I. Introduction
The supporting and advocating on behalf of human rights has been one of the primary principles of the United Nations. Since its founding in 1945, the United Nations has worked to preserve the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms it believes to be deserved of by every man, woman, and child on the planet. Throughout the near seventy years of the United Nations’ existence, it has been challenged with an array of questions, events, and claims regarding the possible violation of human rights. In order to combat these claims, the body has established two organizations to deal with matters of human rights. The first being the Commission Human Rights, was the original organization, founded in 1946. The Commission existed
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This, in turn, helps to advance the freedoms of all persons, generating improvements in the overall quality of life that each person may receive as a result from having these international rights and freedoms.
In order for a complete analysis, the structure of the United Nations itself will be analyzed. In addition to this, the protocol for the intervention of the United Nations on behalf of human rights will be investigated, as will a series of issues regarding human rights violations in China and Burma (now Myanmar), and whether or not the United Nations, if involved, was able to support and advocate for human rights.
II. A Summary and Description of the United Nations
Purpose, Functions, and Structure of the United Nations
Before we are able to determine the success or failure of the United Nations in its determination to advocate and support human rights on an international scale, it is imperative that we come to an understanding of the purpose, functions, and structure of the United Nations.
Founded in 1945, the function and principles of the United Nations are determined in the United Nations Charter which was ratified on 24 October of the same year. One of the primary principles of the United Nations, as outlined in Article 1 of the United Nations Charter is:
“…To achieve international
“The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security” - Haile Selassie (BrainyQuote). During the repercussion of World War 2, the United Nations was formed in order to provide and maintain international security and peace. Canada’s involvement with the United Nations played a key role in the establishment of the U.N Charter of Human Rights.
“Ideas about human rights have evolved over many centuries. But they achieved strong international support following the Holocaust and World War II. To protect future generations from a repeat of these horrors, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and invited states to sign and ratify it”
DESCRIPTION: The United Nations is an international organization established to promote intercontinental support. Therefore, the main role of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to promote respect for human rights and to coordinate aid in disaster situations and to provide help on global issues such as drug trafficking and the environment.
The United Nations do multiple things such as following the devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security. The UN does this by working to prevent conflict; helping parties in conflict make peace; peacekeeping; and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish. These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective. The term “human rights” was mentioned seven times in the UN's founding Charter, making the promotion and protection of human rights a key purpose and guiding principle of the Organization. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights brought human rights into the realm of international law. Since then, the Organization has diligently protected human rights through legal instruments and on-the-ground activities. The united nations are a great group of people who are looking out for us ever since Canada has joined this group they have been able to make an impact such as. Today, Canada continues to uphold the UN by actively participating in the organization's activities and providing financial support. Canada consistently brings pragmatic ideas and solutions to the table, from peacekeeping proposals in the 1950s, to creating the International Criminal Court and banning landmines in the 1990s. Today, some of their current goals are to assist war-affected children, or to improve the UN’s management and
Human rights - they are an ongoing issue in the world today, with the constant struggle against violation. The United Nations has accepted 30 articles on human rights, which help protect millions from political, social, and legal abuses (UDHR). Even with the insistence from the world’s leaders to follow and honor these rights, violation is common and provides a serious threat to people all over the world. One example of a violation of human rights such as equality and safety in possessions is shown through the issue of Japanese American internment camps (UDHR).
The United Nations Human Rights Council is a body of forty-seven states united to promote and protect human rights around the globe. The council is re-selected every three years by the United Nations General Assembly, with candidates being selected from five regions; African, Asia-Pacific, Latin and Caribbean, Western European, and Eastern European states. Candidates lobbying for a seat on the council are examined on their promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and associated humanitarian commitments.
Articles 1, 55, and 56 are the center pieces for promoting and protecting human rights. During the cold war humanitarian intervention went stagnant because the two superpowers who were facing off (US & Russia) were at odds about ideology and this caused world peace to be thrown into turmoil. The UN was very new and did not have the international legal clout to stop either superpower from promoting its system of governance through invasion or indirect military support. The Cold War caused social, economic, and political upheaval globally which allowed for the UN to revise its interpretation of humanitarian intervention. This allowed for a larger consensus among nations about which circumstances required intervention. From 1945 to 1976 five major human rights documents were adopted; The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Genocide Convention, Geneva Convention, Laws of War, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Cultural Economic Civil Rights. The end of the Cold War “liberated the UN which had established 20 new peace keeping missions from 1988-1993, more than it had taken in its entire 40 year history.” (Taha, 14) The major developments of the 1990‘s for international humanitarian
On December 10, 1948 the United Nations voted into effect the Universal Declaration of Human rights. They wrote this document as a result of the untold horrors that have been encroached on particular minorities under Axis rule in World War 2. So that never again could such horrific mass killings and malicious rulers rise to power. Needless to say while the UN has tried their absolute hardest to enforce these laws throughout the world, they have failed multiple times to save people from horrid tragedies. Now the leaders of the UN and NATO must face how once again their own incompetence has created a crisis, not in some far of patch of land hidden in a corner of the globe, but in their own backyard of Europe. There are no heroes and no villains in this story just people who are trying to do their best to survive in this world and their leaders who have failed them so.
