Lecture #1: The Concept of Human Rights

• The UN drafted a bill (human rights charter) of universal human rights.
• Goal 1: Prevent nations from attacking each other and to prevent future international wars across borders.
• Goal 2: Establish the idea of human rights.
• Charter creation was influenced by the actions of Nazi Germany.
• No one voted against the charter.
• The document was drafted in San Francisco in the very beginning of the UN.
• Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the meeting where the document was created, mirroring the US Bill of Rights.
• The charter forms the basis for human rights policy.
• Sovereignty is the ability for a nation to do what it wants within its borders; all nations are equal.
• Pure Sovereignty means no nation can dictate the actions of another within its borders.
• The League of Nations governed interactions between nations.
• Nations had more sovereignty in the League of Nations compared to the UN.
• Member states in the League of Nations couldn't interfere with each other's affairs.
• The United Nations was created in 1945.
• Sovereignty was compromised with the creation of the UN.
• UN members have obligations not to violate the human rights of their people.
• Members also have an obligation to prevent other members from violating human rights.
• This aspect differentiates the UN from the League of Nations.
• The UN is currently considered weak.

What is a "Right"

• A right is a special entitlement.
• Having a right means having a special entitlement that overrides other governmental demands.
• Rights are usually codified in writing.
• Someone is responsible for ensuring rights are upheld.

Human Rights

• Human rights are inherent because one is human.
• They are inalienable, meaning they cannot be taken away.
• Human rights are equal for all humans.
• They are universal, applying to all human beings everywhere.
• Individual are core to human rights

UN and Global Governance

• There is a movement within the UN towards decentralization.
• This shifts away from the idea that the globe faces common problems.
• The US is seen as a leading nation and setting a dangerous precedent by disengaging with international organizations.
• A world government could maintain order, with a rules-based international order being beneficial.

Claiming a Human Right

• Claiming a human right implies a need for corresponding domestic legal rights.
• A global right requires a domestic law ensuring that right.
• It should be more enforceable than international human rights law.
• Governments of UN member states are responsible for upholding these rights for their people.

Group Based Rights

• Group Based Rights ensures people have the the Right to self-determination.
• Indigenous populations possess rights to preserve their culture and language.
• These rights are not available to others
• Nations have a right to development.

Other Information

• Some consider women's rights as group rights, but they are generally viewed as individual rights globally.
• Human rights are intended to be superior to domestic law.
• Asylum provides safety.
• The Right to Asylum allows individuals fearing persecution to flee to another country, where UN member nations are expected to take them in, but there is no human right to moving wherever you want.

Legal Rights Conditions

• Codified legal rights must originate from a governing authority.
• A procedure for lodging grievances must be available.
• A fair process for adjudicating rights claims must be in place.
• Both the rights and adjudication results must be enforced.

Legal vs. Enforceable

• Human rights become legal when enforceable through an individual's country of citizenship.
• The right not to be murdered is enforced by the police.
• A world government with police-like enforcement of international law is unlikely.
• Progress towards a stronger world government is more likely when facing problems unsolvable individually, such as climate change.
• The world must become motivated to combat climate change to foster a world government.

Global Issues

• Global issues and events require global action.
• Climate change is a global issue.
• Pandemics are global emergencies.
• AI or artifical intelligence could be a global issue.
• Banning something in one country in a world without enforced rules will only lead to it happening elsewhere.
• Reacting to issues is more common compared to preventing them.

Lecture #2: 1/29/25

• International courts hear alleged human rights violations, render judgements, but lack enforcement mechanisms.
• Most human rights are not legal rights.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• The UDHR:
• It is the foundation of human rights.
• Is the source of all human rights laws.
• It was quickly approved in 1948.
• The principles in the Declaration transitioned into international law in the 1960s, where the two main human right treaties were signed.
• Ratifying a treaty in the US requires a 2/3 Senate vote.
• A majority of states must ratify to become international law.
• The US viewed human rights as protecting civil and political rights.
• The Soviet Union viewed human rights as protecting economic and social rights.
• Human Rights Tree:
• UDHR forms the trunk.
• Smaller conventions on Human Rights from the branches.
• Examples: Convention on Women's Rights
• All provision in international law originated in the declaration.
• Not everything in the declaration has been made into international law.
• International treaties translate into law.
• The right to property is debated.
• Owners want it protected from government invasion, but some countries disagree with private property.

