors renamed the island for the city of Granada. By the beginning of the 18th century, the name Grenada, on his third voyage to the region in 1498, Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada and named it La Concepción in honour of the Virgin Mary. It is said that he may have named it Assumpción. However, history has accepted that it was Tobago he named Assumpción, in 1499, the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci travelled through the region with the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda and mapmaker Juan de la Cosa. Vespucci is reported to have renamed the island Mayo, which is how it appeared on maps for around the next 20 years, in the 1520s the Spanish named the islands to the north of Mayo as Los Granadillos, presumably after the mainland Spanish town
5.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States. Along with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, it is one of the bodies that comprise the system for the promotion and protection of human rights. The IACHR is a permanent body, with headquarters in Washington, united States, and it meets in regular and special sessions several times a year to examine allegations of human rights violations in the hemisphere. The IACHR was created in 1959 and it held its first meeting in 1960, and it conducted its first on-site visit to inspect the human rights situation in the Dominican Republic in 1961. A major step in the development of the system was taken in 1965 when the Commission was expressly authorized to examine cases of human rights violations. Since that date the IACHR has received thousands of petitions and has processed in excess of 12,000 individual cases, in 1969, the guiding principles behind the American Declaration were taken, reshaped, and restated in the American Convention on Human Rights. The Convention defines the rights that the states parties are required to respect and guarantee. It is currently binding on 24 of the OASs 35 member states, the main task of the IACHR is to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the Americas. In pursuit of this mandate it, Receives, analyzes, works to resolve petitions in a collaborative way that is amiable to both parties. Monitors the general human rights situation in the OASs member states and, conducts on-site visits to examine members general human rights situation or to investigate specific cases. Encourages public awareness about human rights and related issues throughout the hemisphere, holds conferences, seminars, and meetings with governments, NGOs, academic institutions, etc. to inform and raise awareness about issues relating to the inter-American human rights system. Issues member states with recommendations that, if adopted, would further the cause of human rights protection, requests that states adopt precautionary measures to prevent serious and irreparable harm to human rights in urgent cases. Refers cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and litigates those same cases before the Court, asks the Inter-American Court to provide advisory opinions on matters relating to the interpretation of the Convention or other related instruments. The other Rapporteurships are in the hands of the Commissioners, who have other functions at the IACHR and also their own jobs in their home-countries, the Unit on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex Persons was created in 2011. The IACHR also has a Press and Outreach Office, the Commission processes petitions lodged with it pursuant to its Rules of Procedure. Petitions may be filed by states, NGOs or individuals, unlike most court filings, petitions are confidential documents and are not made public. Once a petition has been filed, it follows the procedure, Petition is forwarded to the Secretariat and reviewed for completeness, if complete. This is where the state is notified of the petition, the Commission tries to find a friendly settlement
6.
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
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The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. The Organization of American States established the Court in 1979 to enforce and its two main functions are thus adjudicatory and advisory. Under the former, it hears and rules on the cases of human rights violations referred to it. Under the latter, it issues opinions on matters of legal interpretation brought to its attention by other OAS bodies or member states. In addition to ratifying the Convention, a party must voluntarily submit to the Courts jurisdiction for it to be competent to hear a case involving that state. Trinidad and Tobago originally signed the Convention on 28 May 1991, in 1999, under President Alberto Fujimori, Peru announced it was withdrawing its acceptance of the Courts jurisdiction. This decision was reversed by the government of Valentín Paniagua in 2001. The United States signed but never ratified the Convention, under the Convention, cases can be referred to the Court by either the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or a state party. In contrast to the European human rights system, individual citizens of the OAS member states are not allowed to take cases directly to the Court. If the case is ruled admissible and the state deemed at fault, only if the state fails to abide by these recommendations, or if the Commission decides that the case is of particular importance or legal interest, will the case be referred to the Court. The presentation of a case before the Court can therefore be considered a measure of last resort, proceedings before the Court are divided into written and oral phases. For 30 days following notification, any of the parties in the case may submit a brief containing preliminary objections to the application, if it deems necessary, the Court can convene a hearing to deal with the preliminary objections. Otherwise, in the interests of economy, it can deal with the parties preliminary objections. Within 60 days following notification, the respondent must supply an answer to the application, stating whether it accepts or disputes the facts. Once this answer has been submitted, any of the parties in the case may request the Court presidents permission to lodge additional pleadings prior to the commencement of the oral phase. The president sets the date for the start of oral proceedings, during the oral phase, the judges may ask any question they see fit of any of the persons appearing before them. The president is permitted to rule on the relevance of questions asked and to excuse the person asked the question from replying, after hearing the witnesses and experts and analyzing the evidence presented, the Court issues its judgment. Its deliberations are conducted in private and, once the judgment has been adopted, if the merits judgment does not cover the applicable reparations for the case, they must be determined at a separate hearing or through some other procedure as decided on by the Court
7.
