Knowt
week 7: human rights
What is this global human rights system?
What are human rights?
To make sense of the global human rights system, let’s first explore the concept of human rights…
What are human rights?
Perhaps a good (and straightforward) definition of human rights is the following:
Human rights are…
Protections from things deemed “bad” (torture, slavery, inhumane punishment, suppression of speech, etc…)
and ….
Provision that facilitate the enjoyment of things deemed “good” (education, housing, health care, water, inclusion, political influence, etc…)
But… in my humble opinion, the concept of human rights might be more than just provisions and protections.
Consider the following 8 propositions…
Human Rights Are…
A product of our deeply-rooted primate biology
98.5% of human DNA is identical to that of Chimps and Bonobos
From these ancestors, we inherited something called “community concern” - an interest in the well-being of others in the community
Ideas that are “socially constructed”
Unlike a tree or a rock, human rights do not objectivly exist in nature
Human rights exist because humans have created (constrcuted) the idea and convinced others of its importance
Consider some of the following rights…
The right for non-combatants in war zones not to be intentionally killed
The right not be enslaved
The right to vote
For almost all of human history, these rights did not exist.
They only came into being when individuals and groups began to demand them and persuade other to take them seriously…
revolutionary …
For much of human history, the idea that a society ought to protect and promote human rights did not exist.
When the idea of human rights became polittically relevant, its effect was and continues to be revolutionary…
It challenges those societies built on ideas that assign (and deny) power to those based on birth, biological sex, race, or religion, among others…
In the late 18th century, the human rights idea contributed to revolutions in America and France that sought to overthrow monarchical rule and grant more power to the people.
These revolutions were said to be motivated by the “rights of man”.
In the 20th century, the idea of human rights contributed to struggles for independence from colonial rule, as in the Balkans in the 1910s, India in the 1940, Algeria in the 1950s, and Angola in the 1960s, among many others…
Today, struggles for Indigenous rights, and truth & reconciliation, here in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and around the world have the capacity to dramatically alter society, including its self-conception and how it distributes resources.
Fluid, dynamic and expansive…
As social constructs, human rights are not ideas that are permanent and unchanging, but rather ones that can evolve and change over time…
Rights claims made by one group can influence other groups
Human Rights Are…
The idea of human rights stem from many historical tradtions, including…
Ancient Greek ideas about the importance of the individual
Ancient roman ideas about good governance
Ancient Babylonian ideas about protecting the weak from the strong
Muslim ideas on religious tolerance
Jewish ideas on how to treat strangers
Buddhist ideas on universal compassion
Christian ideas on moral conduct in war
Confucian ideas on the importance of widespread education
Tools designed to achieve specific social and political objectives…
What is the purpose of the right to freedom of speech
To prevent violence?
To identify ideas that can be useful for a society
Are there other purposes this right my serve?
Contested
Not everyone agrees what rights others ought to have…
Should there be a right to abortion?
Should future generation have rights?
Should the Quebecois in Canada have the right to secede and create their own independent state?
Should an individual have the right not to take a vaccine?
Should convicted criminals have the right to vote
Should racists have freedom of speech rights?
An ideas used by political actors to weaken poltical adversaries…
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union routinely criticized the US government for its significant right violation, notably towards Black communities in the American south.
Some far, we have seen how human rights are:
Protections from things deemed “bad”
Provisions to access things deemed “good”
Products of our primate biology
Social constructs
Revolutionary
Fluid, dynamic and expansive
Diverse in intellectual origin
Tools designed to address various social problem
What is the Global Human Rights System
For human rights to be of practical significance to our lives, they can’t just be an idea we discuss…
They must also be protected and promoted by those with political power
Persuading states around the world to protect and promote human rights is the job the “global human rights system.”
What does theis system consist of?
Two of the most important components of the global humanrights system include:
The united nation’s human rights system
The international human rights movement
The UN’s Human Rights System
The UN’s Human Rights System consists of two core features:
Standard setting bodies:
The first main job of the UN’s human rights system is to set the standards of “good” political behavior.
