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Chapter Six

2. The Human Rights Revolution: The Construction of International Norms
Charles Krauthammer, 2003 “Foreign policy is not social work. Acting for purely humanitarian reasons is wanton and self-indulgent. You don’t send U.S. soldiers to die to assuage troubled consciences at home. Their lives should be risked only in defense of their country.”
Jimmy Carter, 1977
“All the signatories of the U.N. Charter have pledged themselves to observe and to respect basic human rights no member can avoid its responsibilities to review and to speak when torture or unwarranted deprivation occurs in any part of the world.”
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3. The Human Rights Revolution
Reasons for Hesitation
Three concerns about pursuing a human rights agenda:
The international order argument
Could increase conflict as states intervene to protect citizens of other states
The national interest argument
A focus on rights could distract from other, more vital interests, including security and economic well-being.
The cultural relativism argument
Different cultures have different perspectives on human rights, challenging idea of universal human rights.
Asian values debate
(Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew )
Middle ground: acknowledge basic universal rights with some ground for cultural differences
For realists, considerations of justice, morality, and human rights have no role in the international context.
Constructivists and liberals argue that 1) this view is amoral and 2) realists cannot explain the recent human rights trend.
Is this a revolution in our thinking about how the world works?
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4. First Steps: Establishing Human Rights Norms
In spite of concerns, some human rights abuses are so egregious that they have earned near universal condemnation.
Major factors in establishing human rights norms:
Nazi Holocaust: horror of the Holocaust helped drive push for human rights
Rise of transnational advocacy networks
UN Charter – conflicting elements
Article 2.7 reaffirms state sovereignty over internal matters.
But human rights are mentioned in Preamble and Article 1, and Article 68 calls for creation of a commission to promote human rights.
Debate over negative and positive rights (McKinnon, )
Neg – Speech, Religion, Torture; Pos – Education, Health Care
International Bill of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
Genocide Convention (1948): first of many treaties to deal with specific area of rights
The number of human rights treaties and the number of states that have accepted them suggests human rights norms are placing limits on states.
Realists point out that the norms are rarely, if ever, enforced against states which violate them.
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5. Table 6. 1 Major International Human Rights Treaties: U. S
Table Major International Human Rights Treaties: U.S. Ratification and Global Status
Treaty
Adopted
Entry in
Force US
Signature
Ratification
Number of
States Parties
Convention on Genocide
1948
1951
1988
146
Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights
1966
1976
1977 No
164
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1992
168
Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination
1965
1969
1994
177
Source: United Nations Treaty Collection, Chapter IV: Human Rights, as of October 2015,

6. Table 6. 1 Major International Human Rights Treaties: U. S
Table Major International Human Rights Treaties: U.S. Ratification and Global Status
Treaty
Adopted
Entry in
Force US
Signature
Ratification
Number of
States Parties
Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
1979
1981
1980 No
189
Convention Against Torture
1984
1987
1988
1994
158
Convention on Rights of the Child
1989
1990
1995
196
Source: United Nations Treaty Collection, Chapter IV: Human Rights, as of October 2015,

7. Table 6. 1 Major International Human Rights Treaties: U. S
Table Major International Human Rights Treaties: U.S. Ratification and Global Status
Treaty
Adopted
Entry in
Force US
Signature
Ratification
Number of
States Parties
Convention on Protection of Migrant Workers and Families
1990
2003 No 48
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
2006
2008
2009
159
Source: United Nations Treaty Collection, Chapter IV: Human Rights, as of October 2015,

8. The Human Rights Revolution
Successful completion of that revolution requires:
Effective human rights monitoring
Effective human rights enforcement
Effective prosecution of those who violate human rights standards
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10. Monitoring Human Rights
UN Monitoring
Commission on Human Rights, 1946 (ECOSOC)- Monitoring-1967.
1503 procedure (monitoring function: black list, made of sovereign state members, could not keep pace.
Human Rights Council (HRC): replaced Commission on Human Rights(2005)
Human Rights Committee-1966 Civil/Political Rights & Economic, Social and Cultural rights)
UN General Assembly > Office of the High Commission for Human Rights-1993 – public face
NGO Monitoring (CNN effect)
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
National & Regional Monitoring
U.S. Dept of State
European Commission on Human Rights
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
We monitor human rights by gathering information about violations and violators so they can become known to those who can do something about them.
In the world today, this monitoring function is carried out via UN-based bodies, NGOs, and national and regional reporting systems.
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11. Enforcing Human Rights
Economic Sanctions
Involve the imposition of limitations or prohibitions on trade, investment, or aid in order to get a country to change its policies
Constructive engagement (an alternative) –
(maintain EC/Pol relations to exert influence)
South Africa/Afghanistan,1979 sanctions
Human cost of sanctions
Moral ambiguities
Smart sanctions
(Targeting leaders and not civilians)
Military Intervention
Humanitarian intervention
Kosovo: ethnic cleansing/Libya
Case, in contrast to the realist view, where justice trumped power and where state sovereignty took a back seat to human rights
Responsibility to protect (R2P)2005UN International community will intervene.
Enforcing Human Rights
The first and lowest-cost response of concerned states to reports of human rights abuses is noncoercive diplomacy.
In many cases such diplomatic pressures succeed only if backed by the threat of measures that can cause the offending government real pain(coercive diplomacy):
Economic sanctions
Military intervention

12. Military Intervention
Responsibility to protect (R2P)
Formally endorsed at 2005 UN World Summit
Sought to promote global norm that a state's claim to sovereignty cannot be considered protection from intervention if it is committing or allowing extreme human rights abuses.
Glaring failure to defend human rights in Syria and Iraq

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14. Military Intervention
Libya
Rebellion against dictator Muammar Qaddafi
Anti-regime fighters concentrated around Benghazi were surrounded by a large number of armored vehicles and men.
NATO and US intervention
Supporters call it a "textbook example" of how R2P should be applied

15. Prosecuting Human Rights Violators
6-5 Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the alternative ways of prosecuting individuals for human rights crimes.
Truth commissions
Established in countries where severe human rights abuses occurred
Established to investigate but reach and power vary.

16. Prosecuting Human Rights Violators
Three paths to international prosecution
Universal jurisdiction
Pinochet precedent
Geneva convention
Ad hoc tribunals
Nuremberg Tribunal
Yugoslav (93) and Rwanda Tribunal (94)—created by UN Security Council
International Criminal Court
Rome Statute – Establishing the ICC in 1998 – ability to prosecute individuals
Can hear cases in three primary areas
Genocide; war crimes; crimes against humanity
As of 2017, can start trying cases of aggression under limited conditions
Jurisdiction over crimes:
Committed by citizens of a state party to the treaty
Committed on the territory of a state party
Referred by the Security Council; the Security Council can also halt proceedings
Principle of complementarity (ICC will not hear a case unless domestic court is
unwilling or unable to adjudicate the case in good faith.)
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17. Conclusion
On one hand, evidence suggests that the idea of human rights has affected how the world works in important ways.
But the human rights revolution is incomplete.
Some human rights abusers still act with impunity.
BUT, in pointing to the revolution’s successes, constructivists and human rights activists note the power of human rights to shape not only the way we think the world should work but also, in some cases, how it actually does work.
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