Unfair Discrimination against Sub-Saharan Africa - Essay Example

? Part Essay Plan Introduction The United Nations has formulated a number of legislations on international human rights to ensure the provision ofcertain basic facilities to citizens across the world. These civil liberties can be individual rights, the rights of a group of people, or that of a collective group of nations. Although, the UN has implemented adequate efforts for the proper enforcement of these rights, many situations in the present world can still be considered as examples of violations of the basic principles of these rights. The scenario of international trade is one such situation where the developed countries still exercise their authority and prevent many of the underdeveloped nations from participating fairly in commercial exchanges. This paper has attempted to analyze the case of unfair discrimination against the Sub-Saharan African countries in the area of international trade and how this can be considered as an example of a violation of the “Human Right against Discrimination”. (Blackhurst, Lyakurwa, Oyeide, p.491-510) Critical Appraisal of the Literature Review The authors Blackhurst, Lyakurwa and Oyeide have utilized a number of authentic sources to gather information on their subject of research. Out of the resource materials, some sources provided general information about underdeveloped African countries belonging to the region of sub-Sahara. However, other sources presented more specific information about the trading activities of these countries and how they still have to encounter unfair discrimination in the arena of international trade. Research Design In their research paper, authors Blackhurst, Lyakurwa and Oyeide have attempted to investigate the “Options for Improving Africa’s Participation in the WTO”. The authors have considered the data which exhibit the current trends of globalization,that is prevalent among countries across the world. Simultaneously, the authors have also considered the relevant data for the African countries which has helped them to compare their performance with that of the other nations of the world. In this respect, it can be concluded that the authors have considered data, relevant to their research. Author’s Analysis After studying the relevant data available, the authors have concluded that the African countries belonging to the Sub-Saharan region are increasingly being left behind in the international efforts of globalization. The concept of globalization envisages a singular global economy, where the different countries would be allowed to engage in commercial exchanges with each other following fair terms of trade. However, the African nations are falling behind in this respect. The developed countries are unjustly discriminating against them, in the arena of international trade, thus preventing them from participating freely in commercial exchanges. Conclusion The unfair discrimination against the Sub-Saharan African countries is actually an example of the violation of one of the fundamental civil liberties: The Right against Discrimination. If the international community wants to achieve complete globalization of trading practices, then international trade has to be based on the fundamental principles of human rights. In that case, there would be no unfair discrimination against the participation of any nation or any groups of nations. Till that time, the authors advise the global community to think of methods of improving the participation of the African countries in international trade under the regime of the WTO Agreements. Preliminary Bibliography 1. Alston P., Goodman G., and Steiner H.J. (2007) International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics and Morals, UK, Oxford University Press 2. Blackhurst,R, Lyakurwa,B, Oyeide, A.,Options for Improving Africa’s Participation in the WTO’, The World Economy,Volume 23, Issue 4, pages 491–510, available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9701.00286/abstract 3. Campbell T. (2005), Rights: A Critical Introduction, USA, Canada, Routledge 4. Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice (1945), available at http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/uncharter.pdf 5. Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (2000), Division of the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ 6. Convention on the Rights of the Child (2011), United Nations International Children’s Education Fund, available at http://www.unicef.org/crc/ 7. Donnelly J. (2002), Universal Human Rights in Theory and in Practice, USA, Cornell University Press 8. Fenwick H. and Phillipson G., (2003), Text, Cases and Materials Public Law and Human Rights,USA, Routledge 9. International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cerd.htm 10. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm 11. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976). ). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm 12. M. (2002), Human Rights – An Interdisciplinary Approach, Polity Press 13. Rehman J., (2010) International Human Rights Law, , Longman 14. Smith R.K.M. (2007) Textbook on International Human Rights,UK, Oxford University Press 15. The European Convention of Human Rights (1950), Council of Europe, available at http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html 16. United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1994), United Nations, available at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html 17. United Nations, High Commissioner for Human Rights, (1948), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, available at http://donegallpass.org/UNIVERSAL_DECLARATION_OF_HUMAN_RIGHTS.pdf Part 2 Essay: Although the United Nations has led the way in developing international human rights law, the approach taken for the protection of human rights lacks effectiveness. The laws governing the international human rights are one of the most dynamic areas of international legislation.The legislative charters on the issue enumerate a wide range of human rights that are considered to be the birth rights of citizens all over the world. Examples of human rights includes the rights advocating non-discrimination among people, rights of minority groups, rights of indigenous citizens, those pertaining to women and children and so on. The human rights laws also specify the citizens’ rights in certain critical and emergency situations like incidents of terrorism, torture, the intentional kidnapping of influential persons etc. Needless to say, all these are highly relevant issues in the context of the modern social, political and economic scenario of the world. Therefore, the laws relating to international human rights have assumed the character of being one of the most controversial areas in international legislation. Together with these laws, the United Nations have also implemented certain measures to encourage the member countries to enforce these human rights in their respective territories. However, specialists are of the opinion that UN has adopted an inadequate approach to ensure the enforceability of these rights. Instead, the organization needs to sadminister more strict measures in this respect. 