Introduction

• The state is a body of people living in a defined territory, organized politically, with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority

• A nation is an ethnic term referring to races or other large groups of people

• Structure of government: unitary system (national and sate gov), federal system (people, state, and national gov), confederation (state gov and nat gov)

• Unitary: all powers of government are held by a central agency

  • Ex: Great Britain

• The Peace of Westphalia is viewed as the beginning of the current international system

• Sovereignty: a state’s control and authority over its own territory

• Society of States: as association of sovereign states based on common interests, values, and norms

Theories: Marxism, Realism, Liberalism, and Ethics

• Theories of Power: realism and liberalism and marxism

  • Construct what we see in the world, see the world through a certain lense

• Realism: about power and security and seeking autonomy, living in a world where we cannot trust anyone

  • Skeptical about inter-dependence

  • Don‘t believe about any utopia

  • They see the world in terms of tragedy and evil

  • Hope that people choose the lesser evil, and try to be the best self in an evil world

  • You have to live with hardship

• Marxism: thinks that conflicts are typically caused by clashes of economic interests and based on materialistic ideas

• Ethics: the ethics behind and challenging different questions, such as when do we need to intervene in a conflict

• Liberalism: attempts to form consensus and trying to bring peace, the international system created opportunities for countries to work together

  • Lots of opportunities to cooperate and have both sides benefit

  • When we follow international law, we can find solutions that make it possible to avoid war

  • League of Nations and United Nations is an example of Liberalism since it actively tries to avoid war

  • European Union makes economic and immigration policies and is also an example of Liberalism

The United Nations

• The UN was formed in October 24th, 1945

• The six main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, Security Council, ECOSOC, International Court of Justice, Secretariat, Trusteeship Council

• There are 193 members in the UN

• There are fifteen people in the security council

• Russia, USA, Fance, China, Britain have veto power

• R2P = Right to Protect

  • When a leader is ruining the rights of their citizens, UN has responsibility to protect those citizens

• The Secretary General is Antonio Guterres from Portugal

• It has legitimate because all countries in the world are in it

• Sovereignty limits UN action

• Western Sahara, Kosovo, Taiwan, Palestine, and Vatican City are not in the UN

• Started as the League of Nations, it failed, but then FDR started the UN

• Main Purposes:

  • Maintain peace

  • Develop friendly relations

  • Help nations together, improve lives of people, conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy

  • Be a center for harmonizing actions of nations

• Security Council

  • maintain international peace and security

  • 15 members, and 5 permanent members

    • Has veto power, US, UK, France, China, and Russia

  • Resolutions are binding and require a 9/15 vote

  • Enforce economic sanctions, arms embargo, or military action

  • People criticise that the SC reflects WWII not the current power and all the UN states are supposed to be equal

  • People think that the veto should be removed, more members added, and add more permanent members

• General Assembly

  • A parliament of nations

  • 2/3 vote required on issues related to international peace and security, admission of new members, and the UN budget

  • GA decisions are non-binding except for the 5th committee

  • GA decisions do indicate world opinion on a topic and represent the moral authority of the international community

• The Secretariat

  • Led by the Secretary General and carried out the substantive and administrative work of the UN

  • Antonio Guterres is the Secretary General

  • SG can bring situations related to international peace and security

• ECOSOC

  • 54 members, 18 elected on a three year term

  • Balance the pillars of sustainable development

• The Trusteeship Council

  • In charge of preparing territories for self-government and independence after WWII

  • Council is now in the P5 of the Security Council

  • Last one was in 1994

  • It has amended rules and can meet when necessary

• ICJ

  • Main judicial organ of the UN

  • 15 judges elected by GA and SC

  • Decides disputed between countries, participation is voluntary

  • Is a state chooses to participate it is obligated to comply with the decision

  • It can provide opinions to other UN organs

• Triple nexus includes humanitarian, development, and peace solutions

• UN Reform: emergence of new powers (India and Brazil), older powers like Japan and Germany that were left out of the SC, global issues that threaten the world such as environmental degradation, terrorism, proliferation of weapons, persistence of global poverty

The Evolution of Human Rights

• All humans are entitled to the same rights and they are universal

• Basic human rights are non-discrimination, freedom of slavery, freedom of expression, religious, education, residence, workers rights

• All humans are born free and equal

• When countries violate declaration of human rights the UN doesn’t do anything since it is a declaration and not a set of laws

• Humans have the rights of life, liberty, and property

• Job of government is to ensure human rights

• Humanitarianism - concern about the well being of humanity as a whole

  • abolition of slave trade

• Three gens of human rights

  • civic/political, economic/social, life

    • Possibly four with digital rights

• Nonintervention - not intervening in the affairs of other states

• Abolishing the slave trade which involved transactions was easier than abolishing slavery, which still exists today

