Human Rights and IOs

Origin of human rights

John Locke: people have natural rights and people form a

government in order to protect their own rights

European notion of human dignity at the heart of human rights

Social contract theory: contract between ruler and people

Legal basis of human rights

Natural law

Natural rights: European notion: right cannot be taken off from

individuals

Positive law: quality of protection by government

Rights of man is different from rights of citizens

Universal human rights came quite later on

Rights of human beings

Hague convention and Geneva convention to limit and regulate

war

Sovereignty and non-intervention

Before Nazi German atrocities, there was no international practice

to stop human rights violation to its own citizens

Need for human rights came from the western civilization

Early enforcement mechanism and human rights regime

Due process

Equality rights

Social welfare: education, marriage

The Universal declaration was not binding

Specific conventions and treaties about human rights were

developed

Human rights notion became political tool to embarrass the East

The east was more interested in social and economic rights

Decolonization process gave another impact on human rights

Self-determination

Membership is crucial

Amnesty international

Human right watch

Recent Enforcement mechanism

Rule of law

High Commissioner of Human Rights

Human Rights council

Universal jurisdiction

All states have interests in certain crimes and suspects of these

crimes cannot avoid prosecution by where he or she is

Most powerful legal weapon

R2P
Normative foundation of human rights
The universal declaration of human rights
International human rights covenants
The UN bodies
OHCHR since 1993
The Human Rights Council since 2006
The UN guiding principles
IDPS
Un guiding principles on business and human rights
Problems
Politicization
Euro-centrism
Enforcement, implementation and monitoring
Why negotiate about human rights?
Because consensus matters
Vincent
In international relations, human rights talk is power talk
Amnesty wouldnt be able to do much without states signed
something e.g. UNDHR
You cannot escape from the politicisation
It needs to be internal
There are inbuilt contradictions within the universal declaration
It is a common feature of international organization
It is an aggregate demand list
Aggregate list may not be helpful in advancing
Right is moral concept
John Stuart Mill states human rights as pure morality
Because everyone has it but it does not mean that it is recognized by
everyone

Human rights and foreign policy

Cultural rights
If you are talking about right to food, who secures or delivers food?
Mill, everyone has rights and everyone has obligations
Consensus is far from being formed