Final Exam Essay

Throughout the past century the issue of human rights has become a common discussion in the international community and in politics. Overall the focus on the issue of human rights in the past century has been good, but there is still room for improvements because in many cases there have been less than successful attempts at curtailing abuses of human rights. Some examples of unsuccessful cases are Somalia, Kosovo, and Rwanda. Many cases of the human rights violations that have taken place in countries like Kosovo, Rwanda, and Somalia the international intervention has taken place has had only a short term effect. Somehow the international community needs to find better resolutions to human rights violation so that the efforts will have long term effects.
An example of a less than adequate response to a human rights crisis is the case of Somalia. In order to understand the case of Somalia one needs some historical background. During the Cold War period the horn of Africa was under the control of the dictator named Said Borre. The United States wanted to have some form of military presence in this part of the world during this period because the Soviets at the time had a presence in Ethiopia. In order to accomplish this United States developed a military base in Somalia, and sent economic aid to the country. By the end of the Cold War both Ethiopia and Somalia were left without support from both Russia and the United States. With the end of the economic aid from the United States civil unrest led to the outbreak of a civil war in Somalia. There was not a single organized group of rebels that was trying to overthrow Borre, but groups of clans that rose up against the government. Since there was not a single organized rebe...

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...t into other countries like there was in the case of Rwanda where the conflict spilled over into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The focus of human rights over the last century has improved significantly, but there is certainly room for improvement. Many more cases are evidence as to why there needs to be improvements in curtailing human rights violations; one only needs to look at the case of the school girls kidnapped from the school in Nigeria. It is important that the international community looks at each case and learns from them. By examining past cases, they can see what went right and what went wrong allowing room for improvement. I believe that there will be a positive improve in stopping human rights violations in the next ten years. The best thing to do is learn from every case, to know when to act, and improve the timing of the interventions.