Human Rights Flashcards
Name the non-state actors that are also important part of the human rights regime
Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs)
Do NGO’s operate nationally or transnationally ?
Trick question.
Both and played an important role in getting human rights into the UN charter.
How have NGO’s become a powerful force?
In publicising human rights violations and spreading awareness of human rights norms.
Who is the leading NGO?
How many members?
How many countries have subscribers?
Amnesty International
2 million members
150 countries.
Name one other prominent NGO for human rights
Human Rights Watch
ILGA; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex association.
Example of other NGO which has human rights within their commission?
Oxfam and others.
Traditional strategies of NGO’s
“Naming and shaming”
uncovering and spreading of information about violations.
What is Amnesty’s Letter
writing campaigns in which individual prisoners of conscience (actual prisoners) are adopted by foreign amnesty groups.
Leading NGOs also lobby and pressure foreign governments, try to get foreign citizens to pressure their own governments and have sophisticated lobbying. How many members for dutch section of amnesty international?
225,000
What are three general issues of human rights NGOs
serious issues of political and financial accountability
Lack power of states and diplomatic structure of international relations.
The power of public opinion is limited and hard to mobilise.
What are the three positives of human right NGOs
- They have no other interests to distract them from advocacy
- Many have developed reputations for accuracy and impartiality that serve as a major ‘power’ resource
- Important check on the tendency of states to allow competing national interests and considerations of diplomatic discretion to mute human rights criticism.
- mechanism of spreading awareness.
The Power of human rights; 1. Constraining and delegitimising coercive state power
- UN Yugoslav president Milosevic at the ICC, the Hague.
- Guantanamo Bay, Us was not upholding human rights, many have been subject to toture
- In 2009, Obama signs executive order in 2009 banning the use of torture
The Power of human rights; Turning (old or new) issues into human rights issues, example of a human rights conflict?
Of an item of clothing being an human rights issue?
LGBT?
Israeli/Palestine conflict is often referred to as a ‘human rights’ conflict.
The unveiling of muslim women- some claim it is a symbol of abuse and lack of equality between women and men rooted in patriarchy. But another opinion is that wearing a hijab is a human right a symbol of freedom and expression - religious freedom
LGBT - What are their rights ? to be able to get married, free from abuse
Gay marriage has been legalised in much of the western world not northern Ireland. People in LGBT do not enjoy certain rights.
What are the three main human rights debates when is comes to IR theory? (Realists, liberals)
Desirability of HRs in world politics
Universal vs Particular
Individual rights vs state interests/ Justice vs order
Liberal and Liberal constructivists? What did liberals believe in the 17th and 18th century
Natural rights and rights of man.
