DETERMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE

EUROPEAN UNION AS INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

PROTECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS

Damance, Christina T.
AB Foreign Service 201
International Organizations
Mr. Jumel G. Estranero
 DETERMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE
EUROPEAN UNION AS INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PROTECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS

A Research Paper
Presented to the Department of
College of Arts and Sciences in
Lyceum of the Philippines University - Cavite

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Service

Damance, Christina T.
June 2022

I. Introduction
 For freedom, justice, equality, and a society free from abuse, human rights exist. Human
rights, pertaining to the right to live, to a fair trial, to health, to education, to speak, as well as the
freedom from torture and from any sort of inhumane treatment are the universal human rights,
bound to be exercised and enjoyed by all beings regardless of age, gender, and social class (The
Australian Human Rights Commission, n.d). The protection and dignity brought by the rights are
significant to all individuals, according to The Council of Europe (2020), which is also
acknowledged by international organizations which is reflected in the number of organizations
with the issue being considered as one of the most pressing problems to be prioritized by the
organizations.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations (UN), the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union (EU) and the International Labour
Organization are a few collective bodies driven by the purpose of promoting the strict
implementation of the set of rights (Human Rights USA, 2000).

However, despite the number of organizations that stresses on the issue and despite the
measures conducted by the bodies, the world remains challenged by the number of violations
concerning human rights, ranging from political executions, rape, torture, arbitrary arrests,
assassinations, and other inhumane acts as shown in an article of Crosser (2014). Thus, the paper
aims to analyze the effectiveness of international organizations in protecting the human rights, as
one of the IOs primary concerns. The paper contains various information regarding the measures
established and implemented by international organizations regarding the issue, data on various
kinds of human rights violations, an analysis stating the effectiveness of the IOs in fulfilling the
organizations’ objective on human rights, the conclusion which answers the query of the study,
as well as the recommendations formulated by the researcher throughout conducting the
research.

However, in order to ensure feasibility, the United Nations and the European Union are
the sole international organizations to be focused on by the study. Whereas the types of human
rights violations to be discussed in the research are enclosed to assaults (a) on civil liberties, (b)
right to life, and (c) the freedom of thought, opinion, and expression, which according to the
United States Department of State (2017), are the most violated human rights in the Philippines.
II. Body

The foundation of the world’s freedom, justice, and peace lies on the recognition of each
person’s dignity and rights, as per the United Nations’ preamble, stated within the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which is a document drafted by various representatives
as a step towards the ideal world.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, established on the year 1948, serves as the
inspiration in the establishment of international treaties, as the document specifies the
fundamental civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights.to be enjoyed by the people of
all nations, without discrimination.

The UDHR has influenced the creation of international organizations such as the United
Nations (Amnesty International, 2022), the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), and the European Union (European Parliamentary Research Service, 2018) which
mandates the bodies to embrace the purpose of protecting and promoting the fair implementation
of human rights through taking consistent actions regarding the issues concerned with HR.

The adherence of the organizations to the document reflects in the measures conducted
by the IOs. For instance, the United Nations run investigations, mediate situations, dispatch
missions, appoint special envoys, conduct peacekeeping operations, inflict economic sanctions,
arms restrictions, financial penalties, travel bans, the severance of diplomatic relations, a
blockade, collective military actions, and promote fair treatment amongst the member-states as a
means of protecting human rights. Furthermore, the UN also manage two main types of bodies
that are solely dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of all individuals: (a) the Charter
Bodies, which include the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) created by the IO’s charter; and the (b) Treaty
Bodies, which refer to the groups created in order to oversee a country that is related to a specific
human rights treaty (United Nations, n.d).

On the other hand, the European Union (n.d) states that the organization addresses the
issue through two primary measures: first is through promoting human rights worldwide,
whereas the other is through policies or through legal approaches abiding by the European Union
Treaties. The adoption of the Strategic Framework on Human Rights and Democracy in 2012 as
well as the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy in 2020 are a few legal
frameworks revolving around the ideas of protecting and empowering people, establishing
democratic societies, promoting a global system for human rights, addressing challenges, and
achieving goals through collective means (Lerch, 2021). Thus, the European Unions mainly
focus on utilizing it legislative power in addressing the issues on human rights.

However, regardless of the measures, policies, and treaties initiated by the United
Nations, the European Unions, and other international organizations, the world consistently
displays an alarming repression of the people’s rights as per the Amnesty International’s annual
report from 2021-2022. The body claims that 43% of countries publicized laws depriving
citizens from exercising one’s rights, 55% of countries use brute force against demonstrators,
and 54% of countries detain rights defenders without justifiable reasons. The data was derived by
the Amnesty International from monitoring 154 countries in year 2021.

