Topic 8 - EQ3 - Health, Human Rights, and Intervention

Question 1

What is geopolitical intervention?

Answer 1

The exercise of a country’s power in order to influence the course of events outside its borders.

Question 2

Is international intervention in terms of aid equal between countries?

Answer 2

It is mainly western countries that intervene the most with aid and countries with the high GNI. As a percentage of GNI, Sweden, Norway Luxembourg Denmark and the Netherlands are highest.

Question 3

What is development aid?

Answer 3

Development aid is a type of foreign aid given to other countries to help promote development.

Question 4

What is bilateral aid?

Answer 4

Aid that is delivered on a one-to-one basis between a donor and a recipient country.

Question 5

What is multilateral aid?

Answer 5

Aid (usually financial, sometimes technical) given by donor countries to international aid organisations such as the World Bank or Oxfam. These groups distribute the aid to what they deem to be deserving causes.

Multi lateral aid is often considered to be more ‘legitimate’ because it allows for pooling resources which can be more cost effective when funding larger projects, rather than lots of projects working in isolation. Also charities are less likely to be tied to vested political or economic interests (e.g. Oxfam).

Question 6

What is Official Development Assistance?

Answer 6

Official development assistance is a category used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to measure flows of foreign aid. Flows and transfers of resources either in cash or in commodities and services.

Question 7

What is a trade embargo?

Answer 7

A trade embargo is a governmental or international ban (pushed by IGOs such as the UN of EU) that restricts (sanctions) or bans trade with a particular country. It’s a political tool, used to encourage a country to change its policies or actions by hindering its economy, or by reducing its access to specific products like military supplies.

Trade embargoes can prohibit all trade, or simply ban the trade in certain items (such as weapons), while continuing to allow trade in other items (such as food or medicines).

Question 8

What is an example of a trade embargo?

Answer 8

In the 1980s, the UN imposed an embargo on oil and military supplies to South Africa, in order to pressurise its white minority government into ending the policy of Apartheid.

In 2011 the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Libya in response to human rights violations.

Question 9

When are trade embargoes often used?

Answer 9

Trade embargoes are often used in response to perceived threats to international security, or to force an end to humanitarian or human rights abuses.

Question 10

What is military aid?

Answer 10

Military aid consists of money, weapons, equipment or expertise given to a developing country to help them protect their borders, fight terrorism and combat piracy or drugs and people trafficking.

Sometimes it can also be given to countries actually directly involved in war, e.g. USA and Germany supplying tanks to Ukraine.

Question 11

Is military action the first choice for intervention?

Answer 11

Most governments and IGOs consider the use of military action to be a last resort, after all other pathways (such as embargoes and diplomatic measures) have failed.

Question 12

What is direct military action?

Answer 12

Direction action is the direct use of a country’s own military as part of an intervention. E.g. air strikes or troops on the ground.

Question 13

What is an example of direct military action?

Answer 13

In 2003, the USA and UK were among a coalition of countries who invaded Iraq, sending in troops and carrying out air strikes against the government of Saddam Hussein.

Question 14

What is indirect military action?

Answer 14

Indirect military action is military support without directly using the intervening country’s own military (troops or bomb squads), e.g. providing military and political assistance.

Question 15

Is military action always taken at the request of the country concerned?

Answer 15

No not always.

Sometimes it is at the direct request of concerned country’s if they feel they cannot tackle an issue alone. E.g. when the government of Mali asked for French help in 2013 to fight back against Islamist militants who had taken over large parts of the country.

However, it can also be done to ‘protect people from their own government’. E.g. 1999 NATO used air strikes in support of the Serbian province of Kosovo when the Serbian government began a crackdown against ethnic Albanian Kosovans.

Question 16

What factors can create difference in the perception of validity of interventions?

Answer 16

-Different perspectives, political agendas or aims.
-The perceived ‘real’ reason for the intervention (is it to genuinely help or intervention for self interest). E.g. research by UK universities showed that civil war is 100x more likely if the country has large oil reserves.
-Opposing views about whether the outcome is likely to be achieved or potentially made worse (further conflict as a result of a power vacuum, death toll of war…)
-Concern over a disregard for national sovereignty
-Disagreements over the whether the intervention is proportionate to the intervention.

