The Proliferation Of International Human Rights

Two of thirty recognised human rights by the United Nations are “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Doc. 1)” or “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”(Doc. 1). However, both are still problems that continue to happen more than fifty years after the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights are continuously violated because when the United Nations created the document it did not legally bind any country to uphold the rights of their people, making the document little more than words on paper. Eleanor Roosevelt remarked during a meeting of the United Nations that “without concerned citizen action to uphold them, we shall look in vain for progress (Doc. 2). Eleanor Roosevelt was emphasizing that the government cannot force the people to utilize their human rights. It is a responsibility that the people must take upon themselves. For example, in the United States we have the right to freedom of speech, but we cannot be forced to speak out, but must do it of our own accord. If we do not use our right to freedom speech it becomes more easily forgotten or taken away. The human rights of people are often times violated simply because the people allow them to be or don’t recognise that they are entitled to them which is why it is important to know

“Ideas about human rights have evolved over many centuries. But they achieved strong international support following the Holocaust and World War II. To protect future generations from a repeat of these horrors, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and invited states to sign and ratify it”

Implementation of international human rights law can happen on either a local, a territorial or a global level. States that endorse human rights arrangements confer themselves to regarding those rights and guaranteeing

In both history and present day, many human rights violations have occurred in countries residing within the UN. Despite the attempts that international influence created through the UN, many countries such as the Soviet Union conducted serious human rights violations through attempts to quell uprisings or anti-government movements. Even in the present day, countries such as North Korea and China have been committing drastic human rights violations, despite existing within the United Nations. Because of these facts, it can be concluded that international influence does not necessarily create better human

In the past, groups advocating for civil, human and migrant rights hardly made any meaningful progress courtesy of insufficient legislation and absence of political will. However, sweeping changes coupled by the need to recognize human rights have made it crucial to defend the oppressed in society irrespective of their location. Such civil and human rights groups have constantly set high standards when it comes to reinforcing the rule of law. Such groups ultimately combine forces to expose human rights violations and prosecute perpetrators. It’s undeniable that such groups have significantly ensured the enforcement of the rule

In the article, “The United States again Flunks a Test on Human Rights,” Robert F. Drinan discusses the modern world's lack of human rights and remaining community of racism. He speaks from the perspective of a human rights supporter who believes that everyone should be equal. He describes how, “The Human Rights Committee is one of six monitoring groups set up to supervise the implementation of the six major world treaties on human rights.” (Drinan 19). He discusses how, “These committees, unfortunately, have budgets that preclude wide dissemination of their findings and recommendations.” (Drinan 19). Drinan mentions small details including how, “There are 2,225 persons under age of 18 who received life imprisonment without parole,” (Drinan

It is well known that the United States have been seen internationally as a key actor, for better or worse, when it comes to the field of universal human rights. At the same time, recent events have shown a disassociation between the words and actions of the nation. Despite the fact that these rights are supposed to be constitutionally-protected, the United States has been criticized for repeatedly violating them not only in the past but in recent memory: criminalization of poverty and homelessness, violation of the privacy of citizens all over the world, racism, police brutality, the prison-for-profit system, mistreatment or even torture of the prisoners. These are just some examples of the most common forms of human rights violations

Shortly after the end of World War 2 and the founding of the United Nations, the UN General Assembly recorded thirty rights all people should have. Ranging from employment, to health and wellbeing, to family and education, the majority of countries give their people these rights. But no government is perfect, as all countries skip a few of these rights in their laws, even the United States. If someone had no knowledge about the last few years and they took a quick look at a newspaper or a news channel, the world may seem peaceful, but this is far from the truth. For the last few years, war has driven millions of people from their home countries and the US refuses to grant many of these people asylum.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” as Mark Twain is often reputed to have said explains with much rhetoric that in fact history is not repeated in a sense that the same events happen over and over again, instead events embrace similar themes. The same concept of Mr. Twain’s history comparison can be brought in support of why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) drafted in 1948 by the UN --an international agreement that dictates basic rights and undeniable freedoms in which all human beings are entitled to-- should be updated. After analyzing the Human Rights Treaty it was concluded that amending the UDHR should be considered because of advancements in the world, in main part due to globalization and