Figure 1. Data showing the percentage of countries who (1) deprive people from
exercising rights, (2) use brute force,
Source: Amnesty International (2022)
Another set of data provided by Fariss et al (2020) as shown in by Our World in Data,
shows the overall human rights protection received by the people from across the world, wherein
‘4’ portrays the least number of abuses received by the citizens varying from government
killings, torture, political imprisonment, extrajudicial killings, mass executions, and
disappearances. ‘-4’ on the other hand shows the highest human abuses encompassing the human
rights violations mentioned above.

Figure 2. Map showing the countries with the least and most human rights protection.
Source: Our World in Data (2021)
Link showing the timelapse of the data: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-
rights-protection

The status of the humans’ access and ability to exercise other dimensions of human rights
was further expounded by Our World in Data (2021), as the map provided by OWID below
portrays the ability of people from across the world to access justice, property rights, freedom
from forced labor, freedom of movement, and the freedom to practice desired religion.
 Figure 3. Map showing the countries with the least and most citizens enjoying civil
liberties.
Source: Our World in Data (2021)
Link showing the timelapse of the data: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/civil-
liberties?time=1934&country=~MDG

The last map provided by Our World in Data (2021), shows the overview of the countries
around the world where the freedom to express can be exercised the most and the least. ‘0’ being
the areas where the freedom of expression can be practiced the least, whereas ‘1’ signifying the
countries where the right can be exercised freely.
 Figure 4. Map showing the countries around the world where the freedom of expression
can be exercised the most and the least.
Source: Our World in Data (2021)
Link showing the timelapse of data: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/freedom-of-
association?country=ARG~AUS~BWA~CHN

The data shown displays the current situation of the people from across the world with
regards to exercising human rights, which will be the grounds in determining whether
international organizations are effective catalysts in the protection of the human rights.

III. Analysis

The data provided above shows the consistent increase in the violations of human rights,
specifically the rights to life, to civil liberties, and the right to express.
 In figure 2, most countries and areas in the map leans on the left side of the spectrum,
thus the countries being labeled mostly with ‘0’ to ‘-4’, indicating that majority of the people
around the world suffers from continuously being deprived of the right to live without
experiencing torture, political imprisonments, mass killing, disappearances, and EJKs.

Figure 3, however, shows that there is a high concentration of civil liberties deprivation
on the northeastern to the middle areas of Africa, including Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia,
as well as the Middle East Asian countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Yemen, along
with China. Furthermore, Asian countries such as Russia, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and
the Philippines suffer from a significant amount of civil liberty rights violation.

On the other hand, the last figure shows that within Asia are the countries or areas with
elevated levels of deprivation regarding the people’s freedom of expression, which signifies that
citizens around Asian countries, especially in Russia, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and
North Korea, has limited power in voicing out perspectives and political views.

The consistency and increase of human rights deprivation serves as a signal that
international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations are ineffective
when it comes to protecting the human rights, which is supported by multiple claims such as
Butler’s (2014) which states that the EU continues to fail in protecting the fundamental human
rights as the organization hold no actual powers enough to prevent the member-states from
trampling on the human rights.

Felter and Renwick (2021), on the other hand, affirmed the ineffectiveness of the United
Nations in addressing human rights concerns as the authorities in charge of preventing violations
have turned into perpetrators for the cases of human rights abuses.

IV. Recommendation

Throughout conducting the research thoroughly which aimed to determine the

effectiveness of international organizations, mainly referring to the United Nations and the
European Union, as protectors of human rights, the researcher formulated various
recommendations for the IOs involved in the study as well as to the future researchers aiming to
venture in the field of international organizations and human rights.

The United Nations is a body with great contributions to the realm of international law
and conventions, however, it focuses on merely providing legal assistance, publishing
documentations, and conducting peacekeeping operations which only serves as solutions on the
human rights concerns. Due to the power and influence that the UN holds, the organization
should start venturing other options on how to address the problems, for the collective merely
impacts the issues revolving around the human rights.

The European Union almost has the same level of influence as the United Nations;
however, the organization solely focuses on being a legislative body with the purpose of only
providing legal frameworks and laws to its member-states, without having the power to fully
prevent the states from violating the rights. The narrowness of the IOs measures lead the
European Union to being ineffective in protecting the human rights.