Question 17

What is an example of an IGO involved in human rights and intervention?

Answer 17

UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

It is a UN organisation. 195 countries are members of UNESCO and support their mission.

Their focus isn’t explicitly protecting human rights instead it focuses on contributing to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law and human rights along with fundamental freedom as proclaimed in the UN charter of 1945.

UNESCO are more likely to promote passive intervention possibly through providing development aid and definitely through providing financial aid to help countries protect their cultural sites and other things.

Question 18

What is an example of an NGO involved in human rights and intervention?

Answer 18

Amnesty international.

Founded in 1961 in the UK and focused on the investigation and exposure of human rights abuses around the world. Takes on both governments and powerful bodies, such as major companies. Today it combines its considerable international reputation with the voices of grassroots activists on the spot to ensure that the UDHR is fully implemented. It also provides education and training that people are made aware of their rights.

In 2016 Amnesty International promoted campaigns to bring attention to:
-Brazil, for unlawful killings in Rio de Janeiro.
-Saudi Arabia, for ill-treatment and lack of protection for human rights defenders and activists.
-Venezuela, for attacks on human rights workers.
-Iran, for imprisonment of human rights campaigners.
-Germany, for failing the victims of racial violence.

Question 19

What is national sovereignty?

Answer 19

The idea that each nation has a right to govern itself without interference from other nations. It is a fundamental principle of international law.

The UN states in its charter that ‘nothing should authorise intervention in matters essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state’ (as it would be a violation of national sovereignty).

Question 20

What were three reasons for the 2011 Libyan intervention?

Answer 20

“-To make sure there was an arms embargo enforced on Gaddafi
-To protect the people who were being attacked by government forces
-To provide the space and time for the people of Libya to decide their own future.”

Question 21

On the grounds of what principle was the intervention in Libya authorised by the UN?

Answer 21

The “Responsibility to Protect”.

When the UN urged the Libyan government to ‘meet its responsibility to protect its citizens’ protesting as part of the Arab Spring, Libya failed to do so with Gadaffi’s Government continuing to repress protestors and continued to violate human rights (as it did before the protests even began).

As a result the UN authorised the use of force to protect the civilian population, intervention was deemed justified beginning with bombing raids undertaken by the British and French air forces against the Tripoli based government. Such intervention was the first real use of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ by NATO forces. Arms embargoes and air strikes supported rebel troops in their attempts to defeat the government forces.

Question 22

What happened as a result of the 2011 Libyan intervention?

Answer 22

The Western military intervention which was intended to free the Libyan people from an oppressive regime plunged Libya into a huge power vacuum. Chaos emerged as various groups tried to seize power (especially extremist Islamic groups).

Libya fell down all rankings of human development, equality, etc… women’s rights were especially greatly violated by some of the emerging Islamic extremist groups looking to fill the vacuum in Libya.

Question 23

The results of the 2011 Libyan intervention were similar to the results of another western intervention in the Arab world. What other intervention was it similar to in this respect?

Answer 23

The 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

Both aimed to topple a clearly dangerous regime, but both resulted in a huge fall in all development measures and a huge power vacuum filled by Islamic extremists.

Question 24

How has the distribution of western military aid actually had devastating consequences for human rights?

Answer 24

The USA has funded a variety of dictators and groups which had horrendous human rights records.

During the Cold War, the USA propped up a variety of right wing dictatorships in Latin America with military aid, as to stop these countries becoming communist. An example of a CIA aided regime was Pinochet in Chile, a dictator responsible for gross human rights abuses up and down the country with assassinations of political opponents and even the torturing and murdering of priests being reported (Miguel Woodward).

The USA also provided military aid to Afghan groups resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and into the early 80s. The USA provided American weapons and money. These Afghan groups were not only passionate Afghans but also religious extremists who supported strict Sharia Law and the oppression of women. These American backed groups later developed into what is now known as the Taliban. The US also backed the mujahideen in Pakistan with approximately $3 billion of taxpayers money, religious extremists with no time for human rights.

Question 25

How can development aid help defend and improve human rights?

