Human Rights Flashcards
What are Human rights?
- The rights and freedoms that we all have
- To protect + reach full potential
What have human rights become in the world?
- Hegemonic = A hegemonic political discourse which arguably now determines a states sovereignty
- Customary = part of customary international law now to protect us, the citizens, from states abuse
What are the key roles the UN plays in HRs?
- Standard = Standards setter and norms
- Enforcer = Enforcement through Peacekeeping
- Monitor = Monitors after signing
- Promoter = Huge promoter
- Forum = Forum to discuss between civil societies and states
Why was it difficult for states to originally come up with what constitutes as HRs post-WW2?
- USA was still largely racist and sexist
- Was down to smaller states (many Latin America ones) that pushed for these ones
What is the history of the drafting of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights:
How many delegates and from where?
What was the date that the commission was formed and who were the main actors?
Why did it take so long?
When was the final vote and why was this amazing?
Who abstained?
How many declarations and treaties were there and why?
- 250 delegates (many American, European and Asian) but colonies were taken into account
- June 1946: Eleanor Roosevelt, NGO’s, scholars and lawyers
- Numerous states with differentiating ideas of what constitutes as Human rights so was difficult to generalise and simplify for global scale
- 1948: amazing because Cold War and Iron Curtain had not dropped
- Saudi Arabia, South Africa (racist and sexist)
- 1 declaration, 2 treaties (Civil+Political), (Economic, Social and cultural) because of divide between states in civil, political, economic and cultural areas
Does signing the UDHR count for anything? example
- Not really
- Bahrain signed the women’s rights agreement but argue it conflicts with Islamic Shariah and so reserve from all important issues in it
How does the UN monitor states?
- Checks up 4 years on a report state has filed to show how they are doing
- Advises on how to change
Why might some states sign the agreements?
For self-interest reasons e.g. wanting to host the Olympics for economic gain
Are Treaties effective?
Why are the results sometimes not positive?
What is a hypothesis made of why it may seem Human Rights have not improved anything?
What does more contribution lead too?
- Early results show Civil and Political uphold but not Cultural, economic and social
- Recent results show all are being upheld quite well (R2P?)
- Once you implement something as a law it gets reported more often e.g. rape
- More participation in convention leads to more likelihood they will continue to do good HRs
How to NGOs help with HRs?
- Heavily involved in states HRs e.g. Amnesty International, HR act
- Submit shadow reports to have more truth on what a state says in their report
What does Thakur outline as the three generations of human rights?
1st Generation negative rights: aimed at preventing states abusing civil rights and political liberties
2nd Generation positive rights: for newly independent yet poor countries in social, cultural and economic rights
3rd Generation solidarity rights
What do the US argue about Human Rights
- Terrorism > HRs: is it not worth torturing one to save thousands?
What is an issue with the Human Rights on cultural issues?
- Unbelievably Westernised, few seek change in culture to match western ideals, especially African states
How is the civil society attempting to improve its legitimacy?
- Recruiting less from western countries and more from developing
How are CSO’s such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch sometimes more effective than the UN?
- UN is a sovereign bound actor
- Freedom of movement
- UN relies on them for hard evidence and monitoring
