U.N. & HUMAN RIGHTS.   Term Paper ID:23297 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Evolution of United Nation's involvement in global human rights. Interventions, aid, military presence, leadership, obstacles.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Evolution of United Nation's involvement in global human rights. Interventions, aid, military presence, leadership, obstacles. Paper Introduction: The United Nations deals with human rights questions either through the use of "preventive diplomacy" and "public pressure" or, more rarely, through direct intervention (Boutros-Ghali 912). Increasingly, however, it has become difficult in many cases to separate the protection of human rights from either direct military intervention or from missions to provide humanitarian aid. UN interventions take place where there is a very serious need for humanitarian aid (as in the recent mission to Somalia) or a need for an outside force to broker peace and keep ceasefires in place (as in the current intervention in Bosnia). The UN does not directly intervene in most cases where a sovereign state is engaged in the regular, daily violation of the rights of its citizens. in those cases the UN works from outside by attempting to provide aid, relief and education, by imposing Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. These groups study the problems,collect data, provide information and analyses to bodies that require them,and work at alerting the rest of the world to join in exerting pressure onnations responsible for human rights violations. Of the eleven newoperations undertaken by the Council since that summit, nine have beendeployed in civil wars (Weiss 223). In addition to changingthe nature of the nuclear threat the breakup of the USSR has produced aworld with the conflicting trends of increased "globalization" andincreased "fragmentation" (Boutros-Ghali 87). Aside from direct interventions the United Nations maintains, ofcourse, a large array of commissions and subcommissions that address theworld's various human rights problems under the general direction of the UNHigh Commissioner for Human Rights. The bestefforts of the international community, he concluded, are simply not enoughto curb such abuses. Therange of problems covered can be seen in the examples of a UN Trust Fund onContemporary Forms of Slavery that deals with trafficking in human beingswhile the UN Center for Human Rights commissions a Plan of Action for theElimination of Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Womenand Children (Ethnic 73). "Global Leadership After the Cold War." Foreign Affairs 75.2 (1996): 86-98."Ethnic Cleansing, Humanitarian Problems Addressed by Subcommission." UN Chronicle 22.4 (1995): 72-3.United Nations Development Program. The amount of press attention that different conflictsreceive varies widely so that eventually it comes to seem as though "liveslost in one place seem to matter more than lives lost in another" (Boutros-Ghali 91). In the postwar era the standoff between the United States andthe Soviet Union created a balance of power in which the avoidance ofnuclear confrontation was of primary importance. In this emerging intervention model theUN supports the volunteer nation, which is not a power in the region of theconflict, with system-wide overview and coordination undertaken by theUnited Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (Weiss226). Themost interesting new approach to such interventions, however, has been theSecurity Council's mandate to France to intervene in Rwanda "to help endgenocidal conflict" (Weiss 227). Even as the world'seconomic, communications, and political systems become more tightlyinterwoven for many nations, other countries are breaking up under internalstrains that were repressed when they were dominated by larger powers.Now, "with the dark shadows of the cold war receding, one can see that manyconflicts are within nations, rather than between nations" (United Nations229). UN interventions take place where there is a veryserious need for humanitarian aid (as in the recent mission to Somalia) ora need for an outside force to broker peace and keep ceasefires in place(as in the current intervention in Bosnia). Inthe former colonies of Africa the unity that was at first sustained byliberation is breaking up under the pressures of underdevelopment. In the new world the UN views all theproblems humanity faces as being interconnected. As in the past, commissions will continue toinvestigate and publicize human rights violations in specific areas. Yet even when operating fromthe outside and not directly interfering in a nation's problems, the UN'shuman rights efforts are contiguous with its "efforts to maintain peace andsecurity" ("Ethnic" 72). "The United Nations at Fifty: Recent Lessons." Current History. Even when the commissions meet to discuss the specific issues,however, the solutions for these problems often lead them to the conclusionthat, in many cases, without intervention there is little possibility ofeffecting change. This has resulted in the SecurityCouncil's decision to endorse or mandate interventions that involve themajor power in a particular region. This redefining ofthe UN function first became policy when the heads of state of the membersof the United Nations Security Council held their first-ever summit meetingin 1992. Theresult of this has been "an ever-burgeoning demand for helping hands fromUN soldiers" (Weiss 223). In recent years the UN has begun to placeincreased importance on the protection of human rights and to merge it withthe rest of its security functions. This has led to greater