The United Nations And Human Right - Essay Example

The United Nations And Human Right Introduction Fundamental human rights are the rights which one enjoys because he is a human and every person is entitled to them. It is also because of this reason that they are considered as universal in nature and each individual is entitled to same rights all over the world. The violation of these human rights therefore can attract several penalties and other punishments as per the laws and universal principles of human rights. United Nations, through its Universal Declaration of Human Rights has set forth the inherent dignity and equal rights for all members of human family. Upholding those rights is considered as having peace, justice and freedom in the world. The laws and fundamental principles for upholding these rights are in place and so does the overall mechanism and infrastructure to actually enforce these rights. Over the period of time, UN has been able to reduce the number of human rights violations across the whole world and that it has been able to put in place different resources which helped it to achieve this objective. However, UN also failed to properly enforce human rights across the whole world as millions of people are still being put through brutalities and gross human rights violations. Not only governments are committing crimes against the basic human rights but smaller and individual groups are also involved too in such incidents. This paper will debate whether United Nations has been able to ensure human rights for all or not by presenting arguments in favor and against the same. Human Rights and United Nations As discussed above, human rights are universal in nature and are available to everyone equally. These are the rights which we enjoy as humans and violations of the same can attract penalties and other punishments for those who violate the human rights. The overall movement for the protection of human rights started to become significant after the World War-II. The overall mandate given to UN is given by the countries who acquire the membership of the UN. Membership of UN is considered as the admission of any individual country towards the international community. UN therefore has been implementing and enforcing human rights either through charter based or treaty based implementations. Both these mechanisms not only provide UN a proper mechanism but structure also to implement and influence countries to implement human rights. The overall atrocities and violations of human rights become common after World War II and as a result of this, United Nations General Assembly met in Paris with the objective of adapting Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, a universal declaration of human rights was adapted by General Assembly of United Nations and as such overshadowed all other human rights declaration which was prevailing in ancient times. Article 1 of the universal declaration suggests that all human beings are born equal and with the same level of dignity. The United Nation Article 1 on human rights states that all human beings are equal and born free in dignity and rights (Smith, 2009, p. 54). The laws were made to ensure that every person has a right to life and this right should be legally protected. The provision ensured that no person has a right to take the life of another person and this right has brought wide debates on issues regarding abortion, war, capital punishment and self-defense (Smith, 2009, p. 57). Article 5 ensured that humans are free from torture that is the freedom from torture. During the Geneva Convention, officials from different countries agreed not to torture prisoners and this was ratified by 147 countries (Watch, 2003, p. 521). Article 4 does not condone slavery or servitude and this was meant to stop slave trade of all forms. Human trafficking is not allowed and debt slaves (Clark, 1972, p. 45). Article 19 emphasized on freedom of speech and Article 18 allows the rights on freedom of thought, religion, and conscience. This implies that after the United Nation implementing all these, the question of freedom that protects the rights of human beings is enforced. There has been a growing debate that the United Nations cannot ensure human rights (Clark, 1972, pp. 59-61). One of the key questions for UN was to decide as to how to actually force countries to adapt to and honor the human rights. One of the key mechanisms adapted by UN to enforce the human rights through respective countries was the establishment of UN institutions. This was done in order to actually influence the countries to actually enforce the human rights in the letter and spirit of UN and made them legally binding on the countries. Apart from this, UN has been able to stimulate international community to enforce human rights in countries which were violating the rights. UN has been successful in getting international response in many cases where countries as well as smaller groups were involved in the violation of human rights based on either racial or other criteria against any particular ethnic group. Over the period of time, UN has been able to put through various bills which further legalized the protection of human rights in various countries. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were adapted by UN during 1966 and came into force in 1976. These two bills further improved the role of UN in implementing the human rights and its enforcement and various other legal issues. Both these bills actually took universal declaration a step ahead and created legal bindings on the countries to punish and penalize those who engage into the violation of human rights. As a result of these bills and Universal declaration, many different agencies were created to monitor the progress on these issues in different countries. UN also broadened the scope of the rights and also further sub-divided basic human rights into further rights such as rights of refuges, the rights of working people etc. During 1960s, UN also went to call for conventions on the racial discrimination, discrimination against women, the rights of child, protection of migrant workers etc. The major efforts of UN however has been in formulating a well-designed body of legislative framework The establishment of International Criminal Court is also a step towards the establishment of an international mechanism which can actually help the protection and enforcement of the human rights at international level. UN has made efforts to put in place an international court which can enforce the human rights. ICC has been instrumental in trying those who committed war crimes and has so far been able to prove as one of the effective organs