Chapter 7: 'Justice, globalisation and human rights' BLOCK 2 BOOK 2

Question 1

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Answer 1

SOCIAL JUSTICE: Typically conceived of as involving:

a) an equitable distribution of opportunities
b) rewards and rights in society
c) and the freedom to pursue individual goals.

Question 2

GLOBAL JUSTICE

Answer 2

1. GLOBAL JUSTICE: The pursuit of objective ethical standards that apply to all humans regardless of culture, race, gender, religion, or nationality.
2. HOWEVER - emerging global processes such as:

a) deregulation of markets
b) breakdown of national borders
c) rapid transfer of information
d) and advances in global technology

have impacted on ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’.
 

Question 3

INTRODUCTION;

This chapter explores how processes of globalisation have impacted on notions of justice and human rights.

Answer 3

1. This chapter explores how processes of globalisation have impacted on notions of justice and human rights.
2. For instance: what impact the -

a) deregulation of trade markets
b) breakdown of national borders
c) rapid transfer of information
d) advancement of global technologies

had on the protection and/or violation of human rights?

3. For some commentators - the deregulation of sovereign market economies has produced a sense of crises, often referred to as a ‘CRISES OF MODERNITY’.
4. As a result - issues of:

a) climate change
b) asylum
c) terrorism
d) poverty
e) food shortage

are influenced by excesses of globalisation.

5. We live in a world where ‘human rights’ may be compromised in the interests of:

a) national security
b) political stability
c) and financial prosperity.

6. Political leaders and government officials use human rights as a trump card to neutralise criticism whilst justifying actions.

Question 4

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OF ‘THE POWERFUL’

Answer 4

1. In ‘criminological’ discourses - human rights abuses have been explored with references to miscarriages of justice.
2. A more critical imagination focuses attention on crimes of the powerful which have greater economic, physical, and social costs than those associated with conventional/traditional crimes who are the fixation of the CJS (TOMBS AND WHYTE, 2003).
3. Criminal criminologists explore human rights abuses within analyses of:

a) state and corporate crime (COHEN, 2001)
b) terrorism
c) human trafficking
d) crimes against humanity
e) war
f) theft of cultural heritage etc.

Question 5

EXPLORING HUMAN RIGHTS

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948)

Answer 5

1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - was adopted by the general assembly of the UN on 10 DECEMBER 1948.
2. 48 NATIONS were in favour of the resolution, and none against it.
3. The United Nations attempt to bring about a universal state of ‘equality and freedom’ for humankind.
4. Human rights are inherent to all human beings (UNOHCHR, 2008).
5. They are:

a) natural
b) essential to our being
c) they are our entitlements.

6. Inviolable human rights - are conferred on human beings by internal law, without discrimination as a set of liberties, freedoms and entitlements.
7. Governments must act in certain ways and refrain from certain acts and to promote human rights (UNOHCHR, 2008).
8. There are 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
9. The articles are designed to be universal and lay foundations for global justice.
10. However - many are often violated by governments worldwide.
11. This is not always intentional - but are consequences of industrial advancement, world trade, government debt, and transitions to democracy.
12. However - for Gandhi: there is no hierarchy of rights, all were equally important and must be available to all of the people regardless of class, sex, and race etc.

Question 6

ORIGINS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND ISSUES OF JUSTICE.

and

Why the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR) is not accepted universally.

Answer 6

1. Prior to the UDHR - governments, activists, political commentators and general public did not really refer to human rights.
2. However - differences in the interpretation of freedom, justice, and dignity have meant that the UDHR has not been universally accepted as the cornerstone for international standards for human rights.
3. Indeed - The implementation of the ‘30 rights’ of the UDHR has been uneven due to the lack of agreement as to whether a set of rights that are universal can exist.
4. TWO EXAMPLES INCLUDE:
   a) Augusto Pinochet (DICTATOR) - was arrested for human tights atrocities against his own people in Chile. Pinochet was found to be not immune from prosecution, even though he was head of state of Chile at the time.
   b) Saddam Hussein (IRAQI LEADER) - hanged in BAGHDAD for ‘crimes against humanity’ on the 30 December 2006 for killings off 148 Shias in the 1980’s.

