International Treaties

September 2021

In-Class Debate: Sovereignty and Human Rights

Members:

- Antonella García
- Maria Paula García
- Melissa Mejia

In groups, defend one of the following positions. Your teacher will assign you to one group. Even if
you (personally) disagree, try to think of convincing reasons to defend your position (objectively).
Prepare your answers in bullet points. Each member must present at least one point.

Position A: Universal Human Rights are More Important than the Sovereignty of Individual States

1. The sovereignty of individual states only gives governments the power to do with their
subjects as they please. In this way, it is more important that there are international and
universal human rights to limit this power and the damage that the government can have on its
citizens. Unfortunately, throughout history, there have been several examples of how states,
without any real international limitation or obstruction to their power. Commit heinous acts
that are blatantly wrong for the rest of humanity with no regard for anything other than their
selfish goals or capricious desires, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity,
indiscriminate attacks against civilians, and crimes of aggression, which truly no one could
stop until a world war broke out. In fact, this behavior still continues; we just stand by while
the states do what they want with their people and with the people of other countries since
there is no real or legal global agreement on human rights to back them up.

To support this:

● Ukraine case: Russia's practice of persecuting Ukrainian and Crimean Tatars as a tool to
deter and eliminate any opposition to its illegal occupation.
● China: China's Government has revoked at least 16 licenses of human rights lawyers and
ongoing harassment of lawyers and human rights activists.
● Venezuela case: the continued repression in Venezuela exacerbates the already precarious
situation.
● Syria: Syrian regime's sustained bombardment of civilians.

2. Sovereignty is the authority of each state to protect itself within its borders. Therefore, it has
the duty to protect citizens and ensure their needs and interests. International human rights
standards, in fact, can be a crucial tool for strengthening state sovereignty; having a
government bound by human rights standards empowers citizens to actually hold their own
governments accountable. Besides, human rights aid citizens in fighting against the abuse of
power of sovereign states and in fighting for their own freedom and liberty, where everyone is
equal before the law.
To support this:

In fact, the universal accession to human rights instruments is no more than the evidence of the will of
States to grant human rights to all their citizens.

Example:
● Philippine: On 7 March 2021, members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the
military killed nine community-based activists and arrested six in coordinated raids across
four provinces.

They were fighting for their rights and killed because they were confronting the government.
Nowadays, thanks to human rights recognition, we can highlight these types of abuses and act against
the ones that are at the peak of the pyramid of a country and stop them.

● If there are no human rights, then there will be no democracy. Authorities will rule ruthlessly
without the consideration of the people. The past example of monarchy in Russia and France
and the rule of the British in India is helpful in understanding how important it is to have
universal human rights in a country.

● If all the power is given to the state, then the incident that happened in Yugoslavia, Somalia,
Liberia, etc., will be repeated again. If not in these countries, it can be in other countries. So
the conclusion is that power in the hands of a few is dangerous in the big countries and even
in the small countries, but human rights protect the person from these adversities.

3. Human rights are not really necessary to support any type of criminal since just as human
rights protect us, so exist laws within the state to regulate and punish us.

4. Human rights give people the freedom to practice their religion and beliefs; this is more
important because, in a non-secular state, the behavior state is controlled by one religion, not
allowing the practice of others' religion and not being neutral.

To support this:

● North Korea: The North Korean constitution nominally grants freedom of religious belief,
but it also prohibits the use of religion for "drawing in foreign forces or for harming the
State." Anyone caught practicing religion or even suspected of harboring religious views in
private is subject to severe punishment, including arrest, torture, imprisonment, and
execution.

A clear example of how religion affects the law states decisions/punishment of a nonsecular country.