Global Politics Human Rights 1 HUMAN RIGHTS Key

Global Politics Human Rights 1

HUMAN RIGHTS Key Concepts: • Justice • Liberty • Equality “These components are found on various geographic levels, from the local to the global, and from the arguments surrounding cultural relativity to the debates about whether human rights should be universal. ” 3

Human Rights • Rights of the individual • Rights of the collective • The struggle for human rights is always positive. • Often used for political purposes • The definition is continually undergoing change 5

Human Rights Key Questions 1. Are there more significant concepts that may be used to describe our current state of global politics and the interaction of people and power on various levels and for particular purposes? 2. Does the generality of the concept of human rights suffice to offer goals for humanity and a reasonable agenda in this era of rapid globalization and social change? 3. Who would be in charge of that agenda and what problems may it cause? 4. What are some alternatives? 7

Human Rights What are human rights? • rights held by individuals simply because they are human • rights are universal • do not have boundaries of sex, gender or nationality • claimed individually or in groups 9

Human Rights Human rights are then those entitlements that are part of the existence of humans, and may divide these into two categories: • Positive Rights • Negative Rights 1 1

Human Rights Positive Rights: • Refer to rights that are protected by authority, both local and global, and include goods and services that allow people to survive, such as education, protection from harm, places to live and care. 1 3

Human Rights Negative Rights: • Refer to rights that do not require intervention by outside agency. These include the right to live, the absence of torture, community control of the community and the individuals who live within them and self-determination. 1 5

Human Rights • The distinction between positive & negative rights is largely circumstantial - based on access to resources and economic, political and social rights. • EXAMPLE: • The right to food is a positive right in East Los Angeles, where a lack of local resources means that food must be provided by outside forces. It is a negative right in the wheat fields of Kansas, where the abundant resources can only be taken away through external intervention. 1 7

Human Rights a brief history • The term “human rights” as applied to contemporary politics & society is a relatively recent term, coming into use in the 1940 s. • United Nations: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 Recent Examples: • Claims by indigenous peoples for their ancestral lands & language • Demands by many for livable housing & working conditions • Documented lack of medical services & drinkable water • Place of human rights in trade agreements 19

Human Rights Who decides which rights are enforceable and which are not? On what level (geographic and political) are human rights enforced and realized within societies, communities and ruling bodies? Does the UDHR account for specific attempts at delegating human rights to specific populations? What legislative processes are needed to enforce them? 21

Human Rights Day December 10 th

Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (page 52 -55 Text) • Create groups of 2 and in each group assign 3 articles of the UDHR to read analyze. • Each group read their 3 assigned articles of the UDHR and write out on a large sheet of Poster Paper, in their own words, from their section: 1. Your interpretation of each article and an example of how it could be applied to a human rights issue. Example: Article 1: Interpretation Examples of how it could be applied to a human rights issue: 24

UN Human Rights Council Members: • Asia/Pacific: Australia, China, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea. Europe: Belgium, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom. Latin America/Caribbean: Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Venezuela. As of June 19, 2018

U. S. Withdraws from Un Human Rights Council • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=N 6 fb. AIWJB 3 Q Was this the right thing to do?