Origin of Human Rights

• Ensuring everyone has economic and social benefits require redistributing wealth from rich to poor.

Where Does the Idea of Human Rights Come From?

• Many ideas exist on the origin of the human rights.
• Some believe rights come from God.
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs:
• All humans have needs.
• Basic needs include food and water.
• Needs higher on the pyramid are less basic.
• The top need is self-expression, freedom of speech, and artistic expression.
• Governments should protect the basic human needs at the bottom of the pyramid.
• This approach is not generally accepted.
• John Stuart Mills believed that being human entails the ability to think and express feelings.
• Living without thinking, only existing.
• Philosophers have differing perspectives on fundamental human rights.
• Natural Law/Natural Rights suggest rights are implied by the universe and inherent.

Focus on Human Nature

• Human nature is how people behave in a natural state.
• Some believe humans are naturally good and give rights to others.
• Some think humans are naturally greedy and need rules to give proper rights.
• No compelling argument exists for human nature.
• Human rights are socially defined by the community of nations.
• Societies create support systems for these rights based on widespread agreement.
• Human Rights involve Entitlements recognized in international declarations, conventions, or treaties.
• Human Rights are rooted inthe UDHR

Obligations

• Obligations for ensuring rights are respected rest with national governments where people reside.
• The UN and supranational bodies do little to enforce the rights defined in international human rights treaties.
• Questions arise about the obligations of states that haven't ratified specific human rights treaties.
• Norms are socially enforced rules or expectations.
• Encouraging positive or discouraging negative behavior through prescription or proscription.
• Human rights law establishes human rights norms.
• Human rights serve as tools citizens can use against their governments.
• Politicians find rights inconvenient because its a hinderance to doing whatever they want to do.

Eric Posner's Argument

• Since 1948, countries signed treaties and conventions supporting human rights, and there are more international courts.
• All of this human rights activism not has improved people's lives.
• Minority opinion.

Lecture #3: UN Security Council

• The UN Security Council:
• It is the Larger body of the UN.
• It can pass resolutions but cannot use force or deploy peacekeeping without approval.
• All permanent members have veto power, even if they cause issue.
• The UN is important as a place for debate and resolutions without conflict.

Prince Forecasting System

• Prince Forecasting System is a system for predicting future global conflicts.
• Decide who the main actors are.
• Then, their relative power.
• Their position on the conflict
• Use calculations in the tables
• That gives you the prediction

Actors in the Israel-Palestine Conflict

• Actors in the Palestine-Isreal conflict includes:
• Israeli Government
• Palestine Government
• Hamas
• United States
• UN Security Council

Understanding Michael Posner

• Posner had a high reputation amoung international human rights lawyers

Human Rights vs. Social Justice Issues

• Human rights based on what each deserves by virtue of being human.
• Social justice based on the benefits of society member.
• There is an increasing concentration of wordly wealth among few people.
• National productivity has increased, yet improvement is not seen everywhere
• Income inequality is a humand rights issue if there is a resolution form the intl. community

UDHR

• UDHR was Adopted on December 10th 1948, and that date is now international human rights day
• Nobody voted against it, 8 abstentions.
• Soviet Union abstained and wanted to punish Germany.
• In 1947 many UN members were colonies, but around 56 countries were there at the time
• Only a miniority of current nations were there.
• Countries colonized at the time were underrepresented
• Fewer less developed countries were there like México, Myanmar, Brazil
• They would have cared more about social and economic rights
• Democracy is absent from the UDHR and subsequent human rights treaty

Countries that Abstained

• The Soviet Countries abstained.
• Countries in the Soviet Orbit abstained.
• Saudi Arabia and South Africa abstained.
• Did not think people should be able to marry whoever they want.
• They prohibit interfaith marriages
• Also objected to the clause on freedom of religion, which gives people the right to change their religious beliefs
• South Africa was an Apartheid nation, and many parts of the UDHR put them in the spotlight.
• China's representative is more hostile on human rights compared to 1947.
• They dislike intl. bodies telling them what to do.
• Hostile to UN in human rights.