Question 7

HUMAN RIGHTS - THE RIGHTS OF THE POWERFUL?

Answer 7

1. Human rights are sometimes alleged to be the ‘RIGHTS OF THE POWERFUL’.
2. Some countries - with former colonial power leave their former subjects with a ‘BILL OF RIGHTS’, without having accepted similar measures themselves.
3. For instance - Hong Kong prior to the UK handing back the colony to china in 1997.
4. By this - Following the Tienanmen square massacre in China in 1989, the British Government put a ‘bill of rights’ in place before the handover, in order to give some protection to the Hong Kong people against the incoming government.
5. This ‘Bill of rights’ outlaws cruel and unusual treatment and punishments unbecoming of human dignity, i.e corporal or capital punishment.
6. In the UK - The government adopted the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1998.
7. The UK did this because of increasing international trade and globalisation, thus more protection and additional powers was deemed to be necessary.
8. The argument for ‘UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS’ with rules enforceable by ‘international courts’ , and for dictators to be brought to justice is imperative for preventing ‘crimes against humanity’ (AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, 2008).

Question 8

CULTURE PROBLEMS WITH ‘UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS’.

Answer 8

1. There is a problem with the idea of UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS.
2. There is a argument between the ‘fundamentalists’ and the ‘cultural relativists’ that the west has tried to impose inappropriate and oppressive rights on other cultures.
3. As a result - due to economic and social conditions, these rights imposed by the west are not regarded by these cultures to be relevant.
4. For example - in Africa and middle east - female circumcision is used to protect unmarried women from:

a) being raped
b) losing their virginity
c) chances to marry.

5. Also - where female circumcision is illegal, girls are often sent back to their countries of origin to have the procedure done.
6. In the West - this is considered to be ‘oppressive mutilation’ with dangerous physical and psychological consequences.
7. In conclusion - whether female circumcision should be banned internationally, or whether it is culturally right/acceptable, this is an example of the difficulties of defining rights and freedoms on an international scale (HAAS, 2008).

Question 9

CRIMINOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Answer 9

1. Criminological discourses have used human rights to understand ‘state power’ and ‘violence’.
2. COHEN (1993) - argued that acts such as:

a) genocide
b) torture
c) and other crimes against humanity

were abuses of state power that should be central to criminological investigation.

3. Criminology - should thus examine those that threaten or take away:

a) individuality
b) freedom
c) world peace
d) security.

4. Criminological analyses - are needed to explore how governments:

a) violate human rights
b) the techniques they use to deny or justify their actions
c) and the methods adopted to ‘neutralise’ criticism.

5. BOX (1983) - argued that criminal laws in western nation states were ideological reflections of the interests of powerful groups.
6. Within criminology that examines human rights abuses - the lens moves away from crimes committed by the poor and the powerless

to those committed by the wealthy and the powerful.

Question 10

RAPACIOUS BRITISH POWER: UK GOVERNMENT HARMS AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.

Answer 10

1. It can be the power of the state that creates harm and undermines human rights.
2. For instance: -
   a) the British policy of exporting arms and military equipment to 10 of Africa’s most war-bloodied impoverished countries.

or

b) The British governments ‘blocked’ humanitarian aid
c) and the dispatch of painkillers/vaccines to protect children from preventable diseases in the Middle-East.
3. A criminology that investigates and critiques human rights is one that that must engage with issues of state and corporate power.

Question 11

EQUALITY, UNIVERSALITY, and HUMAN RIGHTS.

HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS included:

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR) (1948)

and

EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS (ECHR) in 1950.

Answer 11

The period after the second world war was a period of:

a) development
b) hope
c) aspiration for international law concerning human rights.

because ………………………..

POSITIVES:

1. The most famous international human rights instrument is the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR), and was developed in 1948.
2. It creates a benchmark for the notion of ‘universal’ human rights.
3. It is broad in scope - including the rights to be free from interference and the rights to develop as much as possible ones potential as a human being.
4. Due to what was witnessed in WW11 and the Holocaust - almost all of the countries in the world were able to agree on notions of human rights.
5. In the same era - a group of European countries developed the EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS (ECHR) in 1950.
6. This contained a court (ICC) that developed the most substantial body of jurisprudence of any international human rights court in the world.
7. Also - In 1948 - The Convention on the Prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide was adapted to make genocides a discrete crime.
8. Also - in 1949 - 4 Geneva conventions on the laws of war created new types of war crimes and procedures to prosecute them internationally and nationally.

