human rights and environmental governance

Question 1

What are the 4 institutes you need to know for the protection and development of human rights?

Answer 1

1. special UN tribunals
2. ICC ( international criminal court)
3. ICJ (international court of justice)
4. ECHR (European court of human rights)

Question 2

What is the role of the ICC and when has it been successful?

Answer 2

It can trial individuals, including the head of state, and therefore can accuse people of serious violations like genocide, war crimes, etc.

Successful – it has 10 successful convictions, all mainly to do with the Congo civil war. In 2012, the warlord Thomas Dyilo was sentenced for 30 years in prison for recruiting children as soldiers during the civil war. In 2016 the former vice president of Congo was also sentenced to 18 years of prison for using sexual violence a s a weapon of war.

Question 3

What are the limitations to the ICC and its ability to protect human rights?

Answer 3

many countries do not abide the ruling of the ICC. China, Russia, USA and India all do not accept the verdict of the ICC – accounting for 70% of the world’s population. The USA also has agreements with other states that are a part of the ICC to not cooperate with the ICC if an American citizen is involved.

Equally in the case of the Congo verdict, the vice president that was sent to 18 years in prison was released after 2 years in 2018 after the verdict was overturned by an appeal. He has now re-gained his past post of vice president and is currently their defence minister.

Question 4

What are UN special tribunals and when have they been successful at protecting human rights?

Answer 4

special courts are set up in individual countries to trial individual cases. This makes bold statements to governments are people are trialled within their own borders.

Successful – The Rwanda genocide. Anyone no matter their political status can be trailed during a tribunal - For example, during the Rwanda case, the former president of Rwanda was sentenced to prison, alongside 61 other of his political officials. This case also developed international law, as it brought light to how rape could be used a s a weapon of war.

During the Cambodia trials, the public were allowed to attend the trials – with 100,000 turning up to one court hearing alone. Internships were also given to training laws in Cambodia so they could better serve justice in the future.

Question 5

Why may UN special tribunals be limited in their ability to protect human rights?

Answer 5

Un tribunals can be used for deeper, political reasons. For example, the USA sat in judgement on Japanese war criminals. They clearly had a bias towards the verdict of these criminals. Western countries have also managed to escape being trailed by a UN tribunal.

In the case of Rwanda highlights how in order for Un tribunals to be effective you need a level of co-operation, which isn’t always guaranteed. Once it was found out how many government ministers would be sent to prison the PM of Rwanda ordered that the UN must leave his country, and he no longer excepted their verdict.

Question 6

What is the European court of human rights and when has it been successful and protecting human rights?

Answer 6

either a state or an individual can apply for a court hearing by the ECHR. Compliance with their court hearing is estimated at 90%.

success: the case against Bosnia in 2009 that ruled their electoral system was discriminatory, as they stated only 3 ethnicities were eligible to stand in election. Jews and Romanians are forbidden to run for election in their constitution. This prevented two candidates with great popularity running in the election.

Question 7

Why may the ECHR remain unsuccessful at protecting human rights?

Answer 7

The ECHR is currently facing a lot of scrutiny on how it impacts state sovereignty.

States frequently ignore the rulings of the court. For example, the Uk ignored their ruling that prisoners have the right to vote in Uk elections. They also ruled that “lifelong sentences” were “inhumane” - however the Uk continues to give these sentences.

In 2015 Russia passed a law stating if the ECHR verdicts conflicts with Russia objective, then they will also ignore their verdict. Russia’s national law is placed above the ruling of the ECHR.

Question 8

What are the 3 main issues with these institutions ability to protect Human rights?

Answer 8

1. rise of humanitarian intervention (both successful and unsuccessful)
2. selective intervention
3. Western double standards / hypocrisy

Question 9

what has been the reason for the increase in humanitarian intervention since 1990?

Answer 9

The USA was the only superpower in the 90s, and therefore could intervene without concern of major backlash from other equally powerful countries.

The end of the cold war meant more states were adopting the western liberal values of human rights. This made them seem more enforceful and important, and therefore more legitimacy when forcefully implementing them.

Question 10

Why has been there been a fall of humanitarian intervention since 2010?

Answer 10

“Burden sharing” becomes an issue because it is the debate of who is the one that should bear the burden/cost the most in order to go solve human rights intervention. Countries have to decide amongst themselves who contributes x amount of money, troops, etc. For example, it took 7 months to form an agreement to invade the Iraq between the US, Uk, Australia, Denmark, The Netherlands and Poland. Donald Trump has since said if he becomes president again he will not intervene for NATO members that have not paid 2% of their GDP towards NATO in recent years.

The withdrawal failure of the USA from Afghanistan made the wests intervention look embarrassing due to its poor coordination - the USA left behind weapons, sensitive information for the Taliban, etc. This put doubts of the USA’s ability to serve as this global policeman. It also serves doubts on whether humanitarian intervention is a successful, worthwhile cause to invest money and time into. Afghanistan cost the USA 2 trillion dollars, and photos emerged of Afghan women clinging onto the sides of helicopters leaving the country, as they desperately did not want to be left behind in the war-torn country of the collective efforts the USA and Taliban had created.

