EQ2

Question 1

Define Human Rights

Answer 1

The moral principles that underlie standards of human behaviour. They are commonly understood as inalienable and fundamental rights, “to which a person is inherently entitled to simply because she or he is a human being” regardless of their nation, location, language, religion, ethnic origin or any other status

-universal in the sense of being applicable to anyone, everywhere and they are egalitarian

Question 2

How did the UDHR come about

Answer 2

• post WW2
• Adopted by the UN general assembly in 1948
• Adopted due to the events of WW2 as well as the rise of communism

Question 3

Why can people get away with human rights violations

Answer 3

the UDHR is a Declaration not a treaty, meaning its not legally binding

• Although the UDHR is chartered by the UN and all of its members are obligated to recognise and respect them, but they are hard to monitor
• UN can set an investigation for a country suspected of violating human rights however no action can be taken as a result

Question 4

What group expands on the UDHR (in both meaning and number of rights) as well as enforces them

Answer 4

European Convention on human Rights (ECHR)

Question 5

How many articles does the UDHR have, what do they include ?

Answer 5

• 30
• no rights are above the other
• include basic civil, social and economic rights

Question 6

What is the European convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

Answer 6

• Formulated by council of Europe on 1950
• 59 total articles
• officially formed in 1949 as a response to human rights violations of ww2 and the spread of communism

Question 7

What are the objections to the ECHR

Answer 7

• Some argue that the 1998 ECHR is undemocratic in the sense that it threatens the sovreignty and self determination of the rights of british parliament to make its own laws
• Some say that the 1998 ECHR act makes British Courts are bound by decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg

Question 8

Give statistics on the violation of ECHR

Answer 8

In 60% of cases, the UK has been demmed to be in violation in the european court of human rights since 1959. This is not much compared to 83% of all all ECHR judments ruled to be in violation

Question 9

Describe the situation of human rights in the UK

Answer 9

• Most Britons understand that their human rights are protected by law, this means they cannot be imprisoned without charge, gay is not a crime, no assult of children, employers must respect religous beliefs etc
• E.g. Baha Mouse was arrested in Iraw but being subject to British law as he was in a British army base and hence being subject to the HR
• 1998 HR act can be used by every UK resident despite not necessarily being a citizen. This applies to all residents including prisoners and children
• The European Court of Human Rights alows citizens to defend their rights in court and enforces public and private organisations to treat peoples rights with fairness, dignity and respect

Question 10

What is the Geneva Convention

Answer 10

International treaties that have been created for war situations in order to protect civilians, medical workers, prisoners etc. It only applies for periods during armed conflicts

Question 11

Describe the state of the geneva convention from 1864 to 1929

Answer 11

Originated in 1864 but was severly ammended in 1949

• 1906 convention replaced the 1864 which included protection of wounded or captured in battle as well as volunteer agencies and medical personel tasked with treating, transporting and removing the wounded and killed
• After ww1 it was clear the conventions didnt go far enough as a result of the chemical weapons and prisoner torture. They were made to futher the civilized treatment of prisoners of war. Inlduing: prisoners to be treated with compassion and to live in humane conditions -rules for daily lives of prisoners and established the international red cross. Done in 1929

Question 12

Describe the state of the geneva convention from 1929 to 1949

Answer 12

-1929 Geneva convention did nothing to prevent the horrific acts (not only on battlefield but within nation) of WW2: concentration camps, organsied massacres, human testing etc
In 1949 the conventions were expanded to include non-combat civilian with included rights such as:
-vehicles+ships of non combat civilians and of medical personel
-captured religous leaders must be returned
-torture and testing is forbiden
-prisoners may only be asked of their name, rank and series number when captured

Question 13

Describe the state of the geneva convention from 1949 to 1977

Answer 13

Geneva protocols of 1977 added to genva conventions of 1949:
-ban of weapons that cause superflous injury or unecessary suffering
-children should be cared for and educated
Since every 160 countries follow the Geneva Conventions
-These conventions are still however being violated e.g. Syria by Saddam hussein and Russian military forces

Question 14

List For + Against + Conclusion for: “Internation law and international agreements are important for protecting human rights (20 marks) evaluate this statement”

