The United Nations and Human Rights - Assignment Example

?What are the sources of the UN man on Human rights? What UN organs and machinery exist to protect and promote Human Rights? How important of a role has the UN played in the evolution of Human Rights? Introduction: United Nations came into existence at the end of World War II which had left the entire world a crippled one, with millions losing their lives, many more left homeless and future more being left maimed. The world war brought about complete destruction along with itself. Seeing that the United Nations organization was brought into action. This was a successor to League of Nations which was insurrected at the end of First World War. Despite the utmost efforts, human rights violations are on display. These violations show up in one form or other ranging from domestic violence to religious extremism, ethnocentric outlook of the societies, exploitation of the weak, human trafficking, poverty, all these make up for human rights violation. The mandate on human rights came to forth in 2000 when the general secretary proposed a mandate classification for human rights protection. The nongovernmental organizations as well as the intergovernmental organizations in different countries strive for ensuring implementation of human rights on all levels. Other sources constitute the Security Council resolutions and actions relevant to protection of human rights. Where ever there is any oppression of human rights, the U.N. and its security council ensures that this is being stopped on immediate basis. For example, in cases of wars between states and in international affairs the United Nations ensures that human rights are not being violated. Emergency meetings and veto are being passed in this regard to protect the human life, honor and property from any unjust measures and means. General Assembly of the Security Council looks up to the human welfare and human rights aspect of the international affairs. It has a designated secretariat and other entities with roles clearly defined and representatives being spread out across the world to ensure that the message of human rights is being conveyed loud and clear. The focus of United Nations activities is primarily the regions of third world countries where people are in a sorry state due to many reasons. With no access to the basic commodities of life, human rights violations are a perfect example in display and action there. Various bodies are in place for the cause of protection of human rights, and ensuring that no highhandedness goes unnoticed and is being brought to the justice. These sources come in form of Human Rights acts and strong penalties against the violations. United Nations Human Rights Council and United Nations Human Rights commission are few of the entities and sources in place that provide firm grounding to the United Nations cause of protection of human rights. Each of these faculties has one thing in common and that is to help the downtrodden, underdeveloped, suppressed and underprivileged with equal consideration of elimination of injustice and lack of opportunity. With prime focus on human rights, United Nations has taken concrete steps towards the development and insurance of human rights all over the world. This comes in form of development of mandates and sources establishment for the purpose of human rights protection. The main agencies in this regard are: Declaration of Rights of Disabled: International Bill of Human rights is another move towards the insurance of human rights at different levels. Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund Universal Declaration of Human rights(Sweet, 2003), UNICEF: United Nations International Children Education Fund. UNHCR: United Nations High Commission for Refugees International law legislation and treaties and accords in this regard are few of the steps and functions that make up for the mandate system of the United Nations. United Nations role: United Nations has played a significant role in the domain of human rights and for this purpose it has established specialized entities which look after the concerns of human rights. With human rights violations all over the world in different forms, the United Nations as an international organization and representative of the people of all the nations aims to create harmony and benevolence amongst the masses regardless of their religion, creed, sects, and local affiliations. Conclusion: United Nations has achieved plenty, yet job is not even half done since there are instances of human rights violation in every corner of the world that look naked in to the face of humanity and the civilized nations who claim to be the custodians of protection and free living in this world. Creating awareness and mass level empowerment is also a step taken by the United Nations. For example, educating the poor and underdeveloped societies and ensuring equal participation of women in different domains is an equal step towards human rights protection along with mitigating any form of violation that may be exhibited otherwise. Compare the three models of international human rights (statist, cosmopolitan, and internationalist) based on the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Introduction: With time more awareness is being generated about human rights. For this purpose, academic work is being performed and undertaken as well. As a result these rights come in form of different models which are statistic model, cosmopolitan model and internationalist model. Each of these models has a foundation and background behind them and has been proposed by proponents form the field of human rights commission and committees. Internationalist human rights model: this model has a broad scope and pertains to the working of human rights activists and committees on international level under the guidelines of treaties and agreements made for the purpose of establishment of equality amongst humans and providing them with equal rights and privileges. Cosmopolitan model: According to this model, the entire human beings hailing from all societies and parts of the world make up for one community and each of them has equal liberty and equal rights without any disregard to the affiliation pertinent to their religion and social status. Morality and equal rights are the main themes of this model with consideration of no injustice and no special privileges to a certain segment which may result in the exploitation of the other people. This model is based on the concept of society of states where each is a representative member of the family. This is one of the oldest concepts relevant to human rights; its roots can be traced back to B.C. The proponent of this idea was Immanuel Kant who through the exploration of history comes as the individual who raised his voice for equality amongst masses regardless of any demographic or religious segregation. This model suffers from the fact that it is relatively vague and does not provide details about the basic elements of human rights segments such as complicated cases that would need a different approach (Hayden, 2005). Static Model: This model states that the human rights are static and definitive. The proponents of this model advocate that basic forms of human rights violation such as ill treatment, inhumane treatment, lack of resources and opportunities, rule of tyrants over the free people are termed as few of the basic elements of a static model of human rights and, as a result, the name of static model of human rights. However, it suffers from the shortcoming due to the fact that many people and experts state that violation of human rights is on display in more than the ordinary ways being defined. The critics believe that static model ends up on the deficient list since different kinds of societies have various patterns, rules, outlook, and religious affiliation; based on that, the locals and citizens are granted with the civil rights. For example, a society that is closed and conservative in its outlook would not provide its citizen with all forms of liberty while one that is based on secular aspirations and teachings provides for a more flexible and tolerant environment towards citizens and, as a result, more dynamic model of human rights. Internationalist approach: The internationalist approach is directly reflective of the international laws based on the treaties between the nations and, most importantly, the rules and guidelines pinned by United Nations General Assembly for the welfare of mankind and with regard to the concerns for troubles and distress faced by nearly half of the world population in form of lack of human rights. Analysis: each of these models is specialized in its own way and targets one set of segment; the shortcoming comes in form of a generalized application towards uniform implementation. The commonality amongst each of them is to provide support and protection to the people from injustice, inhuman treatment, and tyrants being imposed. Conclusion: Each of these models is used for improving and accelerating the purpose and cause of human rights and creating not just the awareness, but also allowing for improved implementation of human rights mechanism in different parts of the world. However, the advantage served by each of these models is the fact that each contributes in its own way towards improvements of human rights. Their domain varies with regard to local or international implementation which again varies with regard to the number of people it may entail in its domain. The absence of human rights is depictive in form of anarchy in a particular environment where one set of people enjoy more rights and leverage than the others; as a result, there is a massive imbalance in the outlook of the society. It can be concluded that human rights are very much dynamic in nature; however, the basic theme is the same regardless of any country or society, and that is of free and protective living of people according to their wishes, and they should be provided with such an environment which provides them with equal opportunity to live and prosper according to their own beliefs and values. References: Hayden, P., 2005. Cosmopolitan Global Politics. s.l.:Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Mertus, J., 2009. The United Nations and Human Rights: A guide for a new era. s.l.:Routledge. Sweet, W., 2003. Philosophical Theory and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. s.l.:University of Ottawa Press. Read More