Through a series of documents, resolutions and treaties, it outlines how states ought to behave on a wide variety of policy issues, such as towards minority groups, during wartime, and on health and education, among many others…
These standards of good behavior are laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and 9 “core” human rights treaties that focus on…
Racial discrimination
Civil & social and cultural rights
Discrimination against women
Torture and other forms of inhumane punishment
Children’s rights
Rights of migrant workers and their families
Persons with disabilities
Protections against ford disappearances
Monitoring mechanism
In addition to setting the standards of good behavior, the UN also tracks the extent to which states are complying with their human rights standards. Three main mechanism include:
Monitoring and Reporting Committees associated with each of the nine core human rights treaties
Human rights council's universal periodic review
Human rights council’s “special Procedures”
The International Human Rights Movement
The global human rights system also consists of a transnational network of human rights NGOs and activists, known as the “international human rights movement…”
Today, some of the most prominent human rights NGOs are…
Human Rights Watch
Amnesty International
International Commission of Jurists
Unrepresented People’s Organization
War Child
Mines Action Canada
Journalists for Human Rights
Doctors Without Borders
What other NGOs would you add to this list?
The international human rights movement in history
While human NGOs and activists are prominent today, their actions date back to the late 18th century…
1780s-1860s: campaigns against slavery
1820s: campaign to liberate Greeks from Ottoman rule
1880s-1920s: campaigns for women’s right to vote
1870s-1910s: campaigns against footbinding in China
Early 1900: campaign against Beligan forced labor practices in colonial Congo
1920s-1930s: campaign against female circumcision in Kenya
1960s: campaign against apartheid rule in South Africa.
How Does the Global Human Rights System Promote Change?
In military and economic terms, the global human rights system is not particularly strong.
It cannot force states to comply with human rights treaties and best practices
How, then, does the global human rights system exert influence?
Changing Saudi Arabia’s Behaviour
To learn more about how the global human rights system seeks to curb human rights violations, let’s consider a real world example.
In week #4, we mentioned that Saudi Arabia has been accused of targeting civilians in their war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
A few options might be:
Encourage Saudi activists inside the country to protest their own government?
Pressure the US and UK government to make arms sales to the Saudi government conditional on its human rights practices?
Pressure Western governments to stop buying Saudi oil until it complies with international humanitarian law?
Another option is to tarnish the international reputation of the Saudi leadership through “naming and shaming”
In a campaign to create a “group of Eminent Experts on Yemen '' in the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch sought to raise awareness of Saudi airstrikes against Yemen civilians in order to embarrass the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman.
How Does The Global Human Rights System Promote Change?
Human rights watches approach to Saudi Arabia reflects one of the most common strategies the global human systems uses to promote human rights…
The Limits of The Global Human Rights System’s Influence
If “naming and shaming” is the main strategy of the UN and human rights NGOs, what should be done about states that don’t care about their international reputations?
For instance, “naming and shaming” does not appear to work against states like North Korea, Russia and China.
In these cases what should the global human rights system do to promote change?
The Emergence of The Global Human Rights System
Let’s now turn to the origins of the global human rights system…
Let’s focus on the formation of the international human rights movement.
According to Aryeh Neier, the international human rights movement emerged in the 1970s as a result of three key factors…
First, events that sparked moral outrage and inspired action…
1973 US beach coup in chile
1974- impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
1975- signing of the Helsinki Accords
1976- Soweto crisis in apartheid SOuth Africa
1977- US President Jimmy Carter calls for human rights to be central to uS foreign policy
1978 - the formation of the “Democracy Wall” movement in China
Second, advancements in communications technology allowed activists and NGO around the world to easily share information, ideas, strategies and tactics
Third, changes to the relationship between Western journalists and Western governments, leading to more coverage of human rights issues…
What role might economic factors have played in creating the conditions for the emergence of the international human rights movement?
Since states are so central to modern international relations, might they have played a role in the formation of the international human rights movement?
The role that Western states have played in funding NGOs in creating the international human rights movement raises important questions…
What would these governments do? Does this reflect a moral-ethical impulse or a powerbased one?
What impact might the “decline of the West” have on the international human rights movement?
An Alternative Way To Think ABout the International Human Rights Movement
If Western states helped create the international human rights movement, what might this tell us about the nature of that movement?
Neier depicts the international human rights movement as inspired by altruism- a desire to make the world a better place for everyone.
Not everyone agrees…
SOme argue that the international human right movement is best understood as the latest manifestation of Western imperialism - the drive by the West to impose its values and control the world…
In advancing this perspective, Makua Mutua makes two specific claims:
First, human rights are a western concept and alien to non-Western societies.
Second, Western human rights NGOs disproportionately focus on countries in the Global South…
Perception of Human Rights in the Global South
James Ron and his colleagues do not find empirical evidence to support Mutua’s view on how human rights are viewed in the Global South.
But before we agree with Ron et al. what questions should we ask about the survey data collected?