The United Nations, perhaps the greatest multilateral mechanism the world has ever seen, was created with the express purpose of preventing another world war and promoting human rights across the globe. To this end, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, or UNCHR, was created. Although it was later disbanded amid talks of corruption and the appointment of Muammar Qaddafi, the
Since it’s inception in 1945, the boundaries of the United Nations have expanded to the point to where we must ask ourselves, where do we draw the line? At it’s current rate of bureaucratic expansion, the possibility exists that the United Nations will eventually usurp the governments of the world, including that of the United States. There are both those who praise and demonize the collective functions and goals of this entity that we have fabricated out of an admirable search for global reconciliation. In the case of this essay, the evidence given will defend the viewpoint of the United Nations as being a politically corrupted system of global proportions. The United Nations has been developing plans to obtain “parental” supervision
Accepted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is comprised of a preamble and thirty articles. Each article delineates a specific right that every human, either from the sake of being human and/or being part of the collective of humanity, is forever entitled to. On the flip side, the preamble is comprised of seven clauses that taken together accommodate the historical evolution, context, and reasoning behind the document’s inscription. Finally, at the end of the preamble is the declaration’s proclamation, whose inclusion solidifies the documents global significance.
“ Here is a task truly of, by and for the world, one that should rally nations. The nature of this task however, must be clearly understood; only then can suitable means for accomplishing it be formulated, only then can the role that the United Nations could and should play be appreciated” ( Wilcox/Haviland, 29). There are many international organizations that have been talked about throughout this semester. One of the most important ones is The United Nations. The United Nations was established October 24, 1945, and has since then been impacting the country. The United Nations main purpose according to the lecture notes is “ to provide a global additional structure through which states can sometimes settle conflicts with less reliance on the use of force , for whole purpose of the United Nations is to provide the globe a forum by which countries may settle disputes through this forum peacefully as opposed to relying on a force which has been the case historically” ( Kopalyan, Module 8). Thus meaning The United Nations was set up to handle problems peacefully rather than going to war to try and solve problems. “Powerful economic as well as political forces are at work to bring about a growing integration of the world community, and the United Nations and its related agencies are uniquely fitted to assist in the task” (Wilcox/Haviland,45). This was some of the reason that the United Nations was created.
The United Nations (UN) is the international body tasked with legislation, policy, best practice recommendations and requirements, as well as oversight and punitive actions for ensuring peace, equality and international policy compliance. As a function of this role, the UN has identified equality as an inarguable right of all persons; therefore every individual has rights as human beings that are considered "universal, indivisible, and interdependent and interrelated.” As stated in the 1948 guidelines of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), everyone is entitled to certain rights including life, liberty, and
The purpose of this paper is to examine the six chapters assigned for this week. First, in Weiss et al.’s first chapter entitled The Theory of UN Collective Security, the authors elaborate on the foundation and purpose of the United Nations serves on a global scale by means of collectivity. Second, chapter four entitled Evolving Security Operations: Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, and Syria, provides specific examples of relations between the United Nations and individual nation-states, the progress the UN has made in developing countries, and how the resistance the UN faces affect the organization as well as the population they serve. Third, chapter ten of Weiss et al.’s book, Sustainable Development as Process: UN Organizations and Norms focuses on the humanitarian efforts of the UN, especially in the focus of establishing self-sufficiency in developing countries. Then the three chapters in Pease’s book, Security, The Environment, and Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues, focus on three key issues facing the international organizations today.
Most of the planning of the design and structure of the UN was done by the Americans and the British. It is an international organization designed to promote international law, security, human rights, economic and social progress. 1Their main objective is to make the enforcement of such easier for people all around the world. It comprises of 193 member countries and its headquarters is in New York. This organization was expected to be a political body controlled by the Great Powers (USA, UK and the USSR), who had taken upon themselves the responsibility of safeguarding peace and security on behalf of all the nations of the world. Art.1 of the UN Charter sets forth the basic purposes of the UN. They are to ensure the maintenance of peace and security at an international