International Bill of Human Rights (IBHR)

• The UDHR and two Covenants
• The Convention on Civil and Political Rights
• The Convention on Economic, Social, and CulturalRights

Accordinal to Cingranelli

• They UDHR and IBHR require all national governments
  • Must implement policies that treat all human beings as equal
  • Should be democratic.
  • Should be liberal (promote individual rights and freedoms)
  • Should be secular
  • Should redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor
• US Human Rights Report:
• Every year since 1974, the US writes a report on human rights all over the world.
• It is provided to members of congress to help them make foreign policy decisions.
• Details compliance of nations to human standards
• It is very controversial.
• There is no other country that produces a report on the human rights practices of other UN member countries.
• Why offend the countries we might need to work with?
• China issues a report on human rights in the United States
• Wealth and democratic is a good way to tell how much a state respects human rights

Challenges of Enforcing International Human Rights Law Lecture 2/5/25

• Treaties and treaty bodies on Brightspace

Universal Periodic Review

• It is Overeseen by the UN Human Rights Council
• Every UN member state is reviewed on their human rights practices at the end of every four years
• At the end of the review phase, states “accept” or “reject” their recommendations or in part
• State submits a self report, then a bunch of relevant stakeholders submit reports
• In the time between reviews, the states are supposed to be implementing the recommendations.

Key Features of the UPR

• States are reviewing other states
• It is voluntary

Types of Recommendations the States Receive

• They Vary greatly
• Con be very broad
• Some can be very specific
• Recommendations to change specific laws

Countries Relationships - Effectiveness

• Geopolitical Concerns
• States with tensions carry their tensions through the review
• Naming and shaming is used
• States shame their geopolitical adversaries to cast them in a bad light, and are more lenient to their friends
• Recommendations from allies are more likely to be accepted and implemented
• Recommendations from allies are less severe
• Allies are the least likely to make recommendations to each other
• Adversaries are more tough and give more severe recommendations
• Naming and shaming works the best when allies call out each other for simpler things

Is the UPR Effective?

• Lacks consequences/real enforcement mechanisms
• Acceptance of a recommendation doesn't mean implementation
• States can receive and ignore similar recommendations across multiple cycles
• Hypocritical recommendations
• Lack of capacity to implement
• Lack of willingness to implement or publicly knowledge violations
• Domestic constraints
• US's number one recommendation: abolish the death penalty

Positives of the UPR

• Participation has been universal so far
• Sierra Leone has abolished capital punishment
• Mongolia adopted to protect human rights defenders
• Those who work with the UPR see the process as effective
• It is the only process where world governments can hold other governments accountable for their human rights practices.
• The US is more hesitant to accept recommendations because of its status as a world economic power.
• Conservatives hate this process because they hate taking recommendations from states they see as inferior.

Lecture #3 - 2/5/25

• African countries were underrepresented at the UDHR.
• South Asian countries were underrepresented at the UDHR.
• Educating others about human rights is not always effective as people may not care.
• The US does not adhere to the bill of right as it also needs to be a christain state

Human Rights

• General ideas are based on wht freedom of conciense was
• Originated in the West because they had a thegreatest treat to human dignity

Lecture 2/10/25

• The idea of all humans being equally deserving of certain rights that governments should not violate came out in the west.
• If human rights came out in the west, are they really universal?
• Some think that human rights came out in the west because of human rights violations in the west.

Human Rights Arguments

• Pre-modern human rights ideas emerged in the west
• The list of human rights that we see in the text have developed as a result of a political process.
• That process would have been the same anywhere if the threats to human rights occurred anywhere.
• Human rights only developed in the west because the west was the first to have the violations.
• The Rise of strong states in the West first occured Because of elimination of feudal obligations
• Weakening of Catholic Church Religious, political, and economic revolutions
• Development of industrial capitalism

Western Twist on Human Rights

• Emphasizes that Democracy is necessary to protect human rights, and opereate within the rule of law
• The wold "democracy" is not present in intl. human right treaty, the west believes a need of representation
• Elections are needed to hold politicians accountable
• Government shouls protect private property, however rich should protect the poor to maintain econ. rights
• An emphasis on national rather than international institutions for ensuring protection of humans rights
• Secularism: No role of any religion in the operation of the state. Strong separation of church and state. Is necessary.
• Congress some times doesn't belive in religion
• Negative vs. Positive Rights:
• Negative rights:
  • Civil and political rights, such as rights to religion
  • Freedom from being imprisoned for your political ideas.
  • The idea that the government should not intervene
  • Government stays out of it, many consider only negetive the real rights
• Positive rights:
  • Economic and social rights
  • Include the right to education, healthcare, and decent housing
  • Usually rights that require government intervention, such as spending on social services
• Require redistribution of resources