• Freedom from torture, op opinion, equal treatment before the law, movement within a country

• The declaration is non-binding and it is European centric

  • You can agree to it, but not follow through

• South africa, USSR, Saudi Arabia all abstained from the declaration

  • apartheid, absence if social and economic rights, practice religion of one’s choice

• Universalism - possible to uncover certain values and principles that are applicable to all people and al societies, regardless of historical, cultural, and other differences

• Relativism - ideas and values only in relation to particular social, cultural, and historic conditions. There are no universal truths or values

• UN High Commissioner for Human rights enforces human rights

  • They can only shame and advise security council

• Politicians use human rights for political gain

• Economic sanctions or diplomatic meant to alter policies of countries with poor human rights policies

• A challenge of human rights is the lack of consistency in treatment of rights violations in different states due to political issues

European Court of Human Rights

• If someone feels that their human right shave been breached they go to the ECHR

• 12 states signed up originally now there is over 50

• Most important cases have 17 judges

• The convention can go beyond Europe

• The right to life is the most important

• There is no death penalty in any member state

• Member states are not allowed to practice torture even in cases of terrorism

• Many cases are about fair trials

International Criminal Court

• Started WWII in Nuremberg and Tokyo

• Post Cold War

  • 1993 International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

  • First tribunal to invoke the Genocide Convention

  • Mandated to prosecute crimes against humanity, violation of war laws, and genocide committed in various Yugoslav wars

• 1997 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

  • Jean Kambanda former prime minister first and so far, only head of government to plead guilty to genocide

• 2002 Special Court for Sierra Leone

  • Investigated violations

• Tribunals

  • Refocuses attention on human rights violations and established personal culpability for war crimes

• 1998 delegates from 160 countries, 33 international organizations, and a coalition of NGOs met in Rome to draft the Statute of the ICC

• ICC = “Court of Last Resort”

  • If that person cant be prosecuted in their country

• Non-members include USA, China, India, and Russia

  • Problem because we are the most industrialized and heavily populated countries

  • Significantly reduces the scope of jurisdiction and threatens credibility

  • A lot less effective

• ICC is criticised for being “racist” since they primarily go after African countries

Rise and Fall of the Responsibility to Protect

• United nations was founded to defuse international conflicts and to stop aggression from escalating into a full scale war

• Sovereignty- the principle that no country can interfere in the domestic affairs of another

• Responsibility to Protect Doctrine (R2P)

  • Countries have fundamental sovereign responsibility to protect their citizens

  • If they fail, UN has the right to protect vulnerable citizens

• The Charter of the United Nations defined the UN’s mission to protecting sovereignty

  • UN is allowed to create a multinational military

• UN peacekeepers can only operate under the permission of local governments

• UN authorized NATO breaching Libya’s sovereignty due to the possibility of massacres

  • While it ended the dictator regime, it caused a civil war that is still happening today

  • Left the country in shambles and more unstable than ever

  • China and Russia vowed to never let the UN violate sovereignty

Hong Kong: Human Rights Case Study

• Hong Kong has advantageous geographical positioning

• Throughout the years, Hong Kong has been a piece of land that people are going after

• British ruled Hong Kong a long period of time

  • On the day of pearl harbor, Japan invaded Hong Kong and the British surrendered

• When the Communist party came into power, all the people from Shanghai migrated to Hong Kong which led to a thriving economy

• China is trying to have Hong Kong become reunified

• Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region in China

  • Has a “one country, two systems” framework

• Taiwan is considered to be apart of China, but it has its own government

  • China wants to reunify

• Reunification most likely won’t be peaceful; military force

• British occupied Hong Kong from 1842-1997

• 1997 Handover

  • Hong Kong returned to China under one country, two systems

• Basic Law

  • mini-constitution guaranteeing certain freedoms and autonomy until 2047

• Historical Context

  • 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing ending in violent crackdown

• Relevance to Hong Kong

  • Fear among Hong Kong citizens of similar tactics being used to suppress distant

• Umbrella Movement (2014)

  • demand for full universal suffrage

  • set the stage for future protests

  • umbrella is a symbol of peaceful resistance

  • inspired a new wave of pro-democracy activists

  • protests led by student activists

• National Security Law (2020)

  • criminalizes secession, subversion, ot terrorism

  • passed by China’s National People’s Congress

• International response

  • sanctions and diplomatic pressures from the US, EU, and other democracies

• Economic Impact

  • potential relocation of international business

• Youth Activism

  • The youth have a major impact in political change