at the international level to actually ensure that those who commit violations of human rights are actually punished and put through the justice. Even after the United Nation made these rules and laws, millions of people have continued to suffer crimes against humanity. This has been experienced in the last decade (Committee, 2007, p. 53). Many people are still suffering from child labor and also overworking as the United Nation watches. For example, it has been observed that the United Nation has worked together with some foreign countries, for example, the western nations and the United States of America in pretending that they are creating peace in the Middle East yet they are only perpetrating suffering to the citizens of those nations. The war in Iraq left many residents homeless and many parents died as a result of the war (Committee, 2007, pp. 55-57). Nowadays, even after the United Nation wanted the country to co-exist without rivalry, it did not fulfill its mandate and the country is still not peaceful with suicide bombers everywhere in the country (Agosin, 2001, p. 78). Many western countries, especially the United States of America, have refused to adhere to international right cooperation. All they do is only to ensure that their businesses are protected and this angers the developing countries (Forsythe, 2000, p. 111). Developing countries, when they refuse to cooperate, they subjected to heavy sanctions and this does not happen to the developed countries. Many of these countries argue that, why do the western countries not subjected to sanctions when they infringe the democracy of other nations. The united nation has not taken these matters seriously when it comes to infringement of rights by the western countries (Mertus, 2009, p. 123). The United Nation charter involves fostering fundamental freedoms but it states that it does not interfere with domestic matters of nations (Blanchfield, 2010, p. 10). This brings the issue of sanctions which is debatable to how the country issues these sanctions. The western countries have interfered with many countries internal matters and have been assisted by the United Nations. For example, a country like Libya, which was among the richest countries in Africa, was subjected to sanctions that were engineered by western nations after Libya refused to cooperate with the United Nation. As such, a sort of civil war broke out and many civilians died including the Libyan leader at that time Muamar Gaddafi. The strategy instigated by the United Nation has brought civil unrest in the country and now contrary to the United Nation Geneva Convention that civilians should not be allowed to possess firearms have been violated this is because many civilians are now in possession of guns and crimes have increased (Jie Tang, 2012, pp. 400-413). The United Nation has signed some international conventions and commitment with various states government with the aim of fostering and improving human rights. While this is important, the United Nation has been unable to implement it and this is because some countries do not want external bodies to interfere with matters and affairs of the domestic states (Committee, 2007, p. 111). It has been evident in other organization, for example, the association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) that concentrates more on the economic cooperation and has done little towards human rights violation. These organizations assisted the UN action in Libya and were involved in sanctioning Libya (Committee, 2007, p. 212). In some countries, for example Sudan, rape cases were on the rise in 2004 even after the UN was actively involved. Many deaths were reported and the Sudan leader Mr. Bashir has been indicted by ICC but has not been apprehended. The Sudan president uses sovereignty laws that he is not subject to international laws. This means that some states have differing laws with the United Nations and this will make the UN to struggle as it struggles to ensure human rights laws comply (Jie Tang, 2012, p. 122). The above discussion suggests that UN has the ability, mandate, infrastructure as well as the backing of the political powerhouses of the world to enforce human rights. It has also made efforts too in order to enforce these rights effectively however, despite this, it has not been able to achieve the same level of success which it might have achieved provided all things worked out in the manner in which they were conceived and implemented. UN has taken efforts to punish those who committed crimes against human rights however, such actions have been either politically driven or were inadequate to create the kind of effect required to enforce them in their entirety. Conclusion Although the united nation have tried to ensure that human rights are applied and respected. The world body has faced many challenges and this challenges have jeopardized the efforts that the UN in implementing human rights and ensuring that violations are mitigated. The essay has come up with issues that the UN are involving themselves in that are ensuring that human rights are not complied with. This issues include the UN does not scrutinize the developed countries it only deals with developing countries. The essay has explained examples of the Israel and the United States. We have also noted how the united nations have formed monitoring institution that will ensure inspection and implementation. But according to the essay it is clear that The United Nations cannot ensure human rights. Bibliography Agosin, M. (2001). Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global Perspective. London: Rutgers University Press. Blanchfield, L. (2010). United Nations Human Rights Council: Issues for Congress. Belfast: DIANE Publishing. Clark, R. S. (1972). A United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. New York City: Brill Archive. Committee, u. n. (2007). Selected Decisions of the Human Rights Committee Under the Optional Protocol, Volume 8. Geneva: United Nation Publication. Crahan, M. (2004). The Wars on Terrorism and Iraq: Human Rights, Unilateralism and US Foreign Policy. New York City: Taylor & Francis. Flood, P. J. (1998). The Effectiveness of Un Human Rights Institutions. New York City: Greenwood Publishing Group. Forsythe, D. P. (2000). The United States and Human Rights: Looking Inward and Outward. Washington: Univeristy of Nebraska Press. Gordon, J. (2010). Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions. chicago: Harvard University Press. Jie Tang, I. K. (2012). Advanced Data Mining and Applications: 7th International Conference, ADMA 2011, Beijing, China, December 17-19, 2011, Proceedings, Volume 1. beijing: Springer. Read More