Answer 14

Yes:
-ECHR, 59 articles which some argue threaten british sovreignty -> This fear implies and shows that the ECHR has power to enforce the rules
-UK has been deemed in violation in 60% of cases
-ECHR prevented the UK from passing a law where same sex couples would have a higher age of consent (21) wheras heterosexual couples would have remained at (16) in 1997 under the basis that articles 8 and 14 were in violation
No:
-UDHR:
–Adopted by the UN general assembly, but it is a declaration not treaty and therefor is not legally binding
–Though countries may be investigated but no direct action can be taken as a result
–China is a key example, regularly violates the freedom of press, speech and expression, institutes “re-education” camps (indoctrination), executions and murder of inoccent people etc
-Geneva Conventions:
–Has not been effective, tragic events had to have occured before they were treated
–Did not stop Hitler, the Soviet massacres nor Armenian Genocide
–It has been used in some cases such as war prisoners within Western Countries such as Canada
–The fact it has been ammended implies that some care and respect its articles, supposedly 160 countries obey the convention
–In recent history they have been violated, Chemical weapons Syria used by Russian forces as well as Saddam Hussain

Question 15

Describe Indias political systems

Answer 15

• Democratic Republic, largest in the world
• Parliamentary system of government with federal system, Individual states have delegated po;itica; power and some autonomy
• Recent election was fought on 5 issues: stalled economy, rising prices, corruption, security, infrastructure
• Constitution since 1950 with 444 articles inluding: freedom of speech and religion, vigorous media and independant judiciary
• President is more ceremonial han official leader, real power lays in lower parliament whose members decide on prime minister

Question 16

Describe Indias human rights situation

Answer 16

Despite being a “free country”, it facer human rights issues:
-violence against religous minorities especally muslims
-caste-based discrimination and negligence of tribal communities
-sexual abuse and violence against women and children
-discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity + disabilities
Members of Indias security forces have impunity even from serious HR violations
-desoute ruling pary beng pro-freedom of speech, state censorship is still in place
-Government is making progress Human Rights e.g. decriminalising homosexuality

Question 17

Describe Indias economic situation

Answer 17

Economically it is growing, however t is not preforming as well as China, potenrially because Chinas economic growth has backing of an authorotarian government
-Still worlds largest economy

Question 18

describe Chinas economic development

Answer 18

• challenging communis government
• due to greater wealth, shcooling and acces to limited social media
• Fastest growing economy backed by its authoratarian government 6.6%

Question 19

describe Chinas political status:

Answer 19

-communist party, no general elections, power concentrated to “president” actually dicatator

Question 20

describe Chinas Humarn rights status

Answer 20

• China dont have awide range of human rights, including freedom of expression association assembly and religion
• Senior chinese leaer reject the proposal of universal himan rights, regarding them as a western ideas and a threat to their power
• surpresion of internet and media
• torture
• unfair trials
• massacres and grave desecration
• death penalty

Question 21

How is there a correlation between the corurption perceptions index and democracy index

Answer 21

• most democratic countries tend to be least corrupt e.g. Sweden has low corruption and highly democratic whereas Russia who ranks wlow on democracy and very high on corruption scales
• Few countries piroatise hr over economic growth,material prosperity and global influence come from economic development
• countries are plotted on a contimum of no regard for human rights to healthy respect

Question 22

Human Rights vs Economic Development

Answer 22

• Most democracies are commited to hr principles but have diferent interpretation of democracies and so some government dont hav ethe same interpretations and the majority of the international community
• UK is being chastise dby ECHR over the rights of prisoners to vote but UK technically abides by the principle that convicted crimeinals loos certain ciil rights (inluding physical freedom) while completing their sentance

Question 23

describe the situation with statistics relating to economic growth

Answer 23

many stats for economic growthbut few to human rights

• Oce source of HT measures is created by Greedom House who categorises countries into:
• -Free, open political competition and climate of respect for civil liverties
• -Partly Free: clear restriction on political rights and civil liberties
• -Not Free: Basic political rights and civil liberties are absent and or sustematically violated

Question 24

Describe the pattern of the worlds HR according to the Freedom House index

Answer 24

It presents a polarised world few countries falling into the ‘partly free’ category. On the mapped index we can see most of Europe, the Americas, Australia, India + Japan fall into free. Most of Africa and Asia falls into the partly free category . Few examples of partly free countries are Ukraine, Mexico, Malaysia and Indonesia.

