KM HQ 12/30/2020
Right to constitutional remedies
The laws of the United States provide damages remedies for some acts—primarily but not exclusively by state actors—that infringe many internationally recognized human rights. They mostly do so without specific reference to or incorporation of international human rights law or norms. In domestic cases, U.S. law provides damages remedies for human rights violations primarily through general laws concerning civil rights, constitutional torts and tort or tort-like suits against state entities and officials.
The Right to Constitutional Remedies is covered in Article 32. It empowers inhabitants to approach the Supreme Court of India to seek enforcement, enforcement, or protection against infringement, of their Fundamental Rights. Article 32 provides a guaranteed remedy for enforcement of all the other Fundamental Rights, and the Supreme Court is designated as the protector of these rights by the Constitution. The Supreme Court has been empowered to issue writs, namely habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, and quo warrant, for the enforcement of the Fundamental Rights, while the High Courts have been empowered under Article 226 - which is not a Fundamental Right in itself.
In engaging international human rights law, particularly treaties, the United States generally has claimed that domestic law meets applicable international human rights standards and is adequate to fulfill the relevant international obligations of the United States. A handful of exceptional laws—including principally the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act—provide remedies specifically for human rights violations where the case involves a transnational element, including some cases of harms committed outside the United States, by foreign defendants, or against foreign victims. Some of these civil cases have relied on a venerable but limited principle of U.S. law that provides for reception of the customary international law of human rights into federal common law. Other features of U.S. law—principally those governing state and official immunity in domestic and transnational cases, and judicial restraint in cases involving foreign affairs and political questions—limit damages remedies that might otherwise be available for infringements of human rights.
In the United States, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights provide broad human rights protections. Many of the rights contained in the Constitution are equivalent to rights found in the UDHR, especially those related to political and civil liberties. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court has identified fundamental rights not explicitly stated in the Constitution, such as the presumption of innocence in a criminal trial and freedom of movement. U.S. courts provide a remedy for people whose constitutional rights have been violated. The U.S. Congress also passes laws that protect constitutional rights and provide remedies for victims of human rights violations when court cases may be too costly or difficult. The most important of these domestic laws are those that prohibit discrimination, including discrimination based on race, gender, religion, or disability.
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