Social justice
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Social justice is the fair and just relation between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, in the current global grassroots movements for social justice, the emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social mobility, the creation of safety nets and economic justice. Social justice assigns rights and duties in the institutions of society, while the concept of social justice can be traced through the theology of Augustine of Hippo and the philosophy of Thomas Paine, the term social justice became used explicitly from the 1840s. A Jesuit priest named Luigi Taparelli is typically credited with coining the term, in the late industrial revolution, progressive American legal scholars began to use the term more, particularly Louis Brandeis and Roscoe Pound. In the later 20th century, social justice was made central to the philosophy of the social contract, in 1993, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action treats social justice as a purpose of the human rights education. The different concepts of justice, as discussed in ancient Western philosophy, were centered upon the community. Plato wrote in The Republic that it would be a state that every member of the community must be assigned to the class for which he finds himself best fitted. In an article for J. N. V University, author D. R, bhandari says, Justice is, for Plato, at once a part of human virtue and the bond, which joins man together in society. It is the quality that makes good and social. Justice is an order and duty of the parts of the soul, Plato says that justice is not mere strength, but it is a harmonious strength. Justice is not the right of the stronger but the harmony of the whole. All moral conceptions revolve about the good of the whole-individual as well as social, reflecting this time when slavery and subjugation of women was typical, ancient views of justice tended to reflect the rigid class systems that still prevailed. On the other hand, for the groups, strong concepts of fairness. Distributive justice was said by Aristotle to require that people were distributed goods, socrates is attributed with developing the idea of a social contract, whereby people ought to follow the rules of a society, and accept its burdens because they have accepted its benefits. After the Renaissance and Reformation, the concept of social justice, as developing human potential. The chief good is that he should arrive, together with other individuals if possible, all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolutions. This is the highest abstract standard of social and distributive justice, towards which all institutions, and the efforts of all virtuous citizens, should be made in the utmost degree to converge. In the later 19th and early 20th century, social justice became an important theme in American political and legal philosophy, particularly in the work of John Dewey, Roscoe Pound, from this point, the discussion of social justice entered into mainstream legal and academic discourse
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Privacy
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Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, when something is private to a person, it usually means that something is inherently special or sensitive to them. The domain of privacy partially overlaps security, which can include the concepts of appropriate use, Privacy may also take the form of bodily integrity. The right not to be subjected to unsanctioned invasion of privacy by the government, corporations or individuals is part of many countries privacy laws, almost all countries have laws which in some way limit privacy. An example of this would be law concerning taxation, which require the sharing of information about personal income or earnings. Privacy may be sacrificed, normally in exchange for perceived benefits and very often with specific dangers and losses. Research shows that people are willing to voluntarily sacrifice privacy if the data gatherer is seen to be transparent as to what information is gathered. In the business world, a person may volunteer personal details in order to gamble on winning a prize, a person may also disclose personal information as part of being an executive for a publicly traded company in the USA pursuant to federal securities law. Personal information which is shared but subsequently stolen or misused can lead to identity theft. According to some researchers, this concept sets Anglo-American culture apart even from Western European cultures such as French or Italian, Most cultures, however, recognize the ability of individuals to withhold certain parts of their personal information from wider society—closing the door to ones home, for example. Such languages either use a complex description to translate the term or borrow from English privacy, the difference is sometimes expressed humorously as when I withhold information, it is privacy, when you withhold information, it is secrecy. On December 15,1890, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis published the article of the law called The right to privacy, a broad multicultural literary tradition going to the beginnings of recorded history discusses the concept of privacy. Warren and Louis Brandeis wrote The Right to Privacy, an article in which argued for the right to be let alone. Limited access refers to an ability to participate in society without having other individuals. Various theorists have imagined privacy as a system for limiting access to personal information. Charles Fried said that Privacy is not simply an absence of information about us in the minds of others, control over personal information is one of the more popular theories of the meaning of privacy. Alan Westin defined four states—or experiences—of privacy, solitude, intimacy, anonymity, solitude is a physical separation from others. Intimacy is a close, relaxed, and frank relationship between two or more individuals that results from the seclusion of a pair or small group of individuals, anonymity is the desire of individuals for times of public privacy
American Convention on Human Rights at Wikisource
