roles of legal bodies in human rights

Question 1

united nations: general assembly as a legal body

Answer 1

• united nations as a general assembly, a forum for discussing and voting on international issues
• example: make resolutions about global world issues like hunger/ drafting a resolution on the decade of action on nutrition

Question 2

united nations: security council as a legal body

Answer 2

• a council of 15 nations (nations rotate, but five permanent members of US, China, Russia, France, UK) which make binding resolutions on international peace and security
• Making binding decisions about how to deal with international conflict s
• example: deciding to send the military in, such as 1950 in Korea for the Korean War

Question 3

United nations: Economic and Social council as a legal body

Answer 3

• main platform of the UN dealing with advancing sustainable development economically, socially and enviornmentally
• example: working with the IMF and World Bank to give developmental loans to underdeveloped countries

Question 4

United Nations: Secretariat as a legal body

Answer 4

• deals with administrative matters
• carry out day to day workings of the UN and contain hundreds of mini bodies > these sub bodies enforce UN resolutions (e.g. the UN Dispute tribunal, which hear disputes)

Question 5

United Nations: office of the Human Rights Commissioner

Answer 5

• hears and investigates smaller disputes
• individual bodies can lodge an application to have their dispute heard/ issue investigated

Question 6

United Nations: Human Rights COuncil

Answer 6

• makes recommendations to states on impriving human rights

Question 7

Uniged Nations: Human Rights COmmittee as a legal body

Answer 7

• alike a court in the way that it hears disputes from individuals on abues of their rights

Question 8

United Nations: R2P as a legal body

Answer 8

• R2P (The Responsibility to Protect)
• adopted in 2005
• a UN resolution which says that countries have a duty to protect their population from international crimes like genocide or crimes against humanity > presenting atrocities from occurring which will result in death or injury to their population
• if an own state doesn’t protect their own people, other countries (international states) may step in and take necessary precautions in their place
• for example, 2013 Central African Republic had a mass anti-Christian genocide and the government did nothing to stop it, so France sent in their military

Question 9

Inter-governmental organisations as a legal body for human rights

Answer 9

• organisations of countries who group together for mutual benefit
• try to improve their international standing (for example, through free trade, improving human rights)
• for example the EU ( human rights bill), African Union (R2P), and the COmmonwealth of Nations (promotes rights) is involved in the promotion of rights

Question 10

Courts and tribunals as a legal body for human rights

Answer 10

• international judicial organs dealing with disputes between nations or international crimes
• act like a civil court in the way that one country takes another country, country taking anoher person, UN taking a person/ country

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ)
- established in 1946 as part of the UN
- hears disputes between countries/ member states
- for example, Australia vs Japan (2015), Japan was ordered to stop their whaling in Antarctica, however, it was difficult to force a whole country into compliance and Japan continued to whale.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)
- established in 2002 under the ROme Statute to prosecute International crimes
- hears the most serious crimes like genocide and war crimes
- for example, the Congolese warlord Thomas Dylio was prosecuted for 5 years in the ICC and jailed for 14 years

Question 11

grey areas of the international courts as a legal body

Answer 11

criticisms:
- Time consuming and expensive (ICC takes $100 million a year to run)
- does not prosecute a lot of people
- ICC: although enforceable, international criminals can only be locked up when they are found, but international criminals often find ways to hide from these international bodies
- ICJ: even less enforceable than the ICC, countries can essentially choose not to comply with the ICJ’s decision

positives:
- enforceable and effective
- ‘for all its flaws and critics, it is clearly worth the effort to encourage and support these courts, not just for the relatively few people they rbing to account, but because of the message they send’ - Steven Freeland (international law expert)