International Human Rights in Action The United Nations has been adapting its human rights machinery in order to better respond to the changing demands of the international community. During the cold war, the United Nations created the normative and institutional structures for international human rights protection, steadily broadening its competence in this area. At the same time, it supported the vast process of decolonization, which led to the birth of over 80 new independent nations. Landmark United Nations actions, such as the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960), provided the blueprint for universally establishing the collective right to self-determination. The United Nations also concentrated its efforts on the human rights abuses resulting from the policy of apartheid in South Africa, overseeing international action which eventually helped to end this gross abrogation of fundamental rights. Despite these successes, however, the effectiveness of the United Nations was severely restricted by the cold war, both in terms of the range of human rights to be defended and in terms of ensuring their respect in practice. The world political situation did not allow for much concerted human rights activism in the field. Doctrines of national security and sovereignty were often invoked to conceal, excuse or justify human rights abuses. Today, there is widespread recognition that the 50-year investment in development and human rights promotion requires new impetus to secure broader realization of economic and social rights. Extreme poverty and exclusion from economic, political and cultural life continue to be the fate of millions in both developing and developed countries. Currently, ... ... middle of paper ... ...eventive measures for the elimination of violence against women, in particular in situations of armed conflict. MUSLIM WOMEN The woman's nature as the mother means that there are certain virtues which Allah has made specific to her such as the protection of her honour and the honour of her offspring. For example, religious texts ordained that the woman's body, except for the face and the hands, should be covered in front of all except those who are a mahram (those she is forbidden to marry). And that a woman should not sit in private with a man who is not mahram. Furthermore, the female has a greater sense of modesty and sensitivity. Hence, though she should demand her rights and practise them accordingly, this practice should be such that her modesty, dignity, virtue and sanctity be preserved. Bibliography: sites on the net www.un.com
In “Four Human Rights Myths” Susan Marks discusses several conceptions (or misconceptions according to her) about human rights. She begins her paper with a case study of the 2011 London riots and how distinctively different is their coverage by the British prime minister and two scholars.
The high rate of violent deaths in women has led to the international community; through different ways and means to require the authorities to take preventive and corrective measures about it.
According to Angelari, Marguerite (1997), “this is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. Similar to a hate crime, which it is sometimes considered, this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive”. This means that these violence acts are specifically directed to women in our society. Examples of the types of violence against women are: financial, emotional, physical, social and sexual violence. According to Prugl, E (2013), “forms of violence perpetrated by individuals are rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, coercive use of contraceptives, female infanticide, prenatal sex selection, obstetric violence, harmful customary or traditional practices such as honor killings, dowry violence, female genital mutilation, marriage by abduction and forced marriage.”
“Human rights are not worthy of the name if they do not protect the people we don’t like as those we do”, said Trevor Phillips, a British writer, broadcaster and former politician. Since the day of human civilization and human rights are found. No one can argue against the idea that God created us equal, but this idea have been well understood and known after the appearance of many associations that fight for human rights as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that showed up in 1948. Human rights are those rights that every person, without exceptions, is born with. They are the most important human basic needs because no one can live a decent appropriate life without having those rights as a human. In fact, these rights
Unfortunately this statement of the international human rights law stays in theory most of the time. In practise some people see themselves as freer and superior to others and treat people according to this kind of attitude. Therefore, millions of people struggle with discrimination almost in every turn in their daily lives. They fight against discrimination to have a peaceful life, and to do this they form organizations or they attempt to international organization’ specialized human rights offices which are supported by governments, institutions or individuals. In this sense, as a powerful and leading organization United Nations has the biggest role to deal with this issue of discrimination. Starting on human Rights day 2009, and continuing next year 2010 the UN human rights office draws special attention to the discrimination issue. Like all other international organizations which focus on human rights and violence against it, the UN human rights office’s purpose is to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights in the dignity and worth of the human rights without considering people’s race, language, sex, religion or any other features. However, sadly, millions of people get hurt due to their differences of skin colour, sexual orientation, nations, disabilities, gender identity and so on -this list can be varied in the proportion of people’s narrow mindedness. In this essay of mine, I will mainly focus on the discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and international organizations’ role in this subject, especially the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that works under the United Nations.