Answer 25

Development aid is key for the improvement of human rights as development and human rights often come hand in hand as exemplified by the Nordic countries which rank at the top end of global HDIs and global human rights
-E.g. development can bring education which is fundamental to improving the conditions which help improve the situation of human rights in a country, and people are also enlightened about the rights they are entitled to
-E.g. development improves living standards which improves human rights
-E.g. development improved the conditions of countries to enable them to have the opportunity to fix blatant issues with human rights

Promises of government aid can also be a fantastic bargaining tool to enforce reforms in the recipient of aid, for example, Norway could give development aid to Papua New Guinea on the basis that the Papuan government agrees to improve freedom of speech and freedom of religion…

Therefore, development aid as a bargaining tool and a tool in itself is absolutely beneficial to the bettering of Human Rights.

Question 26

How can the work of NGOs protect and improve human rights?

Answer 26

NGOs across the globe stage important interventions in countries to aim for the improvement of human rights
-The Human Rights Watch is constantly on the lookout for violations of the UDHR, e.g. in Ukraine, and it is not frightened to name and shame non-compliant governments, e.g. Russia, through media coverage and direct exchanges with policymakers. The work of human rights watch in exposing violations of human rights has been extremely valuable in forcing countries to ‘clean up their act’
-Amnesty International does similar war in trying to expose abuses of human rights around the world with an equally as fantastic reputation on the international stage with IGOs such as the UN and national governments leading them to impose sanctions. Furthermore, amnesty international helps give a platform to grassroots activists and provide education and training so that people are made fully aware of their rights.

Question 27

What are donations in the context of aid?

Answer 27

Financial aid given to a country or cause without the expectation of financial repayment. Can be bilateral and multilateral.

Question 28

What are the pros of financial donations as a form of aid?

Answer 28

Advantages: can fund important projects with no conditions or need to repay

Disadvantages: governments can’t always be trusted to manage bilateral aid for the benefit of citizens

Question 29

What are loans in the context of aid?

Answer 29

Borrowed sums of money that are expected to be paid back with interest. They are awarded for various development projects.

Question 30

What are the advantages of loans as a form of aid?

Answer 30

Advantages: loans can stimulate economic growth, help build infrastructure and fight corruption and cover important areas such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, flood recovery schemes…

Disadvantages: issues around conditionality (borrowing countries often told that they must meet certain conditions before loans), some IGOs prioritise economic development over environmental damage, some countries reduce their public spending to receive loans.

Question 31

What has been the work of Christian Aid (NGO) in Haiti?

Answer 31

Christian Aid has worked in Haiti since the 1980s. After the 2010 quake, rural areas needed help as internally displaced persons moved away from Port au Prince. At the rural community level Christian Aid worked with its partners to provide the best assistance possible to affected rural areas.

This is what Christian Aid achieved…
-Reached 180,000 people through its £14 million appeal fund, initially providing 273,000 hot meals, 10,000 hygiene kits, helping 2,500 families with emergency shelter, 5,600 families with cash and 7,000 families with clean water.
-Christian Aid constructed 550 earthquake proof houses, provided 32,000 farmers with seeds, and trained 35,000 peple in how to prepare and respond to disasters (to help in the repair of Haiti and preparation for the future).
-Health spending in 2010 amounted to US $46 per person with 38% of the funds being supplied by the foreign aid, and only 21% by the government

Question 32

What were issues with aid in Haiti?

Answer 32

Disease.
-UN aid workers supposedly brought cholera to Haiti via Nepal as it is supposed that UN peacekeepers previously working in Nepal did not quarantine for an adequate period of time before going to Haiti amidst the chaos. The cholera then spread as waste from a UN base in Haiti contaminated an important Haitian river. 5,000 Haitians are subsequently suing the UN for starting the cholera pandemic in Haiti.

Covered up sexual assault.
-Reports of sexual assault from aid workers (oxfam) and UN peacekeepers have been widespread. It is supposed that reports had been made to aid organisations but these organisations just sent the accused home and brushed it under the carpet without reporting it to the relevant authorities.