1 The primary research question considered in this paper was “Although the United Nations has led the way in developing international human rights law, the approach taken for the protection of human rights lacks effectiveness.” This essay has tried to present an opinion on this statement based on the information available in secondary sources. A number of literary sources have served as the basis of the research, including books and the legislative charters of the United Nations. Author Javesid Rehman, in his book “International Human Rights Law” presents a comprehensive account of the principles of protection of human rights. He has also provided a legal analysis of certain sensitive provisions of the human rights which have given rise to a lot of debates among the international community. The author has mainly dealt with the human rights enumerating the rights of groups of people like the indigenous population of a country, the minorities group, the set of women and children in a society etc. He has not considered the measures implemented by the UN to ensure the enforceability of the international human rights. Therefore, the book provides limited information on the subject of research. 2 Author Steve Foster in his book, “Human Rights and Civil Liberties’ has presented a description of the legislation governing the human rights and the civil liberties as prevailing in the global community. It specifically evaluates the effect of the Human Rights Act of 1998 and the European Convention of Human Rights. Similar to the previous work, this book also mainly considers the provisions of human rights pertaining to the individual civil liberties. However, the author has mostly remained silent on whether the incentives and measures administered by the UN are sufficient to ensure the enforceability of the human rights. This has become a subject of debate in the international community, yet the book has not considered this topic exclusively. 3 Rather, Rhona Smith’s work “Textbook on International Human Rights” provides the readers with relevant information on the research question. The author has described the history of development of the principles of human rights through the years starting from the formation of the United Nations in 1945. In the next section, the author has enumerated the different principles of civil liberties contained in the various international charters formulated by the UN and has also evaluated these principles. The book also provides an account of the regional structure of human rights in the countries of Europe, the American continents and Africa. In the second section of the book, the author has given substantial accounts of the different provisions of the human rights citing examples from both national and international legislation. From these information, one can form an opinion on the UN’s efforts regarding the enforceability of the international human rights. On the whole, this book can be considered a useful source on the relevant research topic. 4 Authors Steiner, Alston and Goodman in their book “International human rights in context: Law, Politics and Morals” have presented a compilation of a wide range of primary as well as secondary articles evaluating the provisions of international human rights and civil liberties. The book also contains the authentic texts enumerating the different principles of human rights. The latest edition of the book has provided information on a diverse range of topics: the basic features of international legislation, the development of the human rights principles through the years, the civil, political, economic and social provisions of the rights, the humanitarian legislation of war, the wave of globalization in the international economy etc. It also gives the readers a fair idea about the current debates and controversies in this domain. Apart from this, this source has examined the various issues related to individual civil liberties such as the rights for women, the universal values and those pertaining to cultural relativism, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations which supervise the application of human rights, the implementation and enforcement of the principles of human rights and so on. This literary source is by far the most comprehensive source utilized in this research and it has provided a wide range of information on the relevant subjects.5 In the book “Rights, a critical introduction” by Campbell, has critically evaluated the main philosophical debates about human rights. In the first section, the author has described the historical evolution of the principles of civil libertiesand has presented the contemporary theories relating to these rights. Philosophers of the stature of Bentham, Burke and Marx had often challenged some of the provisions of human rights and the book provides an account of these challenges. Author Campbell has concentrated more on the theoretical aspect of human rights rather than the practical examples relating to the same. However, his work is successful in providing an overall idea about the relevant subject of research. 6 Jack Donnelly, in his work “Universal human rights in theory and practice” has presented a very elaborate account of the theoretical as well as the practical aspects related to international human rights.The author has enumerated a theory on the civil liberties, presented an account addressing the arguments supporting cultural relativism and has also evaluated the efficiency of the efforts of the international community in matters pertaining to bilateral and multilateral commercial exchanges. The book has also presented some useful information on the violation of the “Rights against discrimination” in the global trading community. 7 Authors Fenwick and Phillipson, on their joint work “Text, Cases and Materials Public Law and Human Rights”, have presented a detailed account of the available theories, literary materials as well as real life case studies on the subject of public law and civil liberties. The authors happen to be two of the leading academicians in this domain and they have provided their own narrative commentary along with the compilation of these diverse literary sources. This book has been designed as the literary guide to the students of the United Kingdom which presents a useful account of the constitutional and administrative features of the human rights legislation. This book deals more with the theoretical aspects of the human rights law in the UK rather than the practical examples in this field. Although, it does contain instances of the violation of the human rights law, the cases are related to UK’s economy rather than that of the world. This can be considered to be a limitation of the book. The authors have not exclusively considered UN’s efforts of enforcing the international human rights among its member countries. 