United Nations
¬- International Entity created in the Treaty of Rome
- Structure of the UN
- The UN is NOT a world government
- A voluntary organization of member countries who
meet in the General Assembly to recommend policies
with regards to current world events
- Decisions are under the Security Council
- Task is to help global problems especially issues that
threaten peace and order
Role in Global Governance
- Identifying and diagnosing problems
- Developing norms (principled ideas)
- Formulating recommendations (operational ideas)
The Main Gaps the UN has met in the 21st Century
1. Knowledge
2. Norms
3. Policy
4. Institutions
5. Compliance
Four Essential Roles of the UN
1. Managing Knowledge
- Recognizing the existence of a problem
- Collect solid data/complete data about the nature of the
problem to find solutions
- Understand its causes to understand the problem (W
and H questions)
2. Developing Norms
- The UN helps to solidify a new norm of behavior often
through summit conferences and international panels and
commissions
- UN makes itself available as a forum/venue where
countries will meet to discuss and debate about
problems
- Norms are considered essential to the functioning and
existence of society
- Social interaction is viewed through normative lenses
from bilateral relations to relations among national
leaders
- Without norms, it would be difficult to have standards
and solve issues without knowing what is right or wrong
3. Promulgating Recommendations
- The next step: formulation of a range of possibilities
(policies) about how governments and their citizens and
IGO’s can challenge behavior
4. Institutionalizing Ideas
- Institutions can facilitate problem solving even though
they do not possess any coercive power
- Only have the persuasive power
International Criminal Court
- Deciding cases involving war crimes, genocide, crimes
against humanity, and piracy (pirates)
- Recently created court created in July 2002
Globalization, Regionalization, and the ASEAN
Region
- Regions are a group of countries located in the same
geographically specified area (Can be neighboring
countries like ASEAN)
- An amalgamation of two regions or a combination of
more than two regions organized to regulate and oversee
flows and policy choices
Regionalization
- Refers to the regional concentration of economic flows
Regionalism
- The body of ideas, values, and objectives that
contribute to the creation, maintenance, or modification
of a particular region or type or world order
- Associated with a formal policy and project and often
leads to institution building
- A political process characterized by economic policy
cooperation and coordination among countries
- Ex: ASEAN and EU
Regional Associations
- Are formed because:
* Military defense such as NATO
* To pool their resources, get better returns for their
exports, as well as expand their leverage against trading
partners such as OPEC
* To protect their independence from the pressures of
superpower politics such as National Aligned Movement
(NAM)
* To insulate themselves from the ill-effects of economic
crisis
Non-State Regionalism
- The “new regionalisms”
- Tiny associations that include no more than a few
factors and focus on a single issue
- Huge continental unions that address a multitude of
common problems from territorial defense to food
security
Contemporary Challenges to Regionalization
- Resurgence of militant nationalism
- Populism
- Continuing financial crises
- Disagreements over to what extent should a country
would sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake of regional
stability
- Differing visions of what regionalism should be for
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
- From Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and
Indonesia in 1967 to many other ASEAN nations
- A geopolitical and economic organization of 10
Southeast Asian countries
- Indonesia, Malysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia
- ASEAN has preserved its regional peace despite
differences in religion, cultures, etc.
ASEAN Integration
- It continues today and affects our lives
Global Citizenship
Global Citizen
- He who recognizes that there is a bigger world out
there
- Understands how the world works in its different
aspects – political, economic, social, religious, cultural,
social, environmental, etc.
- Respect and value diversity
- Participate and contribute to the local and global
community on various levels and ways
- Willing to act to make the world a more sustainable
place
- Outraged by social injustice and other forms of
inequality
- Take responsibility for their actions
Rights
- Right means what is just
- A right is what is owed
- Is a moral power in a person to do, to possess, or to
demand something
- The object of the virtue of justice
- Is founded on law
- Natural right rests on the natural law
- For ex: Right to life is a natural right
Plato’s Definition of Justice
- Justice is giving one his due
Freedom
- Freedom is not absolute
- One’s freedom ends where the rights of others begin
- One freedom that is absolute: Freedom of thought (you
are free to think but when you express your thoughts you
may be subject to the law)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- An international/global document signed under the UN
by the representatives of the countries of the world
- Forms part of our laws
- Applicable to everyone regardless of where you are
- A common standard for all peoples and all nations
- Strive to teach, educate, and promote the rights
UN Declaration
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit
of brotherhood.
Being
- Something that exists is a being
- A table or a chair is a being
- Not necessarily living things
Human Being
- Rational beings (operate on reason)
- Person = a being with intelligence (capacity to think)
and free will
Equality vs Equitability
- Equal: Giving people the exact same thing (everyone
has right-handed chairs)
- Equitability: Giving people the specific needs (give
left-handed chairs for left-handed people)
Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore,
no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or
territory to which a person belongs, whether it be
independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any
other limitation of sovereignty.
- These rights are applicable to everyone regardless of
any traits
- Lacking age in the law
- Not all countries are states
Article 3 (Section 1 of Bill of Rights): Everyone has the
right to life, liberty and the security of person.
Life
- Life is more than just existence
- The enjoyment of all bodily faculties
- You should not be deprived of the enjoyment of these
faculties (to enjoy your senses like seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting, feeling)
- For ex: In Japan, they cut off fingers of robbers which
deprives them of their right to life
Security of Person
- Freedom of mobility
- If you are convicted, you are put in prison
Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude;
slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their
forms.
Slavery
- Involuntary servitude
- Made to do something against your will (unapplicable
to your parents)
Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
- A punishment must be equitable to the nature of the
crime
Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law.
- Whether you are in USA, Japan, etc. you have the right
to be recognized as a person and you have the full
political and civil capacity to act accordingly under the
law
Article 7 (Section 1 of Bill of Rights): All are equal
before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are
entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in
violation of this Declaration and against any incitement
to such discrimination.
- Equal protection of the law regardless of their race,
color, political beliefs, etc.
- In certain contexts, there are discriminations that are
acceptable
- For ex: there a gender-based privileges
- In the context of child-bearing, your paternity leave is 5
days but maternity leave is 105 days
Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy
by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the
fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by
law.
- Anyone even foreigners can file a case against the
violator
Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile.
- Nobody regardless of Filipino or foreigner cannot be
arrested without a warrant except if they are caught in
the act
Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair
and public hearing by an independent and impartial