Economic issues.
-The aid sent over may encourage corruption because of the large sums of money involved and pumped in through a top down system, money which may support authoritarian regimes.
-The administration systems of developing countries may be overwhelmed by all the money so not all the aid reaches the people who need it
-Aid may distort the actual economic status of the country by artificially adding to its GDP and when this aid is removed or reduced it may cause economic uncertainty to collapse.

Question 33

How effective has The Global Fund been in eradicating epidemics such as Malaria?

Answer 33

The Global Fund, a partnership between different organisations, has focused on trying to eradicate malaria.

There has been a 48% decline in deaths from malaria between 2000 and 2014. However, around 2 million people a year still die from Malaria.

In Ethiopia $611 million was allocated for action against malaria with 41.6 million not distributed.

Question 34

How has gender equality been in the past couple of decades?

Answer 34

The Global Gender gap reports showed that between 2006 and 2015, gender parity in education and health was almost achieved in some countries.

However, there is still a considerable difference in income between men and women and positions of power in politics between men and women (representation of government).

Overall the gender gap decreased by 4% in these years.

Question 35

What is aid dependency?

Answer 35

A country is considered to be aid dependent if it cannot perform many of the basic functions of government without overseas aid.

Question 36

What are the issues with countries becoming dependant on aid?

Answer 36

It can become easy for National governments simply to rely on aid money, rather than devising schemes to enable local industries, economies and systems develop or increasing tax revenue.

Furthermore, aid goods (e.g. food) can flood the market, driving down prices of local goods, reducing incentives of local farmers to produce the amount they were pre-aid causing great economic damage.

Arguably the most important issue is that aid dependancy can leave the recipient country at risk if that aid is suddenly stopped, for example during global recessions, because if the country is dependent and the aid stops them the country does not have the necessary public infrastructure or revenue to support itself.

Question 37

How has TNC exploitation oil resources in Nigeria affected the Niger Delta region?

Answer 37

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil exporter and this enormous wealth should lead to economic prosperity. However…

-Nigeria earns US$10-15 billion each year from oil, but over 70% of the people in the Niger Delta live below the poverty line.
-Poor care is taken of the environment and safety in the Delta region is much lower than what would be expected in developed nations.
-Less than 20% of the Delta region is accessible by road.
-Poor sanitation and pollution make access to clean and safe drinking water a problem.
-Traditional livelihoods such as fishing and agriculture are being damaged by pollution. This is impacting the local people who rely on these for income and therefore making them poorer.
-Amnesty International says in 2014 there were 550 oil spills which polluted ground water, surface water and soil. Subsequently, mangrove and rainforests are frequently damaged and destroyed.
-During oil extraction natural gas is burnt off causing breathing problems and a higher risk of cancers in local people. This is also contributing to global warming.
-Oil spills in the Niger Delta over the past five decades will cost the US$1 billion and take 30 years to clear up.

A combination of weak governance and a reliance on oil revenue means the oil companies are allowed to do whatever they want, at the expense of the regions minority groups and environment.

Since 2000, the Niger Delta region has been plagued by violence from the Niger Delta Avengers, with frequent attacks on pipelines.

Question 38

What are ‘Land Grabs’ in Kenya?

Answer 38

Since the 1980s and the presidency of President Moi (1978-2002), land has become a currency of political patronage among Kenya’s elite. Large tracts of public land have been illegally or irregularly acquired. Land grabbing is the name given to this irregular privatisation of public land. President Moi started land grabbing as a resource to use as bribes and the practice has continued despite resistance. Today Kenya’s land grabbers are high profile government officials.

Question 39

What has been the effect of land grabbing in Kenya?

Answer 39

Land grabbing has had serious impacts on public finances, development opportunities and land pricing. The pressure on land is considerable in a country where 85% of the population relies on agriculture for its livelihood and 88% of the population have access to less than three hectares of land. Land tensions also simmer among minority ethnic groups excluded from land ownership. Land grabs are putting Kenya’s survival as a fairly stable state in jeopardy. Kenya is not in isolation though, other countries in Africa are experiencing land grabbing to such as nearby Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Question 40

How did Russia use human rights as justification for their military action in Ukraine?