Question 11

When has humanitarian intervention been successful at protecting human rights?

Answer 11

Ethnic cleansing that took place in Yugoslavia - leading to NATO humanitarian intervention.

NATO originally tried to get both sides to sign a peace treaty, yet when this failed, NATO ended up bombing the capital of Yugoslavia to end the mass human right violations - this bombing lasting for nearly 6 months. Both sides eventually signed for a ceasefire agreement, in which Serbian troops withdrew and now a lot of previous countries that made up Yugoslavia are now NATO members - showing long-term success.

Question 12

When has humanitarian intervention been unsuccessful at protecting human rights?

Answer 12

The violation of sovereignty to protect human rights can seem especially problematic when it doesn’t work – thus a further loss of life occurs for no reward in return.

The withdrawal failure of the USA from Afghanistan made the wests intervention look embarrassing due to its poor coordination - the USA left behind weapons, sensitive information for the Taliban, etc. This put doubts of the USA’s ability to serve as this global policeman. It also serves doubts on whether humanitarian intervention is a successful, worthwhile cause to invest money and time into. Afghanistan cost the USA 2 trillion dollars, and photos emerged of Afghan women clinging onto the sides of helicopters leaving the country, as they desperately did not want to be left behind in the war-torn country of the collective efforts the USA and Taliban had created.

Question 13

what are the reasons for selective humanitarian intervention?

Answer 13

As we enter a more multi-polarity global order, humanitarian intervention has become more selective due to fear or retaliation. It seems it will take place only when it is viable / doable. However, this allows for human right violations by powerful countries (powerful enough that the West feels like it cannot intervene) to take place without consequence. Humanitarian intervention therefore seems conditional.

China has been accused of genocide against Uyghur Muslims, who they place in “re-education camps”. This stems from their belief that Islam leads to terrorism. It is thought that forced labour takes place on these camps for cotton farming. They have also been making Muslim women in China infertile so the population cannot increase.

The West have openly expressed their disapproval of the Chinese camps, like when Liz Truss declared it an act of genocide, yet bringing the story to the media’s attention is the only tangible response the west has taken. They may be reluctant to get involved in such human right violations for two reasons: 1) China has nuclear weapons and 2) China has the second biggest economy in the world 3) China had VETO power in the UN security council.

^The EU and the USA have recently banned the imports of goods made in the region that these concentration camps are based in - yet nothing meaningful to have a large enough impact.

Question 14

How has there been hypocrisy from the West in regards to their protection of human rights?

Answer 14

Guantanamo Bay is a prison camp owned by the USA located in Cuba. After 9/11 they wanted to imprison as many suspected terrorists as they could, yet they knew they couldn’t do this on USA soil as they’d need trials which took time, money and evidence. However, Cuba had not signed all of the Human Right laws the UN stated, and therefore suspected terrorists could be held in Cuba without trial for long periods of time. The USA employed two psychologists to develop their torture program, in order to gain information/ evidence from the suspected terrorists. They used torture techniques such as water boarding, sleep deprivation, etc. They then passed laws to state such techniques, although intrusive, were not bad enough to be deemed torture methods.

Question 15

what is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC)?

Answer 15

The IPCC is a research body that gives scientific evidence on climate change. It was established in 1988. This is the Uns main body of collecting scientific evidence on the effects of climate change.

It informs the UN on only natural, economic and social risks of climate change. It can also propose possible solutions. It was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2007 for its extensive research.

Question 16

what are the 4 environmental conferences you need to know, and when were they?

Answer 16

1. Rio Earth Summit (1992)
2. Kyoto protocol (1997)
3. Copenhagen summit (2009)
4. Paris Summit (2015)

Question 17

What was the Rio Summit (1992) and how was it successful?

Answer 17

was the largest gathering of state leaders of its time. 172 countries were represented, and 108 of these were represented by their head of state.

Success: two international agreements were made – the convention on biological diversity and the FCCC was established, which committed states at the conference to stabilize their CO2 emissions by 2000.

Question 18

How was the Rio earth summit limit in its ability to protect the environment?

Answer 18

The Rio earth summit is often criticised for not having any legally binding targets and any concrete plan established. The summit appeared more like green washing, than any decisive action.

Progress made was very hard due to how many different views were represented and the conflict between the developed and developing world over whose responsibility the climate crisis is.

Question 19

what was the Kyoto protocol and how was it successful?

Answer 19

Kyoto protocol (1997) - All countries who signed the FCCC were present.

Success: there was legally binding targets for 37 countries. These countries had to reduce their emissions by 5% over the next decade. Collective action was re-enforced as 55 countries who made up 55% of total global emissions had to sign the agreement in order for it take force. This encouraged more countries to sign it as no one wanted to be the country to stop the progress that could be made.