tribunal, in the determination of his rights and
obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
- Fair: The judge that is hearing the case must not
display any biases
- Public: Open to the public
Article 11:
1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to
be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to
law in a public trial at which he has had all the
guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on
account of any act or omission which did not constitute a
penal offence, under national or international law, at the
time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty
be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time
the penal offence was committed.
- An act if it is not defined by the law as a crime is not a
crime not matter how wrong it is
Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and
reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of
the law against such interference or attacks.
- Refers to the privacy of a person (includes
correspondence such as emails, messages, etc.)
- One waives their right to privacy in social media
Article 13:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including
his own, and to return to his country.
- One can choose where they want to live and has the
freedom to go anywhere anytime
- Exception to freedom of movements:
- Covid lockdown
- If you are carrying a disease that is communicable, then
the state may restrict the freedom of movement
- People who are in prison/are deemed dangerous to
society (jail, mental hospitals, etc.)
Article 14:
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other
countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of
prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes
or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of
the United Nations.
- If the crime is filed against you is a non-political crime,
then you will not be granted asylum (robbery, murder,
etc.)
Article 15:
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality
nor denied the right to change his nationality.
- Everybody who is born has the right to belong to a
certain nation/country
Article 16:
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation
due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to
marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal
rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its
dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and
full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit
of society and is entitled to protection by society and the
State.
- Consent must be full among the spouses
Article 17:
1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well
as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
- As soon as age 18, one can own and buy real and
personal property under your name
- Real property (Immovable properties): land, buildings,
etc.
- Personal property (Movable properties): Laptop,
phone
- The government cannot just take your property without
due process of law
Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to
change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone
or in community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.
- Freedom of thought is absolute
- The expression of thoughts/religious beliefs is subject
to the regulation of state/rights of others
Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression; this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.
- Is wide enough in scope
- Example: Not wearing uniforms on school days can be
a freedom of expression but subject to the policy of the
school
Article 20:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful
assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
- Freedom to associate and rally as long as it is peaceful
Article 21:
1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government
of his country, directly or through freely chosen
representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public
service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the
authority of government; this will shall be expressed in
periodic and genuine elections which shall be by
universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret
vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
- Right to take part in the government during elections
- Public services: roads, transportation systems,
PhilHealth, social services
- Authority of the government emanates from us
Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the
right to social security and is entitled to realization,
through national effort and international co-operation
and in accordance with the organization and resources of
each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free development of
his personality.
- Social security: social services offered by the
government
Article 23:
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
employment, to just and favorable conditions of work
and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to
equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and
favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his
family an existence worthy of human dignity, and
supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social
protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade
unions for the protection of his interests.
- Right to be employed and to choose your employment
- Favorable conditions of work: salary, benefits,
environment, etc.
- Salary payment must be just
- Right to a living wage and be protected from
unemployment
Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
including reasonable limitation of working hours and
periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25:
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate
for the health and well-being of himself and of his
family, including food, clothing, housing and medical
care and necessary social services, and the right to
security in the event of unemployment, sickness,
disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of - If you have rights and freedoms, you have duties and
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. responsibilities as well
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care
and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be
wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. interpreted as implying for any State, group or person
- Retirement pays any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act
aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and
Article 26: freedoms set forth herein.
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall
be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental
stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
Technical and professional education shall be made
generally available and higher education shall be equally
accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of
the human personality and to the strengthening of
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It
shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship
among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
further the activities of the United Nations for the
maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of
education that shall be given to their children.
- Public schools: Elementary is free
- Technical education: TESDA
- Professional education: Colleges

Article 27:
1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the
cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to
share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral
and material interests resulting from any scientific,
literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
- Protection to those who are authors, artists, etc. of their
products
- Ex: Painters are protected by copyright laws

Article 28: Everyone is entitled to a social and

international order in which the rights and freedoms set
forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29:
1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone
the free and full development of his personality is
possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone
shall be subject only to such limitations as are
determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due
recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of
others and of meeting the just requirements of morality,
public order and the general welfare in a democratic
society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be
exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the
United Nations.