Answer 40

Russia claimed that Ukraine had become nazified and was attempting to commit a genocide against ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine (Luhansk and Donetsk). Russia also justified the invasion with national security saying that Ukraine was looking more towards the EU and NATO even though they had an agreement that Ukraine would not join Western alliances - but Zelensky publicly accepted joining NATO would not happen?

Question 41

What was Russia’s real justification for military action?

Answer 41

Geopolitical strategy (not human rights). Ukraine had not been committing a genocide in Eastern Ukraine. Russia wanted a stronger border with a westernising Ukraine, a Donetsk-Luhansk buffer state could serve this purpose.

Question 42

How were Human Rights used to justify military action in Libya?

Answer 42

When the Libyan government of Colonel Gaddafi cracked down on pro-democracy protestors inspired by the Arab Spring across the Arab world, the UN approved the use of force to counter the action of the Libyan government and defend ‘helpless’ Libyan civilians from their tyrannical government.

Question 43

What is hypothesised to be the ‘real reason’ for military action in Libya?

Answer 43

National and International vested interests, such as a desire for regime change (more friendly regime for the West) and for energy security (Libya is a major oil exporter in the region), were both realistic reasons to justify military intervention

Question 44

Does a poor human rights record prevent military aid?

Answer 44

Not necessarily, an area with a poor human rights record may be prevented from accessing some resources, but it will not prevent the sale of these resources through other areas which do not have a problem with trading with this country.

Question 45

Where has the UK controversially given military aid to?

Answer 45

Saudi Arabia.

UK and Saudis allies since 1915 when it became a British protectorate (independent 1927). In 2005 UK agreed to supply Saudi with fighter jets.

Since 2005 UK has sold Saudi nearly £10 billion worth of defence equipment and Saudi has invested nearly £60 billion in the UK.

It has been rumoured that Saudi princes received tens of millions in commissions for awarding arms contracts to British firms.

Question 46

What has been the problem with America giving aid to Colombia? How does the USA justify it?

Answer 46

Colombia has been one of the largest recipients of American military aid for over a decade (USD10bn for military and social programmes between 2000 and 2015 despite its human rights abuse history being poor (torture by the military and paramilitaries has been reported as a widespread practice by NGOs and IGOs).

USA argues that its military aid helps Colombia maintain peace, tackle illegal armed groups, fight criminal orgs involved in humans and drug (cocaine) trafficking to the USA. USA also argues that it has imposed human rights conditions on these payments (requires suspension of military personnel accused of HR abuses) However, NGOs (including Amnesty International) have claimed that only 25% of the aid is withheld if the human rights conditions are not met.

Question 47

What is ISIS?

Answer 47

IS is the the world’s most loathed terrorist organisation causing much trouble in the Middle East and has mounted terrorist attacks in other parts of the world.

IS has no respect whatsoever for human rights. It grew out of Al Qaeda and took advantage of the power vacuum in Iraq created by the withdrawal of Allied troops from that country and the civil war in Syria.

It has subsequently embarked on a jihad, or religious war, in the name of Islam but for its own barbaric aims.

Question 48

What is the international military campaign by Western powers against IS motivated by?

Answer 48

The international military campaign against IS is motivated by three main concerns:
-The political stability of the Middle East
-Safeguarding access to the region’s great oil reserves
-The serious abuse of human rights

Question 49

How is the war on terror against IS fought?

Answer 49

Given the subversive nature of IS, and other terrorist groups, there can be little doubt that surveillance of suspects and intelligence gathering are going to play as critical a part as overt military action.

On this more murky battlefield out of the public eye, it may be tempting to resort to one of the activities that figured prominently in the UDHR in 1948: torture and extraordinary rendition (Guantanamo bay?)

Question 50

What is extraordinary rendition?

Answer 50

Secret transfer of terror suspects without legal process, to a foreign govt for detention and interrogation. Interrogation methods often do not meet into standards (and the country transferrin terror suspects often knows this).

Question 51

What is Guantanamo bay?

Answer 51

A US military base on Cuban soil to hold detainees in the ‘war on terror’. Detainees can be held for an indefinite time without access to legal representation or trial. Red Cross inspected the camp and found evidence of torture in 2004.