NEGATIVES:

9. HOWEVER - NEGATIVELY - it could be argued that for all its symbolic power and influence, the UDHR was was constructed like all treaties by diplomats drafting a declaration that served their own best interests.

Question 12

AFRICA AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

Answer 12

1. Very few African states signed up to the UDHR, primarily because there were only 4 African states in 1945.
2. So - the drafting of the UDHR by the countries of 1945 meant African voices went unheard.
3. So - African countries developed a regional human rights mechanism in 1981 whereby THE ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN UNITY adopted the AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES RIGHTS.
4. This includes: -
   a) collective peoples rights
   b) and places emphasis on ‘duties’ - whereby individuals, groups, and communities each have to behave in a certain way and not breach another persons rights.
5. In sum - African states have a different idea about what ‘conduct’ should be than that of the rights-focused approach taken by the European and Inter- American human rights regimes.

Question 13

POLITICISATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS:

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR)

and

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL , and CULTURAL RIGHTS (ESCR).

Answer 13

1. The best examples of the politicisation of human rights is evident in the dichotomy between:
   a) CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR)

and the

b) ECONOMIC, SOCIAL , and CULTURAL RIGHTS (ESCR).
2. The CPR - is a body of rights that bolsters the western democratic model - i.e:

a) free speech
b) freedom of conscience
c) freedom from torture
d) the right to a fair trial
e) the right to life etc.

3. The ESCR - comprises a bigger body of rights that encompasses those rights required to sustain life, economies, and cultures.

These include the rights to: (CLAPHAM, 2007).

a) food
b) health
c) education
d) housing
e) work

4. HOWEVER- During the Cold War (1940’s - 1991) where there was a division between Russian communists of the East and Capitalism of the West (US) - the USA argued throughout the 1980’s that the ESCR were too easily abused by repressive regimes so should be ignored.
5. BUT - This was less out of concern for the repressed, and more to do with obligations that the ESCR place on states to provide for their citizens, as this did not square with a FREE-MARKET CAPITALIST ECONOMY.
6. Many leaders of one party states such as China, Syria, and Cuba fear the impact that free debate and self-determination would have on the future of their autocratic, despotic regimes.
7. As a result - these instruments of human rights were used as campaigning tools to rally political support and undermine the opposition.

Question 14

LINKS BETWEEN:-

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, and CULTURAL RIGHTS (ESCR).

and

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR)

Answer 14

1. There are links between ESCR AND CPR.
2. Many argue it is impossible for a country to develop a convincing working set of one of the categories of rights, but at the same time completely ignoring the other.
3. This was argued by AMARTYA SEN (1999), when he said that no functioning democracy has ever had a famine.
4. However - famines do occur in colonial territories, particularly in one-party states ans military dictatorships (SEN, 1999).
5. This applies to both poor and successful democracies.

Question 15

WHY COUNTRIES FOCUS ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR)

and not

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, and CULTURAL RIGHTS (ESCR).

Answer 15

1. The excuses many countries give for focusing on CPR is that to provide economic rights such as adequate water and housing would:
   a) cost too much
   b) and hinder political freedom of countries to decide how to prioritise their resources.
2. However - implementing CPR involves substantial expenditure, i.e it requires there to be a CJS that that takes up a lot of many countries budgets.
3. Countries spend money providing a CJS but not adequate:

a) education
b) water
c) housing (ICCHRP, 2003).

4. This phenomenon is not confined just to the developing world, as expenditure in the US and UK goes on:

a) prisons
b) community safety
c) security measures.

5. States that prioritise CIVIL and POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR) are associated with:
   a) democracy
   b) and criminal justice.

Thus - The CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR) are the preference of the political and the powerful.

6. BUT - States that prioritise ECONOMIC, SOCIAL and CULTURAL RIGHTS (ESCR) are associated with:

a) rights to sustain lives
b) economies
c) and cultures.