The Dominant View on Human Rights

• It is the view in the United Nations that nations have the main responsibility to protect their human rights, particularly if were less developed

Animal Rights 2/10/25

• Animal rights vs. animal welfare
• Lack of Value we Place on Animal Lives Could be Due To:
• Due to things:
• We consider lesser intellegence
• We belife humans are more evolved
• Humans have morals and know rights from wrong
• Humans have culture, art and languages
• Some think humans have souls

Speiesm

• It is a belief that humans are supperior and terefore our exploitation snd use of them is justified, singer populerized this
• He arruges that we should treat all beings that feel pain the same as humans

Ethial Consumtion

• Ethical animal concotion is questionable in that we still take animals from the end of the day
• Little monitering on cages cage-free. grass-fed and organic
• A significant part if the world thinks animal consumptions is wrong

Culture Impacts

• Religions cultures and traditions are sourrounded by food
• Many religions place humans above animals and say that aniamls are there for human use and exp

Other Animal Right Facts

• Does an embryo more then a pig
• Embrios lack feeting and pain
• Insects, fish etc are sentient beings we dont consider animals and dont give them the same rights

Animal Experiements

• animals have benn scucual for sceince and medical but at cost
• is ir morral te test on humans vs on or test to humans vs test on animals

Impact on Environment

• Animal compunction has a negative impact
• Animals use more resources and space then food does
• Large portions are going to food
• Animals produce polution
• Farm animals emiit lots of nethane
• Run of f entering water wyas and makeing ad rain
• Ruvn off leads to siil and entro
• Vercious cycle of planting over exxcessive fertility.

Lecture #4: The Problem of Cultural Relativism: Is the Promotion of Human Rights Cultural Imperialism?

• Is culture the enemy of human rights?
  • Examples: Free speeh, culture prohibits discussion

Cultural Realtivism

• NO universal sdandard to measure, culture shoud be relattice to culture context

Cutitual IM

• UN singl estandard might be ex of cuitual rel, but rights are desreved

Definition if cultire

• encompases sosial behabor instutustions and norms

Mertocracy

• Judhe people based on had work and what how capable

Differring Concept

• can be compared in 5 dimmensions

Female Genital Mutilation

• common in many parts of world, in us its illeagal in U. S

Other

• God pragtice accepyed bu society
• Why mal circleisiosios
• Double standard
• FGM is other LECTURE #5 SIX Human Rights Confroversersies.

Lecture #5: Six Human Rights Controversies

• Micheline Ishay says human rights have a long history, not just starting wit UDHR

Origins

• Early human rights ideas can be found in religious texts
  • 10 comandments
  • Hammurabi code
• How ever the concept of human equality isnt prasent
• Slaves etc were considered lesser
• Is the equalilty idea actual human rights.

Europe era of Humand Rights

• Forces indded mid in europe
• Led to western cuiviliation
• Enlightenment
• Slavery still occured

Key Concepts of UN

• UN unregulated capilism comaptib le
• The pertains to social rights
• Gov redistribute
• Gov redistribute

The Socialist Contribution to Human Rights

• Supported Marxitd ideas, siffage etc
• People endorsed hy UnDir
• Trdournds emomocineaualties threated
• The UNCERC has rights designed for this puropose
• Econmomiccal culrual rights for the least populad
• Medciades is design to help the oor and old

Critiques of UN

• The UN is Cultru relativism
• In that each nation has it own custsoms
• Real tivis all culture moreally equivalent
• Univeslome practices are superrier and
• Woman should not have oppruinities

Other UN Deficiencies

• Can respect the securitiy Community
• Willingness of sacfric human rughts
• Some believe us is safes
• Other belief its imperialism

Right to Property Lecture

• Its iin udjr but not intla laws
• Sren as content
• TANGIBILITY AND INTLLICATURITB

Redistributing of poverty

• Social rights proeprt has to br redistrduyt
• Most disagree,
• Jame Madisok , governments should protect
• Frnce from. 1782 precursor modenr
• CATo property is negative
• People get left Alone
• Interational Property rights show property arurond

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• Progress Spendinhj
• Do protection to work
• Bargsining

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• Diffrent and Policy pracfice

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