• countries with the worst freedom rating are latgely in political unrest, 5 asian and 2 middle eastern. All but Saudia arabria in those countries have a low GDP
• 43 countries had the best freedom rating, most are recognised as developed or ‘advanced’ countries. Many nations with this ranking are not renowned for econmic wealth such as small island states e.g. kiribati, marshall islands, micronesia

Question 25

Why are the two koreas different

Answer 25

They were both part of a japanese colony. They became individual state sin 1948, they had historically poor relations even with war ranging from 1950-53, their ideologies are fundementally opposed. They hold different systems of govenance (communist and capitatlist) influenced by the respective super powers at the time.

Question 26

describe the status of North Korea

Answer 26

Calls itself a “self reliant socialist state” despite being highly communist and very much not self reliant

• It holds elections with only one voting option (its essentially totatliterian with its rule based on the cult of the kim jong family
• Norht Korea lives in self imposed isolation. its population are forbidden the acces to the internet. It is widely recofnised as a ‘rouge state’ due to: possession of nuclear weapons, vast military forces and frequent threats against its neighbours
• HR violations include unfair trials, arrest of foreigners on the ground of espionage with little evidence as well as no freedom of speech nor expression
• Due to its isolatoin there are a few statistics about conditions in NK. What we know is it spends a lot of GDP on military, NK citizens suffer food shortage, malnutrition, famines and starvation
• last famine in 1990 killed 2.5m people (10% population)
• not surprising since regime prioratises military over feeding its people

Question 27

describe the status of South Korea

Answer 27

Embraced economic capitalism and transformed itself from a war torn country to a high income advanced economy.
Key to this lies in firm government, increasingly poweful high tech chaubols (family owned bug buisness) such as samsung, Hyundai and LG. Commited labour orce and a rich resource of enterprise and technological innovation but first free elections only held in 1987

South korea rank high in the democracy index especially in Asia. Large scale public protests and confrontations with heeavy handed police are not unknown. SK also ranks highest in term of healthcare, eaducation and ease of buiness. IT does however live next to a psychotic neighbour

SK ranks 40th in the world for development whereas NK ranks 195th. This is takes into account more than just GDP, also taking into account HR and health.Taking into account the post war history of the korean peninsula, it shows all that needs to be said about capitalistic vs communist economic structure as well as liberty vs totalitariansim

Question 28

What was the Rwandan Genocide

Answer 28

Belgium colonised Rwanda and favoured the Tutsis over the Hutus which sparked tensions

• Hutu president’s plane was shot down and it was blamed on the Tutsis
• This resulted in the 1994 geoncide werea n estimated 800,000 Rwandabs were killed over the course of 100 days
• Despite existing tensions an event of this scale was unprecedented, as a result not much was done by the international community
• UN were told to “Keep the peace, not make it” cosequently not much was done other than allowing refuge for expats
• This genocide poved to be a precursor for the Congo wars

Question 29

How are there variations in rights / accesiblity within North America

Answer 29

North American Natives:

• Teritories are theoretically sovreign but in reality subject to treaties and federal law by “Bureu of Indian Affaris”
• Only regognised trives are entitled to assistance although it may also be provided by state laws
• Recognised trives recieve education and health through Indian health service, provides for about 2 million
• It tries to provide support tribes, however it is hard due to the isolationism of the indegenous population
• It has been found to be underfunded with provlems with sterilisation equipent and errors in medical records
• Less than hald of native americans have health insurance so healthcare access is restricted but, but need of them due to high prevelance of infant mortality, disablities injuries, suicide and TB are much higher than the average Amercian
• Educational attainment is 10% below US average
• 5% of indegenous kids go to schools with altered curriculums iwth poor quality buildings
• Obamas called for better support for American Indian youth and launched the generation Indigenous Initiative which increased funding for programmes to aif the native population

Question 30

How are there variations in rights / accesiblity within South America

Answer 30

• Under threat from mining, oil extraction, dam building, general exploitation -> driven oit of native lands and into cities facing costs of development but reaping little of the benefits
• Tend to be poorer and less educated and more likely to comit suicide, also worse off for health
• UN: “limited access to education, justice, healthcare… given the risk of no documentation at birth and being denied identiy documents and sometimes citizenship”