8 This research paper has considered the formulation of the international human rights by the United Nations and has also tried to evaluate UN’s efforts in enforcing these rights among the members of the international community. For this purpose, the paper has tried to gather relevant information from a variety of secondary literary sources. First, the paper ahs considered the origins of the human rights legislation and their subsequent development through the years. Then, it has reviewed the incentives and measures implemented by the UN to ensure that its member countries enforce these rights in their own territories. Simultaneously, the paper has tried to evaluate whether these efforts of enforceability are sufficient or not. The origins of international human rights can be traced to the early development stage of international law, when the various rules of legislation were developing through various channels. Examples of human rights can be found in certain Governmental rules and regulations, which have been formulated to protect the individual rights of the citizens. The Governments of the different countries are usually protective of the rights of its citizens in a situation of commercial exchange when the citizens are involved in some form trading with citizens of other nations. Again, during a war, countries are concerned about the different warfare methods which its soldiers are required to follow in a combat with another party. Nations also keep a vigil on how its soldiers are treated by the antagonist country, in case the former are captured by them. In the later part of the 19th century, the international community formulated the Hague Conventions and laid down the Geneva Conventions after the end of the second World War, which replaced the traditional practices in the treatment of the prisoners of war.These conventions contain “the international humanitarian laws of war” that govern the treatment of soldiers wounded in a battle, captured as prisoners of war, the application of asymmetric military force on the civil population and so on. In this context, the International Labor Organization merits a special mention. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles established the ILO, an international forum which has since that time, formulated a list of human rights relating to the economic and social life of the global community.9 The United Nations (UN) is undoubtedly the most important organization in the field of international human rights. It was established in 1947, and its Foundation Charter (1947) along with UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), comprise the body of legislation which are known as the laws on “international human rights”.A major section of the global community believed that the reason behind the Second World War (1939-1945), was a failure of certain countries to honor the human rights of its own citizens as well as the citizens of other nations. Therefore, the United Nations was established as an organization to ensure peace between the different countries of the world. The Universal Declaration provides a list of a number of such rights and urges the different nations to acquire these rights for its citizens. Actually, the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” is a non-obligatory charter. It describes certain political objectives for the Governments of the different countries and the member nations undertake a sort of a moral commitment to fulfill these objectives. However, there is no obligation on the part of these governments to accomplish these goals. This can be considered one of the limitations of the Declaration. While it enumerates a wide range of international human rights for the people, the responsibility of securing these rights is left to the governments of the different countries. Instead, the UN could have played a more active part in ensuring that persons are able to exercise these rights in their respective communities. Further, the UN is not strict about ensuring that the nations undertake adequate efforts to provide these human rights to its citizens. This is only considered to be a moral obligation on the part of the countries. Therefore, it becomes a matter of discretion of the Governments, whether they consider the issue of securing human rights of its citizens as important enough and direct some of their efforts towards it, or they choose to overlook the matter altogether.10 However, the international community did make efforts to address the limitation of the Universal Declaration by formulating two covenants that would implement a binding obligation on the Governments of the member countries. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UN, 1996a) directs the UN member nations to undertake immediate efforts to administer the international human rights within their countries. On the other hand, the International Covenant on Social Economic and Cultural Rights (UN, 1996b) enumerates a set of objectives for the countries, which the latter are required to fulfill according to their capabilities. Both these covenants have made the UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” more accurate in its goals and have transformed it to form the platform for implementing a binding agreement between the various countries. Further, this has also altered the basic character of international human rights, transforming it as a manifestation of legislation, enumerated in the different international treaties. 11 Enforcement of the Human Rights Law The enumeration of human rights whether applicable at the international level or at the national level, needs to be enforced by an efficient means of implementation. Otherwise, they would not serve their purpose to the people.As discussed earlier, the various international charters of the United Nations provide a list of these human rights and entrusts the government of the countries with the responsibility of securing these rights for its citizens. The UN also provides the governments with various incentives to ensure that they fulfill this particular responsibility. One of the prime examples in this respect is the provision of economic incentives. The UN legislations also require the member countries to comply with certain norms of human rights in their dealings with other countries. In these cases, economic incentives are one of the most widely used instruments for enforcing the implementation of such interstate sanctions. However, these measures for enforcement, also impose penal measures on the states in case they fail to