To the future researchers driven by the aim to investigate the concepts of international
organizations as human rights protectors, it is ideal that other organizations such as the ASEAN
and the ILO are to be focused on as the study already covered the United Nations and the
European Unions. The researchers are also suggested to investigate other dimensions of human
rights such as the right to work, to education, and to health.

V. Conclusion

Through analyzing the measures implemented and adopted by international

organizations, namely the European Union and the United Nations, in protecting the rights of the
people, and through examining the timeline of human rights violations around the world, the
study determined that EU and UN prove to be ineffective protectors of human rights. The study
thus suggests that the organizations’ narrow actions should be examined and widened by the
member-states, in order to increase effectiveness in addressing the concerns related to human
rights.
VI. References

Amnesty international annual report 2021/22. (2022, April 5). Amnesty International. 
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2022/03/annual-report-202122/

An introduction to human rights. (n.d.). Australian Human Rights Commission. 

https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/introduction-human-rights#Why%20are
%20human%20rights%20important?

Butler (n.d.). The EU has a problem. Open Society Foundations. 

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/eu-still-failing-protect-fundamental-rights?
fbclid=IwAR1AfXh1m1cEfmnHqRmQudcn82NpsqqHloxPZtu13oBP55ylhEyENdUTzAM

Council of Europe. (2020). Manual for Human Rights Education with Young people. 
https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/questions-and-answers-about-human-rights#:~:text=Human
%20rights%20are%20needed%20to,worthy%20of%20a%20hum

Crosser. (2014). the Guardian. 

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/09/human-rights-violations-
increase-corporate-responsibility#:~:text=Since%202008%2C%20there%20has
%20been,according%20to%

European Union. (n.d.). Human rights and democracy. 

https://european-union.europa.eu/priorities-and-actions/actions-topic/human-rights-and-
democracy_en

Human rights activism and the role of NGOs. (2020). Manual for Human Rights Education with
Young people. 
https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/human-rights-activism-and-the-role-of-ngos

Human rights explained: Fact sheet 8:Promoting and protecting human rights in the UN system.
(n.d.). Australian Human Rights Commission. 
https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/human-rights-explained-fact-sheet-8promoting-
and-protecting-human-rights-un

Human rights handbook. (n.d.). HUMAN RIGHTS HANDBOOK. 

https://publications.age-platform.eu/chap4.php#:~:text=The%20founding%20documents%20of
%20the,the%20righ

Internationally known human rights organizations. (n.d.). Human Rights Library- University of
Minnesota. 
https://hrlibrary.umn.edu/center/fellowshipguide/hrorgs.shtm
Lerch (2021) Human rights. (n.d.). 
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/165/human-rights

Our World in Data. (2021). Human rights.

https://ourworldindata.org/human-rights#citation

United Nations. (n.d.). Protect human rights. 

https://www.un.org/en/our-work/protect-human-rights

United Nations. (n.d.). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

To One of the Most Unique Professors,

Greetings, Sir Stranger! The term may end but the knowledge that you have provided to your
students are everlasting. I would not like to leave messages stating that “You have been the best
Educator throughout my academic pursuit!” as those type of messages are most often insincere
and are sent just for the sake of bidding farewell.

As I have taken my precious time writing the thesis you have required us to do, I would also like
to take time writing this letter as I adore words very much.

June 18, 2022, during the last class that you have conducted as our Political Economy and
Geography as well as International Organizations professor, I have realized that “Politics is the
art of pursuing the common good through not-so-good means.”. Grammatically awkward, yes,
but I believe that you grasp the gist.

That realization, to be honest, goes against my political beliefs for I, as a Humanities student,
believed for a long time that governing people can be conducted and should only be conducted
through clean means. This takes me back to a time where you mentioned that you favor no sides
in the government, as you will serve the leaders, no matter who sits in the throne. It appeared to
me then that you have accepted that there are flaws in the government but refrains from acting
against it. That made me sick, truthfully, as I have believed that in all matters concerning the
society, people should refrain from being apolitical, neutral, or non-partisan, for there are
discrimination, lies, corruption, poverty, and abuses in the world—and remaining neutral seems
like an act of being quiet while watching injustice occur beneath my eyes. I am an avid protestor
of injustice and certain political personalities, for short.

However, now, I realized that politics is and will always be flawed. The knowledge you have
instilled in me, hence, shook the beliefs that I have long cherished as you have made me realize
that I am a nobody, and my knowledge equates to the size of a dust. Nonetheless, I will continue
rebuilding and questioning my own beliefs, and my journey towards the truth about politics will
continue as I carry the values I have picked up through you.

Good luck on your endeavors, sir! To more wisdom.