Question 16

GLOBAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

Answer 16

1. Flows of commerce have facilitated global networks of:

a) information
b) technology
c) trade

and have paved way for flows of:

a) security
b) criminal activity
c) justice.

2. Interconnected global markets have created the contexts for cross-border crime on a massive scale.
3. This creates demanding challenges for regulatory agencies and agents of criminal justice (LOADER and SPARKS, 2002).
4. The globalised economy with its free-market policies has witnessed a rise in HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.
5. In this context - compulsory, unsafe, and forced child labour in poor developing countries can be the result of corporate expansion in globalised markets.
6. The ‘economic opportunities’ that have prospered under deregulated free-market ideologies have:
   a) decreased living standards for the worlds poorest and worlds most vulnerable
   b) and accelerated corporate fraud.

Question 17

TRANSNATIONAL JUSTICE and VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

Answer 17

1. JAMIESON and McEvoy (2005) - argue that transnational and global justice extends to violations of:

a) human rights
b) humanitarian law
c) crimes against humanity.

2. From their perspective - mechanisms of transnational justice must reflect the changing nature of the modern state within various forms of governance that include non-state and corporate actors.
3. At present - there are numerous forms of ‘global governance’ that attempt to provide justice on a range of issues such as:

a) trade
b) environment
c) peace
d) security

4. For instance institutions that serve to provide models and mechanisms for implementing global rights include:
   a) UNITED NATIONS (UN)
   b) WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO)
5. Other institutions installed by the law to settle international disputes include the:
   a) INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE/WORLD COURT (ICJ)

B) INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC).

Question 18

THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE/WORLD COURT (ICJ).

Answer 18

1. The ICJ was established in 1945 and convenes in The Hague in Holland/Netherlands.
2. The ICJ - cannot be accessed by private organisations and UN agencies and individuals cannot bring matters before the ICJ.
3. Decisions are binding only when both parties have agreed to submit its decision.
4. Indeed - the USA continues to assess its commitment to ICJ, on a case by case basis.
5. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - established in 1954 is binding on all 47 countries of the Council of Europe, including 27 member states of the EU.

Question 19

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC).

Answer 19

1. The other main formal body designated with instituting global criminal justice is the ICC.
2. The ICC was established in 1998:
   a) 120 countries voted to adopt the treaty
   b) and 7 voted against - China, Israel, Libya, USA, Iraq, Qatar, and Yemen.
3. The treaty became international law in 2002 after the 60th country ratified the legislation.
4. HOWEVER - It cannot try ‘crimes against humanity’ that occurred before 2002, only after.
5. The seat of the court is in The Hague (Netherlands), and there are 18 judges who sit for between 3-9 years (ICC, 2009).
6. Up until now - individual countries are expected to conduct their own trials for:
   a) genocide
   b) and war crimes
7. However - under G.W. Bush, the USA refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the ICC, because the US argued that the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction to conduct politically motivated investigations and prosecutions against the US military and political officials.
8. Furthermore - the US GOVERNMENT has also engaged in a world campaign of IMPUNITY AGREEMENTS with signatories of the ICC
9. This prohibits them from bringing action against US NATIONALS before the ICC (AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, n.d).

Question 20

ANTI-ICC LEGISLATION and IMPUNITY AGREEMENTS.

Answer 20

1. In 2003 - the US CONGRESS signed anti-legislation called the ‘AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS PROTECTION’.
2. Anti- ICC legislation and impunity agreements have eroded the USA’S credibility internationally to bring human rights abusers to court.
3. US IMPUNITY AGREEMENTS - are seen as ‘ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION’
4. This is because - Kenya, Ethiopia, and Brazil have all signed impunity agreements with the US so that they cannot bring charges of ‘crimes against humanity’ against the US military and political/government officials.
5. These acts of US coercion - are driven by US Economic domination as poorer countries are economically dependent on the US compromise justice and human rights in favour of their own economic needs.
6. EXAMPLES OF CHALLENGES TO GLOBAL JUSTICE as a result of powerful nations such as the US abusing human rights of others and international law include:
   a) Israel bombed Gaza Strip IN 2008 killing hundreds of civilians despite international condemnation from human rights campaigners and political leaders.
   b) The British Government - handed over 2 Iraqi citizens in a breach of the European court of justice to protect human rights and safety of the accused.