“Such an approach helps focus attention on current and emerging threats to the security and well-being of individuals and communities” (UN 2014). Moreover, women are important when it comes to negotiating peace agreements, planning refugee camps, and peacekeeping operations, as well as reconstructing war-torn societies (UNIFEM 2004). A Feminist’s perspective in security studies challenges the focus on military solutions and pushes attention towards addressing structural problems, additionally, they believe in prevention rather than intervention; e.g. civilian solutions rather than military solutions. Feminist’s goals are to resolve issues within the state first. They try to identify the collective needs of the human kind. Human security helps one understand how gender and violence relate. The indication of human security allowed UNIFEM and UN women to work in post-conflict situations which brought people to work together in humanitarian affairs, development, and unquestionably security. Involving more women in International Relations could be a better influence for the world and have positive results but only if both genders
Two aspects that make the United Nations Development Program's approach to the eradication of poverty distinctive is discussed, definition of poverty and a human rights approach. Current trends in world poverty are examined and new measures are introduced to argue that the concept of poverty goes beyond income deprivation. A case is made for viewing poverty as a denial of human rights. The United Nations Development Program understands of how a human rights approach sheds new light on the challenges of eliminating poverty. Additionally, the United Nations Development Program's understanding of how a human rights approach can help in programs designed to eliminate poverty is outlined. The article provides some great information for me to use in paper on the denial of clean water to everyone in this world because it’s something everyone should be able to have access too.
ABSTRACT: This paper defends the claim that the contemporary canon of human rights forms an indivisible and interdependent system of norms against both "Western" and "Asian" critics who have asserted exceptionalist or selectivist counterclaims. After providing a formal definition of human rights, I argue that the set of particular human rights that comprises the contemporary canon represents an ethical-legal paradigm which functions as an implicit theory of human oppression. On this view, human rights originate as normative responses to particular historical experiences of oppression. Since historically known experiences of oppression have resulted from practices that function as parts of systems of domination, normative responses to these practices have sought to disarm and dismantle such systems by depriving potential oppressors of the techniques which enable them to maintain their domination. Therefore, human rights norms form a systematic and interdependent whole because only as parts of a system can they function as effective means for combatting oppression and domination.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report (2000) Human Rights and Human Development (New York) p.19 [online] Available from: [Accessed 2 March 2011]
United Nations Publications. Commission for Social Development: Report on the Forty-fourth Session 18 February 2005 And 8-17 February And 22 March 2006. New York: United Nations Publications, 2006. Print.
United Nations. (1993, December 20). Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Retrieved from United Nations: http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/
United Nations Development Program (UNDP). (2000). Human development report 2000. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The intertwining of sets of human rights needs to be the reality when enjoying rights; those who don’t have the basic/positive rights of education cannot take part in political rights or exercise rights such as freedom of expression. On the other hand situations in developing countries such as famine are less likely to occur when there is the ability to exercise political rights and the right to vote. The international community along with experts and academia need to put forward debates on and bring new ideas to the conversation of the interlacing of civil and political and social and economic rights to dissolve this false dichotomy that are putting limits and constraints on the protections of individuals.
The United Nations has made many achievements since the agreement made in 1945. The efforts of the UN helped end the apartheid in South Africa allowing the citizens of South Africa equal participation in the Elections of April 1994 followed by a consensus in choosing a form of government. 90 percent of children in developing countries attend school and 60 percent of adults in these countries can read and write thanks to the UN and the struggle to improve education in developing countries. Over 300 international treaties have been created through United Nations efforts to strengthen international law. These achievements and many others encourage people like myself to promote and praise the United Nations.
In a contemporary world, poverty is inter-linked with systemic deprivation of rights and related to the notion of Human Development