Case Study: child soldiers
- 300,000 child soldiers around the world
- Child soldiers:
o Carry guns
o Serve as human mine detectors
o Participate in suicide missions
o Carry supplies
o Act as spies and messengers
o Provide sexual services
- They used child soldiers because child follow orders and are willing to undertake dangerous missions
- 1993 World Conference on Human Rights
- 1997 Special Representatives for Children and Armed Conflict
- Amnesty International & Human Right Watch => Straight 18 Principle
- 2000 Optional Protocol to Convention on the rights of child on the involvement of children in Armed conflicts
- ILO convention
- 1990 Convention on the right of Child (CRC) : US and Somalia did not ratisfy
Roots of human rights norms
- Holocaust of Nazi Germany in WWII => apartheid => dissolution of USSR => Bosnia and Rwanda
- Religious traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Confucianism
- Philosophers and political theorist: John Locke (natural rights=>ICCPR), Magna Carta ( French revolution and US bill of right), and Karl Marx (right to enjoy socioeconomic advance => ICESCR)
- Debate: universal human rights vs. cultural relativism:
o Asian states (cultural relativism)
ð 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna
Human rights institutions and Mechanisms
a. NGOs and human right movements
- First movement: Anti-Slavery groups
- 1863 ICRC
- 1970s ICCPR and ICESCR & 1975 Helsinki Accords => many NGOs were created
b. League of Nations
- Important achievement of League of nations in the field of human right:
o Racial equality
o Religious freedom
o Freedom of self-determination (1991 Paris Peace Conference
o Refugees (the most successful role of Leagues of nations)
o Women and children rights
c. United Nations
- Franklin Roosevelt: Four Freedom Speech (1941) => UN Charter
- 1948 UDHR
- 1946 and 1947:
o Commission on Human Rights
o Commission on the Status of Women
o Sub-commission on the Prevention of discrimination an protection of Minorites
o High commissioner for Human rights
- Commission on human rights
o Draft and negotiate the major documents
o 53 member states
Processes of human rights governance
a. Setting human rights standards and norms
- NGOs and the anti-slavery movement:
o Anti-slavery International
- Key roles of UN and treaty making
o UDHR
o Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
o ICCPR
o ICESCR
o Convention on the Elimination of discrimination against women
- Regional human rights standards
o 1961 European Social Charter
o 1953 European Convention on human rights and fundamental freedom
o Inter-American Convention on Human rights
o African Charter on Human and People’s rights
- Three generations of human right standards
o 1st generation: political and civil rights
o 2nd generation: economic and social rights
o 3rd generation: right of certain groups (indigenous people, women, children)
b. Monitoring human rights
- Receive complaint of violation from affected individuals or interest groups and reports of state practice
- ILO is the oldest UN agencies and the first international organization to establish procedures for monitoring human rights within states
- UN approach:
o Commission on human right
o Six committees of independent experts to review reports: human right committee is the most prominent one (ICCPR)
- European and other regional experience with monitoring
o European has the effective machinery for human right monitoring
o European commission of human rights
o European court of human rights
- NGO monitoring: AI and HRW
o AI:
o Created in 1961
o Most effective human right NGO because relying on accurate research and modest contributions, utilizing publicity and associated threats
o AI lobbies for better prison conditions, publicized abuses in the respective judicial system, and they kept issues in the international public eye
o Important area of focus of AI are:
· Prisoners of conscience
· Concern for fair and prompt trials
· Abolition of death penalty
· Torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners
· Disappearances
o HRW:
o Created in 1978
o Highly effective organization
o Basket III of Accords: respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief
o HRW depends on large foundation contribution, unlike AI which relies on membership
o Mandate: civil and political rights
o On-site investigation is the main focus of HRW
c. Promoting human rights
- UN role:
o 1993 office of the high commissioner for Human right (UNHCHR): to centralize responsibilities and a provide a visible international spokesperson for human rights
- NGO role:
o Active in providing education on human rights in Cambodia, Central America, Kosovo, and Afghanistan
o Unrepresented Nations and People organization (UNPO): provide training in international and human rights law
o Cultural survival: work with teachers and students to raise awareness about indigenous people, ethnic minorities , and human rights
- Regional organizations: promotional and educational activities to promote human rights in States
d. Enforcing human rights
- The most problematic since compliance is not easily enforced
- States and enforcement:
o National court is one mean for dealing with human right violations (individuals)
o For governmental level, coercive measures may be undertaken against other states for human right abuses
o Apartheid => international sanctions; Tiananmen Square => arms embargo and cancel new foreign aid and high level talks
- UN enforcement:
o Chapter VII of UN Charter
o Economic sanction => Use of force
o Material and economic aid to victims to alleviate the suffering from sanctions
o Humanitarian intervention (not always successful)
- Regional enforcement:
o European & Latin America
Global human rights governance in action
a. Genocide and ethnic cleansing
- WWII => international recognition genocide as international crimes
- 1944 Raphael Lemkin: Father of Genocide
- 1948 Genocide Convention
- Yugoslavia war => ethnic cleansing
b. Violence against women
- Violence against women include:
o Forced marriage at a young age
o Physical abuses by spouses, including disfigurement and rape
o Crippling dowry payments
o Female genital mutilation
o Honor killings
- First tribunal that prosecute rape as systematic instrument for ethnic cleansing is ICTY
- International Tribunal on Crimes against women (1976)
- CEDAW (1979)
- Violence against women and other abuses in war, peace, domestic family life (sexual harassment) => violate human rights and humanitarian norms
- Declaration on the elimination of violence against women