Question 21

HOW GLOBAL JUSTICE CAN BE ACHIEVED THROUGH INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS.

Answer 21

1. This can happen both within and outside formal state or judicially based regulation.
2. For example: within includes -
   a) international transfer of ideologies
   b) notions of restorative justice have moved beyond the borders.

However, outside of formal state or judicially based regulation can be achieved through:

a) Citizen Participation/protest - in areas through which injustices can be identifies and addressed.
3. Global justice can be achieved through a network of actions such as;

a) World social forum
b) Anti-globalisation movement
c) Human Rights Watch (HRW)
d) Amnesty International
e) State watch
f) Greenpeace.

This can be in conjunction with UN bodies and sovereign authorities to seek justice for all.

4. Citizen Participation - in global justice views the world as a system of interconnected overlapping networks.
5. Whereby - Individuals from pockets of resistance voice concerns about inequality and exploitation.
6. FOR INSTANCE - In terms of DEFORESTATION:

It could be argued that citizens as consumers are best placed to influence those state and corporate practices that cause ‘environmental harm’ through:

a) boycotting their products
b) and participating in trade fair purchases (COCHRANE and WALTERS, 2008).

Question 22

GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY - to address issues of a transnational concern.

Answer 22

1. Several authors have expressed a need for a ‘GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY’ to address issues of a transnational concern.
2. A global criminology - is argued to be necessary as studies of crime and justice remain focused on acts of:

a) property crime
b) drugs
c) interpersonal violence

but

a) mass harms of states and corporations
b) and excesses of modernity

go unchecked.

3. GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY - will need to investigate issues of harm. power, and violence within global networks of trade, migration, and international relations.
4. Accelerating trends of free-market economies have broadened the reach and opportunities for criminal enterprises.
5. Harms - have been created by various processes and practices of which is termed ‘GLOBALISATION’.
6. FOR SOME - GLOBALISATION has promoted and achieved: POSITIVES -

a) increased wealth
b) consumer choice
c) individual mobility

but for others, the deregulation and spread of world trade has also meant: NEGATIVES -

a) environmental
b) financial
c) and personal impacts

7. EXCESSES OF GLOBALISATION - have created a ‘CRISES OF MODERNITY’ in which human rights continue to be compromised and abused.
8. Human rights are being compromised by globalised processes of trade that try to convey ideas of:

a) collective good
b) mutually beneficial
c) and progress.

9. Thus - a GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY is one that shifts the lens of inquiry to:

a) issues of global concern
b) issues that transcend national borders

and

a) requires the international collaboration and engagement with international law and policy.

Question 23

CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

Answer 23

1. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM - is when highly developed western states judge the behaviour of other less powerful nations against their own cultures and practices.

Question 24

WHY POWERFUL HEADS OF STATES are often NOT PROSECUTED for ‘CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY’.

Answer 24

1. Powerful heads of states are often not prosecuted for ‘crimes against humanity’ or ‘violating human rights’
   because:

a) they are granted state/diplomatic immunity
b) lack of political will to prosecute leaders
c) many states do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC
d) problems are political rather than legal.
2. EXAMPLES of heads of state that have been successfully prosecuted however include:
a) Slobodan Milosevic (YUGOSLAVIA).
b) Charles Taylor ( SIERRA LEONE)
c) Saddam Hussein ( IRAQ).

Question 25

DEBATE:

ARE HUMAN RIGHTS THE RIGHTS OF THE POWERFUL?

Answer 25

1. The answer is yes and no.
2. Human rights provides the opportunity for weaker and more vulnerable members of society to speak up for themselves.
3. For instance - NORRIS v IRELAND CASE: The issue of homosexuality in Ireland was taken to the European Convention for Human Rights (ECHR) by Norris, and was overturned as a criminal act in 1994.
4. HOWEVER - Human rights can be selectively applied.
5. FOR INSTANCE - The CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (CPR) are the preference of the political and the powerful.