INTLSTD 101 Study Guide - Final Guide: United Nations Human Rights Committee, United Nations Human Rights Council, Hugo Grotius
13 Dec 2016
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INTLSTD 101: FINAL STUDY GUIDE
MODULE 3: HUMAN RIGHTS & HUMANITARIANISM
Lecture 8: Introduction to Human Rights
ORIGINS OF THE IDEA OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Magna Carta (1215) - Everyone, including the King (John), is subject to the law
Renaissance Europe
➔ Hugo Grotius (1583 - 1645) - rights without religious connections or Natural Rights are different
from legal rights because they are not based on laws or culture
◆ Basic rights given to a person by a given legal system
➔ Grotius worked to decrease religious conservatism/feudal authoritarianism
➔ American Revolution
➔ Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776
◆ “We hold these truths to be self-evident”
➔ Thomas Jefferson built on Grotius and other philosophers and transferred ideas out of the realm
of philosophy into politics (a set of guaranteed rights of law)
◆ Started as a political rant and became a statement of human rights
◆ French Revolution
➔ 13 years after Jefferson sees his friend in France, Montesquieu
◆ Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789 - a straightforward document
which assigns sovereignty to the nation and everyone is equal before the law and
references to all men and all people
◆ Montesquieu, Rousseau (Enlightenment philosophers) - sparked the idea of rights
belonging to everyone (self-evidence)
◆ Human Rights “Revolution”
➔ More common in decolonized countries because of unstable governments
➔ Been called a revolution because of its rapid spread
CULTURAL CONTEXT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Lynn Hunt - History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the most Important Concerns of Private Life
➔ Views of the body - explanation of self-evidence
◆ Explanation of self-evidence
● Created moral-autonomy
● Architecture - people began using separate rooms, began watching theatrical
performances in silence (a lot of background noise/disinterest before), public
drunkenness was no longer socially acceptable and people started to feel shame
for bodily functions (people used to pee in the streets with no shame)
➔ Rise of novels - created empathy by putting the readers into context of the writer
◆ “Putting people in another’s shoes”
◆ The readers were capable of moral autonomy
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2
◆ Panama - had a lot of ideals to share
● A rise of empathy resulted from being exposed to foreign perspectives
➔ Movement to abolish legal torture - no longer public punishment because you did not own your
body, so the leaders could use it for educational purposes, and since the body belong to the
people, they could no longer use those bodies to teach others (appeal to moral autonomy)
Main Ideas
➔ We are all inherently the same and deserving of equal treatment
➔ Rise of empathy led to a rise in the movement to end torture
BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVITIES
Promotion - education about rights and becoming interested of what they are
➔ Bulk of the work was educating the public about the rights (most important basic activity)
➔ Child soldiers - the soldiers have rights not to fight
Implementation - prevent discrimination and all (second important)
➔ Steps taken to prevent violation
◆ Improving prison conditions, passing laws against discrimination and free speech, etc.
Enforcement - holding leaders or states accountable for their actions/violations, which is only beginning
now
MAJOR HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS
UN Human Rights Council
➔ Universal Period Review (UPR) - Trica - three countries that come together to review another
country - a state driven process that gives each country the right to show what they are doing for
human rights
◆ Every country within the council has been reviewed
➔ Complaint Procedure - high evidence policy - submit how you are fighting for rights
◆ The evidence is reviewed
◆ Only consider issues that have consistent patterns
➔ Special Procedures - a country or issue of concern
◆ Council sends representatives to countries
◆ Country mandates that a country/issue is a concern
UN Human Rights Committee - monitors compliance with ICCPR
➔ Countries submit reports - where countries discuss about what has been done
➔ Monitors country report of compliance with ICCPR
➔ Open and frank discussion of necessary changes
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - performs important coordinating and
support function
➔ Strongest presence in the field monitor human rights situations - they bring sustained attention of
that government to the issue
◆ Rapid response unit - fact finders to find out more about the issue
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3
➔ Performs important coordinating and support function
➔ Fewer diplomatic or procedural restraints
International Criminal Court -
➔ Jurisdiction: crimes committed since July 2002 and only most serious crimes - genocide, crimes
against humanity, war crimes
➔ 2 ways to get there UN Security Council - States can bring cases
➔ Goal is to end impunity (exemption from punishment) and complement existing judicial system -
when states are unable or unwilling to run investigations
➔ Four Convictions - 39 indictments
◆ Most recent - Criticized for being too biased towards Africa
● Sex was treated as a weapon of war soldiers are ordered to rape - prevents
countries from representing themselves and rape is a fundamental violation of
rights
◆ US did not sign the statue that brought the ICC
➔ The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - the Human Rights Institutions with the
greatest field presence
Why are there still human rights abuses?
➔ “It’s Getting better” - people of this opinion think it will all be okay in time (without taking any
actions) - gradually redefining the rights of people
➔ “It’s the institutions, not the idea that are an issue” - concepts are great but the institutions are
deeply faulted (human rights abusers on the rights )
◆ NGOs being too sensationalistic
➔ “It’s just rhetoric” - big word for western governments to carry politics of a very different nature -
realist
◆ The 90s were a high point for human rights
Lecture 9: Human Security & Humanitarian Action
HUMANITARIAN IDEAL (AS STATED BY ICRC)
Criteria of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC)
➔ Neutrality - no sides of the conflict
◆ If working in a place of conflict, you don’t take sides
➔ Impartiality - no discrimination based on race ethnicity
◆ Don’t discriminate on basis of ethnicity, race religion, etc. when distributing aid
➔ Independence - not swayed by agendas of the government
◆ Organizations don’t allow themselves to be swayed by the country’s governments
International Humanitarian Law
What - a set of rules that seek to limit damage of armed conflict
Where - major parts found in the Geneva Conventions
➔ Resolve to conflict applies only to armed conflict
When - situations of armed conflict
➔ Distinguished by the nation states
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Document Summary
Magna carta (1215) - everyone, including the king (john), is subject to the law. Hugo grotius (1583 - 1645) - rights without religious connections or natural rights are different from legal rights because they are not based on laws or culture. Basic rights given to a person by a given legal system. Grotius worked to decrease religious conservatism/feudal authoritarianism. Thomas jefferson built on grotius and other philosophers and transferred ideas out of the realm. We hold these truths to be self-evident of philosophy into politics (a set of guaranteed rights of law) Started as a political rant and became a statement of human rights. 13 years after jefferson sees his friend in france, montesquieu. Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen 1789 - a straightforward document which assigns sovereignty to the nation and everyone is equal before the law and references to all men and all people.