Question 20

How was the Kyoto protocol unsuccessful?

Answer 20

over 100 developing countries were exempt from the treaty, including big pollutants like India and China – which led to the US congress blocking the protocol after as it was unfair.

Countries with existing low emissions were rewarded at the summit with permits to pollute more – for example, Portugal and Iceland. Since the protocol it is estimated that Chinas emissions have grown by over 300%.

Question 21

what was the Copenhagen summit and how was it successful?

Answer 21

Copenhagen summit (2009) - 163 countries attended, and 101 of these representatives were head of states, including Obama.

Success: first time climate finance was introduced, and first time a summit had addressed the disparity in responsibility over climate change.

climate finance worth $30 billion each year was pledged, in order for developing countries to become greener in their technology.

Developed countries would also have to summit plans for cutting emissions to the UN for inspection and monitoring.

Question 22

How was the Copenhagen summit unsuccessful at protecting the environment?

Answer 22

Obama only pledged to decrease emissions by 4% by 2020 - this is an extremely modest target that many felt should’ve been larger.

Little progress was actually made due to tensions rising between countries.

The Chinese delegation also heard a rumour that the US delegation had not invited their leaders to an important meeting. This led to the PM of China retreating to his hotel room instead of cooperating in agreements.

He instead sent a lower-level diplomat to represent him, which causes logistical issues as the diplomat had to call Wen repeatedly for his approval.

Question 23

what was the paris summit (2015) and how was it successful?

Answer 23

Paris summit (2015) - was signed by 195 countries and was ratified by 190 countries.

Success: the first numerical target of 2c was made. (in which global temp shouldn’t rise above this target).

They also pledged to increase “climate finance” to $100 billion.

Question 24

How was the Paris summit unsuccessful at protecting the environment?

Answer 24

Developing countries argued more than $100 billion was needed. This angered developed nations like the USA, leading to Trump pulling out of the agreement, which Biden later put them back in.

similarly, Rishi Sunaks has pushed back Net0 target from 2030 to 2050, stating the Uk has kept up with the targets they agreed to and other countries haven’t.

Question 25

what is the difference between shallow green ecology and deep green ecology in their view on how to tackle climate change?

Answer 25

Shallow green ecology -
humans must live in harmony with nature. Nature’s value is determined by its use to humanity. The environment is necessary for human prosperity and happiness, so must be protected. It therefore focuses on slower, smarter economic growth that strikes a balance between the economy and the environment.
In this sense, capitalism and the ability to fight climate change are compatible, as the profit generated through capitalism can be used to fund greener energy projects.

deep green ecology - Believes that nature has its own intrinsic value, its value does not derive from its importance to humans.

They believe that nature cannot be balanced with the growth-orientated values that underpin capitalism. They believe science shows us how humans are not the centre of life on earth – humanity holds equal value to any other species as we all hold our own specific function. They believed the climate crisis can be tackled in two different ways:

Rejection of capitalism – instead to adopt a new global order that takes into account strong sustainability – where happiness will be based on quality of life rather than consumption of material goods. This can be achieved through a communist state.

Ecocentrism – prioritize nature/ the environment rather than human being. Nature has a value of its own, independent of how mankind may best utilize it.

Question 26

what is the problem of tragedy of the commons for environmental protection?

Answer 26

Tragedy of the commons refers to a situation where individuals with access to the same resource act in their own interest and the resources depletes. Individual countries believe other countries will also act selfishly, and therefore they may as well prosper from its exploitation also. Examples of tragedy of the commons include: overfishing, air pollution, groundwater, etc.

^(Realist theory) States will then start to act in their own best interest instead of the wider interest, as they do not trust that others will follow suit. For example, Rishi Sunak going back on his NET 0 target of 2030 which has now been pushed back to 2050. His reasoning was other bigger pollutants are not taking responsibility themselves, and therefore why should the UK be disadvantaged if other countries will not follow suit.

Question 27

How does the developed and developing world disagree on who should hold responsiblity over climate change?

Answer 27

There is great debate over who should take responsibility for climate change. The USA has emitted more carbon than any other state and is responsible for 25% of historical emissions. Next in line is the EU who are estimated to be responsible for 22% of historical emissions.

Meanwhile, the countries who are emitting the most in present day do not make up anywhere near as much in total – Chinas emissions are estimated at 12.5% and Indias at 3%.

In addition, the global north seems to have a lot more per capita emissions than the global south. This has led to fierce debate over who should actually fund the climate mitigation, as there is a blurred line when defining responsibility.

The global north are currently investing in newer, greener technology to combat their own emissions. Whereas the bigger developing nations (like China and India) haven’t even reached their peak emissions yet.

Therefore, it seems counter intuitive for only half the world to crack down on emissions while the other half pumps out more than they were before. This has caused disagreement in the geo-political sense, for example during COP26 India had it changed from faze down coal instead of phased out.