human rights & intervention 3

geopolitical interventions

aim to address human development and human rights issues by providing:

• Development aid

• Trade embargoes

• Military aid

• Indirect and direct military action

development aid and example

• Financial aid given to developing countries to promote human rights

  • The UK announced a £100 million 3 year package of ODA in 2022

  • Designed to support the most vulnerable parts of the Ukrainian economy and reduce Ukraine’s reliance on gas imports

trade emargo and example

• is a ban that restricts trade with a particular country 

• It encourages a country to change its actions as the country will find it more difficult to sell its goods, resulting in a lower GDP

  • After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU imposed an arms embargo

  • The sanctions prohibited any involvement in the supply of arms and services to Russian military  

military aid and example

• Countries provide money, weapons or military training to help stop human rights abuses

  • The military aid (One aid package, worth $775 million) aims to help Ukraine defend itself over the long term 

direct military

• Armed forces from one country engage in conflict in another country

  • in 2003, the USA and UK were among a coalition of countries who sent troops and carried out airstrikes in Iraq against the government of Saddam Hussein

IGO intervention

• Putting conditions on aid or withholding aid

• Imposing trade embargoes

• Expressing disapproval of human right abuses

Human rights NGOs aim for peaceful interventions by

• Monitoring the status of human rights globally

• Campaigning for the protection of human rights

• Petitioning and lobbying of authoritarian governments e.g. to free protestors imprisoned unfairly

• Encouraging IGOs and governments to intervene in human rights abuses

how western govs try to improve aspects of human rights in other states

• Offering aid with attached conditions e.g. improve the education of women and girls

• Negotiating trade agreements e.g lowering import tariffs 

• Military intervention for the most serious breaches of human rights

Libya 2011

why some forms of intervention are favoured more then others

• different types of intervention are favoured by different groups for different reasons

  • intervention ranges from peaceful interventions to economic and political interventions

• Human rights NGOs often seek to avoid any human rights abuses

  • local NGOs in Afghanistan to try to improve education for women and girls

• Superpowers are more likely to favour military interventions in order to stop human rights abuses and protect the interests of Western powers

  • France and the UK, directed by the UN, performed airstrikes on the Libyan government in 2011 to protect civilians

development aid in Haiti

• In 2010, an earthquake hit Haiti leading to over 220,000 deaths

• 1.5 million people became homeless, having to live in emergency camps (tent cities)

• People in these tent cities suffered an outbreak of cholera, killing more than 9,000 people

• Within months, over £12 billion of aid was pledged by governments, members of the public, IGOs (the UN) and NGOs (the Red Cross and Oxfam)

• The money raised was used in a number of ways e.g. to provide emergency shelters and restore access to clean water

HOWEVER

• Two years after the earthquake, 500,000 people were still living in temporary shelters without electricity, plumbing or sewerage

• Half of the money pledged should have been spent within 18 months (a condition), but only 40% of this had been spent
  

impacts of development aid

• deal with life threatening conditions- malaria- saharan africa fell by 25% 2000-2020

• achieve gender equality- maternal mortality rates fallen, more girls in schoool

• dependency- leave countries at risk if aid stops- used by political leit and can repress citizens

• corruption- kenya and haiti

oil in the niger delta- tncs ruin human rights- env degradation

• About 40 million litres of oil are spilled every year across the Niger Delta

• Mangrove forests and rainforests are regularly damaged

• Conflict over the oil reserves led to human rights abuses

• Around 1,000 Ogonis were killed

• 30,000 people were made homeless as villages were burnt down

land grabbing in Kenya

• Land grabbing in Kenya became popular in the 1980s to use as a resource for bribes

• Important government officials still continue this practice of land grabbing

• The land is used for cash crops for export, biofuel crops and the production of renewable energy 

• 85% of Kenya’s population relies on agriculture for its livelihood, so land grabbing puts huge pressure on the land and creates tensions between different ethnic groups

• Land grabs increase the chance of food insecurity and puts Kenya’s population at risk 

Military interventions justified

CLAIMING THEY ARE DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS

• In 1995, an attack on Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs led to 8,000 deaths 

• This led to a NATO operation, involving an air and bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serbs

• There was a strong human rights justification (genocide, torture), which led to war crimes arrests among Bosnian Serb military leaders

UK IN SIERRA LEONE SUCCESSFUL IT HELPED BRING AN END TO CIVIL WAR

• British soldiers helped disarm the rebel group trying to overthrow the government

• They trained the Sierra Leone Army

• A ceasefire was agreed and upheld

how DONOR countries argue military aid should help human rights

• A strong military could help enforce human rights within a nation

• Attaching conditions to the aid may force recipient countries to stop human rights abuses

• Stopping aid could threaten national interests, such as access to valuable resources

critics claims military aid can affect human rights by

• Further human rights abuses may be committed using the weapons provided

• Supporting a government that represses its people undermines the main principle of human rights

• Ignoring human rights violations condones it

UK military aid in Saudi arabia affecting human rights

• Started in 2015, since this date the UK has supplied Saudi Arabia with $23 billion in weapons

• Has led to serious human rights violations, such as bomb attacks on civilians

• Has led to the deaths and injuries of more than 17,500 civilians 

• More than 20 million people in Yemen are experiencing food insecurity; 10 million of them are at risk of famine

war on terror

After 9/11

• The USA justified sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq as it claimed that these countries supported terrorists

• The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were not approved by the UN, but the USA justified the invasion stating that it was:

  • To fight terror

  • To defend the USA

  • To protect human rights

• Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, was responsible for human rights’ violations - using chemical weapons on the Kurdish ethnic group