successfully implement the laws governing human rights. Sometimes, the enforcement measures impose certain conditions on the particular country that ensures that the nation adheres to the basic practices of human rights while operating in different spheres. Under these conditions, the country may be committed to provide security assistance to its neighboring states, give them certain trade advantages and also provide development aid in their times of crisis. In case, the country fails to comply with these specified conditions, it may be forced to face punitive measures like an economic boycott within the nation, the suspension of its trade activities, a sudden spurt of disinvestment in its economy and so on. In other words, the punitive measures have been formulated to damage the reputation of a countryin the case of its failure to adhere to the basic practices of human rights during the implementation of certain interstate legislations. Thus, the UN has formulated such an interstate application of enforcements and pressures to ensure the compliance of fundamental human rights in the commercial exchanges between countries. The nations administering these human rights conditions as an integral part of its foreign policy becomes a member of the complex international system governing the implementation of the international human rights. Though the United Nations has formulated a number of incentives and enforcement conditions to ensure that global citizens are provided their due share of rights, it can be doubted as to how far these measures are implemented in the real world. Consequently, this casts a shadow over the proper enforcement of the principles of human rights.12 13(Smith. 2007, p.2;Steiner, Alstorm, Goodman, 2007, p.1158). The Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) A particular category of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have also been formulated to ensure that the UN member countries can conduct their commercial exchanges with other nations, based on the principles of international human rights. PTAs are actually a fast developing category of international regulations that monitor the issue of market access among the UN member nations belonging to a particular economic zone. Although, the PTAs are broadly included within the international framework of the World Trade Organization’s agreements, they retain some degree of autonomy with respect to their implementation. These agreements are often found to extend their regulation from the commercial sector to issues relating to the social governance of countries that need to be based upon the fundamental human rights.Examples of PTAs include the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements which have formulated certain benefits for the member countries of this region if they are successful in adhering to the high standards of human rights practices in their respective commercial dealings with their neighboring countries. On the other hand, the West African Economic and Monetary Union have designed PTAs that require the member nations to comply with relatively easier standards of human rights principles in issues relating to their respective market access and trade exchanges with their neighbors. In another example, the Cotonou Agreements serve as the new institutional platform on which the countries of the European Union have framed their political and financial principles for cooperation with the various nations of the entire world. The Cotonou Agreements have provided certain non-reciprocal trading benefits to some particular countries belonging to the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions, which includes an almost unrestricted entry into the market of the European Union for a wide variety of commodities produced by these countries. In fact, the Cotonou Agreements have been formulated in place of the successive Lome Agreements and they commit “Parties [to] undertake to promote and protect all fundamental freedoms and human rights, be they civil and political or economic, social and cultural.” 14 The principles contained in the Cotonou Agreements are considered to be binding on the governments of the countries. The consultation proceedings as enumerated in Article 96 of these Agreements have also established a review procedure to evaluate the efforts of the different nations with respect to the implementation of the principles of human rights. Along with the Cotonou Agreements, certain financial protocols have been specified for the countries of the European Union which promise the provision of financial resources from the European Development Fund to the eligible nations. However, the allocations of these resources are subject to the condition that the countries have successfully adhered to the basic practices of human rights in their commercial exchanges according to the terms of the Cotonou Agreements. However, in certain contrasting situations, the member countries are found to violate the terms of the Agreements by not complying with the human rights customs in their trading operations.In these cases, the efforts of the concerned nations can be influenced and encouraged by a list of different actions. 15 Conclusions It is evident from the above discussions that, there have been a number of treaties and incentives formulated to ensure that the governments of the UN member countries ensure that they adhere to the basic principles of the international human rights in their course of operations in the different areas of economic activity. Special review mechanisms have also been devised to supervise the proper implementation of these agreements. However, no system can be regarded as fullproof in the modern world. The international communities have also enumerated a list of punitive measures for the countries who fail to comply with the commitments of human rights in their respective activities. However, these measures only seek to endanger the ‘good” reputation of a nation without implementing any financial or economic punishment.Factors which only threaten to adversely affect the international reputation of a country cannot be regarded as a strict retributive measure for a nation which has been unsuccessful in adhering to the fundamental codes of human rights. This is the reason, why the United Nations have not been able to ensure the enforcement of the principles of international human rights within the geographical territories of all its member countries. Probably, more stringent measures are required to ensure the wider implementation of human rights among the global community and more strict punitive measures are needed to be formulated for the countries failing to fulfill the obligations to the principles of human rights. Till these steps are taken, the enforcement of international human rights will be a debatable issue among the members of the global community. Read More