The International Human Rights Regime

International Human Rights Regime - A group of international organizations that have been mandated with the duty to hold states accountable to human rights

• monitoring - the collection, verification, and analysis of information pertaining to the extent human rights violators falls short of international human rights standards

• enforcement - the use of the international human rights legal framework to investigate and prosecute human rights violators

• advocacy - the communication of monitoring results to the public to raiseawareness about human rights violations

Monitoring - the UN Human Rights Council

• Membership - 47 member states serving staggered three-year terms and elected by the 193 members of the UNGA

  • many questionable member states that violate human rights e.g. China exploiting Uyghurs; Philippines joined after

  • conceptual damage is what happens to human rights that are undermined

• Universal Periodic Review - the review of the human rights record of all 193 UN member countries every four years

  • Information Gathering - collects reports from (1) the member state under review; (2) other institutions within the UN; (3) national and international human rights organizations

  • Review Session - interview between HRC and the member state under review regarding reports submitted during information gathering stage

  • Outcome Report - summary of discussions held with member state under review that includes recommendations to improve the human rights situation in that member state’s country

    • member countries can support the report, note the report, or reject the report

Enforcement - The International Criminal Court

ICC independent from UN; created from Rome Statute; only prosecutes individuals (not states) of human rights violations

• individual focus - investigates and prosecutes individuals, not states, who have committed human rights violations

• special mandate - focuses on only the most flagrant human rights violations (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes)

  • ex. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo prosecuted for recruiting children 15 and under to fight war in DRC

• limited jurisdiction - only investigates and prosecutes individuals who belong to a member country of the ICC (Rome Statute)

  • ex. Hague Invasion Act protects US service members from ICC

  • Exception 1 United Nations Security Council can refer a case to the ICC even if individual’s country is not a member of the ICC

    • referred Libya to ICC for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes

  • Exception 2 ICC can take a case if individual from a non-member state committed human rights violations in the territory of one of the ICC’s member states

    • ex. arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Sinwar, and other senior Israeli and Hamas officials

  • Exception 3 only investigates and prosecutes individuals when national courts are unwilling or unable to

Advocacy - U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

• targeted monitoring - the specialization of research on particular human rights violations and specific policy recommendations to address violations

• promotion - the communication of specific human rights violations and policy recommendations to gain public support

  • ex. lobby, talk to Congress, talk with other nonprofits and NGOs (like Amnesty International)