Chapter 12: Human Rights Flashcards
Conceptions of human rights usually follow ______ _____.
Western ideals.
John Locke’s notion of natural rights:
- Primary unit is the individual, not the community. •Freedom is placed above other values
- Focus on political and economic rights
These natural rights are at odds with cultures based on ________ and ________.
community and consensus
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
•International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
-The right to life, liberty, and freedom of thought and religion
•International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
-Right to a living wage and an education
•“International bill of rights”
Why Do States Violate Human Rights?
- Lack of capacity
- Foreign threats
- Sovereignty
- To maintain power
Why sign human rights treaties?
•New democracies seeking to “lock in” their commitments to human rights
•Inducements from other states
-Trade agreements, aid, etc.
•Why do states care about human rights abuses overseas?
•Identification with the conditions of others
•Civil wars that result in repression may spread across borders.
•Domestic groups may lobby for improved human rights overseas
-Example: Labor unions
Optimists hope that treaties will improve human rights over the long term. HOW?
•Treaties can help empower social actors to push for change.
-Vocabulary of judgement
•Human rights NGOs can act as norm entrepreneurs ——–Examples: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International
Enforcement of human rights treaties
•Gains from cooperation are small, but the costs of enforcement are high
Enforcement Interest
•States that violate human rights have little interest in applying international human rights law against themselves.
•Motives for others to punish human rights treaty violators may be weak, or provide too few benefits.
-Naming and shaming may provoke the target.
-May reduce bargaining leverage on other issues
-Economic sanctions impose costs on the target state as well as the sanctioning states.
Under what conditions are states likely to enforce human rights treaties?
•Domestic demands for action
-TANs
•Action against human rights abusers serves the country’s larger political interests
•Action can be depicted as consistent with the norms of sovereignty and noninterference.
Transitional justice
•Emphasis on noncriminal, nonjudicial forms of reconciliation
•Truth and reconciliation commissions
-Documenting human rights abuses
-Reparations to victims
-Memorials and commemoration for victims
-Institutional reforms, particularly of police and military
-Lustration
—-Limiting members of the previous regime from serving in political roles
-Full or conditional amnesty for perpetrators of human rights abuses
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
•Civil war killed ~250,000 people between 1999 and 2003
•Commission lasted from 2006 to 2009
•~20,000 statements made
•Commission submitted recommendations for perpetrators to the Liberian legislature, but no action was taken
-Recommend that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf be barred from politics for 30 years.
-Charles Taylor was convicted of war crimes by the separate Special Court for Sierra Leone.
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Apartheid 1948-1991
- Chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
- Perpetrators of human rights abuses by the apartheid regime given conditional amnesty for testimony.
Criminal tribunals
•International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
- Established in 1993 by the United Nations to try cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that took place in the Balkans during the 1990s.
- The first international war crimes tribunal since WWII and the first created by the UN.
- Located in The Hague, the Netherlands
- More than 160 people have been charged
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
- Radovan Karadzic found guilty of genocide and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016.
- Ratko Mladic recently found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life in prison
Reactions to the slow pace of criminal tribunals (Rwanda’s Gacaca courts)
- Long-standing institution for dealing with local conflicts in Rwanda.
- Implemented to deal with the backlog of accusations that could not be handled through the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- Truth, justice, and reconciliation
Rwanda’s Gacaca courts
•160,000+ judges were elected although few had legal qualifications
•1.2 million cases tried, conviction rate of ~65%
•Criticized for not meeting domestic or international standards for fair trials
-No right to a lawyer for defendants
-Judges not bound by evidentiary rules explaining what evidence was admissible and what level of proof was needed to make convictions
Individual petition
•Provides individuals the ability to appeal to supranational courts if states have violated their rights.
•Council of Europe’s European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR)
•European Court of Human Rights
-47 judges from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe
-Since 1998, member states are obligated to allow individuals to submit petitions to the court when then believe their state has violated their rights.
The International Criminal Court (ICC)
- Individuals can be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
- Before ICC, only states could be tried.
- ICC acts when state parties cannot or will not act through their own judicial systems.
- Human rights provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs)
- NAFTA includes the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC)
- Freedom of association and protection of the right to organize•Right to bargain collectively
- Right to strike•Prohibition of forced labor
- Labor protections for children
- Minimum employment standards such as minimum wage and overtime pay
- Elimination of employment discrimination on basis of race, religion, age, sex, or other grounds.
- Equal pay for men and women•Prevention of injuries and illnesses
- Compensation for workplace injuries and illnesses
- Protection of migrant workers
Human rights provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs). These provisions tend to be very _____ and ______ ______ _______ _______.
vague , lack clear enforcement mechanisms.