laws in compliance with the cosmopolitan norms of human rights. In the example of counter-terrorism measures in the United States and United Kingdom, courts have repeatedly judged legislation intended to allow arbitrary detention unlawful. In any case, governments remain unwilling to respect well-established international human rights norms (Nash 2009, 99). As elected representatives, politicians are often unwilling to risk appearing soft on those who are perceived to threaten the state’s safety. This broad trend in contemporary politics shows that even in democratic societies there are contexts in which human rights are simply not popular (Nash 2009, 99). As one can note, it is thus impossible to separate the world into “good democratic states” that protect human rights and “bad authoritarian states” that are the biggest violators (Posner 2014, 121).

Globalization, when considered in relation to human rights, can restore one’s belief that it really is worth it. Much has been agreed. Much has been achieved. Much, however, is still in the process of turning from words and ideas to real outcomes for real people.

In international politics power tends to rise above everything else because after the war human rights became an issue. The idea of human rights comes from moral beliefs and principles, entitled specifically to individuals. After World War I, nations were still trying to settle down and establish their powers. At the end of World War II, efforts in attempting to institutionalize and implement new human rights occurred. The construction of human rights is a global challenge which are trans-regional, nation states cannot resolve on their own, and needs collective action from states. Human rights are made up of material needs which are a part of the societal needs and moral needs. Some rights are more universal compared to the others such as slavery, sexual orientation, or persecution. Culture variation is one factor that changes among different countries. The question here is, how does human rights relate to international politics? There are several connections between human rights and international politics. One connection is that states must work together to establish these rights to create the balance of power for individuals even through the culture differences. Human rights suggest a universal morality because of the shared ideas of moral principles and the ideas of the natural law. In discovering the principles to human rights morality was very important during the process because those principles served as a guide to the society’s behavior. The importance of morality in this situation is states must work together to form these rights for the people to create a balance of power and

A similar analysis is dealing with the question whether the content of various human rights conventions and the costs associated with their ratification will influence state's decision to join the treaty in the first place (Cole, 2005, p. 472) .On the one hand, associated costs are the costs occurring with harmonizing policies and practices with the treaty provisions. On the other hand, there are the reputation costs occurring in the case the terms of the treaty are violated

The United Nations is widely regarded and respected as the most powerful institution that promotes international cooperation and human rights action. In theory, actions implemented by and within the United Nations are based on the mutual global goal of protecting international human rights and preventing human sufferings. These actions are constituted through three main mechanisms: the Treaty-based system, the Human Rights Council, and Security Council and Humanitarian Interventions, with the level of confrontation and seriousness in each mechanism increases respectively. While aimed to serve the mutual goal of protecting human rights over the world and have shown some successes, in a world of sovereignty, actions when implemented are in fact grounded by the national interests of each state, including embracing its national sovereignty, concreting its strategic relationships with other states, and enhancing its reputation in the international community. This paper will analyze the successes and failures of each of the three mechanisms of the United Nations regime, through which it aims to prove that when it comes to actions, states focus more on their national, and in some cases, regional interests than on the mutual goal of strengthening human rights throughout the world, thus diminishing the legitimacy of the whole United Nations system.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Covenant) is arguably one of the most important treaties in international human rights law. The Human Rights Committee (the Committee), an independent body of experts established under article 28 of the Covenant are responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Covenant . The Covenant protects and promotes civil and political rights of individuals. It is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which sets out civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights . The Covenant has 168 State parties that have signed and ratified it . While the Covenant may have universal resonance – all states have humans making up their population – it has not been wholly accepted everywhere. In fact, a number of State parties have submitted reservations to the Covenant, restricting their already limited obligations under the Covenant . This essay will seek to show that the approach taken to invalid reservations in General Comment 24 is not the established position, and thus has been criticised. Furthermore, this essay will reason that the approach in General Comment 24 is not appropriate for human rights treaties and that while invalid reservations to human rights treaties should be handled differently, the consent of State parties to the reservations must be respected and not usurped. States are not beholden to anyone but themselves; there is no supranational government that will have