Contemporary Issues of the World

Unit 13.2: Implications of Human Rights

 Learning Objective

Build the foundation for origin of human rights

and its implementation through history
Implications of Human Rights on Global
Politics
• Human rights invest governments with powerful obligations, affecting their foreign as well as domestic
policies. As states are responsible for protecting human rights, their relationship should therefore
have, at least, a human rights dimension
• It influence not only how a state deal with its own citizens but also how it deals with other people and
countries.
• Its influence on war have led to the emergence of the idea of “just war” – war for protection of human
rights
• Foreign aid and trade policies are influenced by the notion of human rights as universal and absolute.
• However, despite the strengthening of human rights laws, the theoretical implications of human rights
are counterbalanced by powerful practical and sometimes moral considerations. This makes the
protection of human rights a complex and often difficult process.
 Different views of Human Rights
Realist View
Realists consider human rights as
“soft issues” that should be
prioritized below the main issues
of human security and national
interests
Many held that it is impossible
and undesirable to view interna-
tional politics in moral terms.
Morality and the national inter-
est are two distinct things, and
states fail to serve their own cit-
izens when they allow ethical
considerations.
Liberal View
Human rights are originally
introduced in global politics by
liberals, who believe that the very
objective of state is to protect a
set of inalienable rights, like life,
liberty, and property.
Nevertheless, liberals tend to
regard only civil and political
rights as fundamental rights, and
sometimes view economic rights
and any conception of solidarity
rights with grave suspicion.
Critical View
Critics of Liberal View (usually
socialists) consider economic and
social rights to be fundamental
and advocate for global social
justice.
Feminists, for instance, claim that
men has designed property rights
to serve their interests.
State, run by political elite class,
is often viewed by them as a sys-
tematic institutionalization of hu-
man rights violation.
 Case Study: Conflict of Rights
Foreign criminals who are jailed for more than one year may be considered for deportation. In some
cases, the foreign criminal may be given the right to stay if deportation breaches their human rights. A
breach of human rights may include the right to private and family life if their family lives in the coun-
try where they commit crime or right to life or to protection from torture if their lives could be put at risk
by being deported to their own country.

This could cause a conflict of rights between the criminal and the public in the deporting country. For
example, if a foreign criminal was granted the right to stay because their lives would be at risk by
returning to their country, but he/she has committed a crime that presented a threat to public safety,
then this decision of state to keep the criminal would compromise the public right to protection of life
and property.

Which right would be given importance depends on the view of human rights prevailing in the state.
 References
Books
• Chapter 13, “Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention,” in Global Politics by Andrew Heywood
• Chapter 15, “The Promotion of Human Development and Human Rights,” in World Politics by Charles W.
Kegley and Shannon L. Blanton.
Web Resources
• Human Rights Case Studies: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/secondary-education-resources/use-
ful-information/human-rights-case-studies
• Human Rights: An Endless Battle https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i41lq2d13J8&ab_channel=wocomoDOCS
Thanks