involvement incivil wars where rights protection is badly needed. As the Secretary-Generalpoints out, the stated ethical position of the world at large may be basedon "the dignity of the individual, the equality of states, and the need foruniversal principles of justice, but the reality is too often otherwise,,(Boutros-Ghali 91). And "sometimes sovereignty isoverridden in the names of higher principles" as with the protection of theKurds in northern Iraq (Weiss 223). By redefining its mission as the protection of human rights the UNhas positioned itself to intervene in many cases where an active militarypresence would not have been considered ten years ago. On the other hand, despite its poor record inSomalia, the UN has intervened in Bosnia where it acts as the "lead agencyin managing the intervention both in military and humanitarian aid terms(Weiss 226). (1995): 223-8.----------------------- 8 The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, JoseAyala Lasso, joined Maxim in pointing out that unless the world's nationsdirected substantially more attention to human rights and supported theUN's efforts in this area, the UN's continuing advocacy of simpleprotection measures would not be enough ("Ethnic" 72). Human security, as the UNDevelopment Program dramatically puts it, "is a child who did not die, adisease that did not spread, a job that was not cut, an ethnic tension thatdid not explode in violence, a dissident who was not silenced" (229).Basically the UN's new approach takes all the assorted human rights andaddresses them together under the general heading of human security.According the UN this includes economic, food, health, environmental,personal, community, and political security. "Redefining Security: The Human Dimension." Current History 94 (1995): 229-36.Weiss, Thomas G. in those cases the UN worksfrom outside by attempting to provide aid, relief and education, byimposing sanctions, and by trying to arrange agreements between partiesthat will restore human rights to the people. The United Nations deals with human rights questions either throughthe use of "preventive diplomacy" and "public pressure" or, more rarely,through direct intervention (Boutros-Ghali 912). In the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia ethnic conflictsare resurfacing after being held in check by the USSR for many decades. But the UN lacks the resources to intervene all over theworld in as many cases as it needs to. The United Nations, approach to human rights problems has, therefore,taken on two aspects. Chairman Ioan Maximstated the problem simply in saying, "the obstacles which prevent theenjoyment of human rights are many and varied and it seems difficult forsome human beings to accept that all persons are born free and equal andthat people should treat each other with respect" ("Ethnic" 72). Increasingly, however, ithas become difficult in many cases to separate the protection of humanrights from either direct military intervention or from missions to providehumanitarian aid. The UN does not directlyintervene in most cases where a sovereign state is engaged in the regular,daily violation of the rights of its citizens. Boutros-Ghali uses the term "orphan conflicts" to refer tothose problems that are set aside by the world press and ignored by themajority of people who "consider such disputes outside their nationalinterest and see no reason for action, direct or indirect" (92). They met to discuss the strategies to be employed by theorganization in a world without the Cold War. But how can the UN justify interventions in theaffairs of sovereign states? The UN has been moving toward a new definition of security in whichthe idea of "human security" is supplementing the old Cold War view of thisfunction. Examples of this are Russia'sintervention in Georgia's civil war and the US intervention in Haiti. Examples are Somalia and Bosnia, wheregovernment and civil order have collapsed. During the Cold War the UN viewed security "as security of territoryfrom external aggression, or as protection of national interests in foreignpolicy, or as global security from the threat of nuclear holocaust" (UnitedNations 229). Thus, although respect for national sovereignty remains essential,the UN has increasingly redefined those cases in which it is both necessaryand justified "to intervene in matters which are essentially within thedomestic jurisdiction of any state" (UN Charter quoted by Weiss 223).These words from the Charter describe the actions the UN was not to take.But under the new thinking intervention is allowable in cases where thereactually is no sovereign. Innovations such as this are the UN's answer to a changing world inwhich increasing human rights problems must be met by a group that is sadlyunderfunded and receives too little support from its members. Works CitedBoutros-Ghali, Boutros. "Famine, disease,pollution, drug trafficking, terrorism, ethnic disputes, and socialintegration [have] consequences [that] travel the globe,, (United Nations229). The Chairman of the United Nations' Subcommission onPrevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities recently reportedon the state of millions of people throughout the world for whom serioushuman rights violations are a fact of daily life. In this narrow approach, the UN Development Program nowsays, "the legitimate concerns of ordinary people who sought security intheir daily lives" was forgotten (229). Their decision toconcentrate on human security even when it means intervening in nations,internal affairs can be seen in the UN's recent record. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.