1. In what way do INGOs and NGOs (Global Civil Society) participate within the International Human Rights Regime?
Are they effective and what are some of the challenges they face
2. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, what mechanisms within the United Nations help enforce human rights? Are they effective?
3. According to the CFR, what is one of the greatest challenges of utilizing these mechanisms?
(300 Words)
——-
INFORMATION
https://www.cfr.org/report/global-human-rights-regime
——-
sTUDENT EXAMPLES
2. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, what mechanisms within the United Nations help enforce human rights? Are they effective?
The United Nations is known as the central global authority for developing standards on issues and laws all across the world. They are known for being able to develop international norms and find legitimate ways to be able to enforce those standards in countries. In order for all of these standards, norms, and laws to be enforced, there are many different mechanisms within the United States placed there to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that the standards are reached. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the mechanisms within the United Nation include the UNSC Action, UN Human Rights Council, committees of elected experts, various rapporteurs, special representatives and working groups. Together, all of these mechanisms work together to attempt to enforce human rights. What all of these have in common is that they all have the same goals of raising political will as well as public awareness, they also seek to evaluate the ways that states assess issues dealing with human rights, and offer technological advice to states on how to improve how they deal with human rights. In addition to these mechanisms, there are also war crime tribunals such as the International Criminal Court, tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and hybrid courts in Sierra Leone and Cambodia. The war crime tribunals also aid the United Nations in making sure that human rights are being enforced in all of these nations, and if there is a legal issue between two nations on whether the standards are being kept or not, one nation may bring legal action against another.
References:
The Global Human Rights Regime. Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/report/global-human-rights-regime.
————-
- In what way do INGOs and NGOs (Global Civil Society) participate within the International Human Rights Regime? Are they effective and what are some of the challenges they face?
INGOs and NGOs have become a prominent part of global society. Starting from the UN Charter and the UN Declaration of Human Rights, several countries have now joined various organizations to promote human rights. HRINGOs are motivated by their principles and are powered by their committed constituencies. Hence why they are not afraid to document and publicize human rights violations across the world. This is very important because human rights research documents a world-level process in which oppressed citizens use international channels to publicize human rights violations and pressure their governments and multinational corporations. According to Tsutsui and Min, At the international level, political opportunities open up for local populations when their governments join intergovernmental human rights organizations via international human rights treaties. By ratifying these treaties, governments expressed their willingness to be judged by a series of benchmarks and to be held ac-countable for failing to live up to their promises. Commitment to these organizations renders the governments more vulnerable to criticism from abroad about their domestic human rights practices, thus providing local populations with in-ternational level opportunities to pressure their governments. This demonstrates that in order for these countries to be a part of these organizations, they are expected to fit a certain human rights profile. Some of the challenges they face are state sovereignty, global human rights poses a threat to governmental actors because they tend to constrain state behavior in domestic political affairs. A lot of the time, stronger governments such as the United States who fund these organizations don’t want to comply with the rules. Also, there are some governments who choose not to join or sign treaties enabling them not to be punished. Unlike non governmental organizations, governmental agencies tend to be more averse to commit to human rights causes because they are concerned about undermining state sovereignty, which global human rights almost inevitably do. However, because of their flexibility and lack of concern for state sovereignty, NGOs have been able to aggressively push the international human rights government forward. Global civil society plays a key role in this evolutionary process, as it sustains political life outside governmental networks and enhances progressive movements that governments tend to abhor. With increasing participation of activists in developing countries as well as those in developed countries in global civil society, the potential for more global progressives social movement is growing, as is the potential for real social change in important issue areas such as global inequality and environmentalism( Tsutsui and Min).
———-
3. According to the CFR, what is one of the greatest challenges of utilizing these mechanisms?
The international human rights system has made many welcome strides, including stronger response in the Muslim world and a lesser degree of commitment to deterrence and responsibility of massacres and major powers. The key processes include UNSC action, the UN Human Rights Council, elected advisory groups, numerous rapporteurs and special delegates as well as working parties. War crimes trials also contribute to standards growth and compliance. All of them aim to increase political will and public opinion, evaluate state and warring parties’ human rights-related actions, and provide states professional guidance on human rights progress. However, these mechanisms are far from consistent. Generally, when they are effective, they change states’ conduct by publicizing abuses rather than by providing technical advice or applying punitive measures. Capacity buildingespecially for human rightsis often expensive and daunting, viewed with suspicion, and the success of assistance is notoriously hard to measure. In many cases, national governments have signed international commitments to promote and protect human rights, and earnestly wish to implement them, but are incapable of doing so. Myriad treaties, agreements, and statements have enshrined human rights on the international community’s agenda, and some regional organizations have followed suit.
These agreements lack binding clauses to ensure that action matches rhetoric, however, and many important violators have not signed on. Meanwhile, organizations in the Middle East and Asia, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, focus primarily on economic cooperation and have historically made scant progress on human rights. Corruption continues to hamper implementation throughout Latin America and Africa, and a dearth of leadership in African nations has slowed institutionalization. =In addition, states often attach qualifiers to their signatures that dilute their commitments. On the other hand, states are under are no binding obligation to observe or implement rights resolutions unless passedwithout a vetothrough the UN Security Council or one of the few regional bodies with binding authority over member states. Capacity buildingespecially for human rightsis often expensive and daunting, viewed with suspicion, and the success of assistance is notoriously hard to measure. In many cases, national governments have signed international commitments to promote and protect human rights, and earnestly wish to implement them, but are incapable of doing so.
Sources:
The Global Human Rights Regime. Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/report/global-human-rights-regime.
