It is not only during wartime that people around the world are killed and mistreated. The international community is committed to protecting the rights with which all human beings are born. These rights are detailed in the UN Declaration on Human Rights, which was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1 948.
There is a lot of debate about exactly what human rights are. It is generally agreed that they must be fundamental rights that are shared by all people. Human rights also involve tolerance of a range of views and cultures. But in many cultures, religious ideals that are shared by most of the people may actually contradict fundamental human rights, such as by discriminating against other people because of their religion or lifestyle.
The most extreme form of human rights abuse is genocide, which is defined by the United Nations as "an act of destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, cultural, or religious group." 1 This may happen by murdering members of a group of people, such as the millions of Jews killed during the Holocaust in World War II, or by other means, such as imposing living conditions in which the group cannot survive or preventing members of a group from having children.
The international community, through the United Nations, is committed to preventing genocide around the world. Unfortunately, the record since World War II has not been a good one. The international community failed to act in time to prevent genocides in countries such as Cambodia (1 975-1 978), in Southeast Asia, and Rwanda (1994), in Central and Eastern Africa. In the North African region of Darfur, in western Sudan, more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003, and many more have been forced to leave their homes as a result of "ethnic cleansing," which is often the same thing as genocide.
Darfur shows the limits of the international community's power to deal with serious abuses of human rights within a country. China, which has extensive economic links to Sudan, was able to use its veto as a permanent member of the Security Council (see page 1 8) to prevent sanctions from being imposed
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on Sudan. Many people think the UN system needs reform if one country can block action to deal with crimes against humanity because of its own interests. China is not the only country to have used its veto in this way.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Since 2002, the international community has agreed to set up the International Criminal Court (ICC). The court is set up to pursue individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, and other crimes against humanity. The ICC can only rule on crimes committed in the more than 100 countries that have accepted its authority.
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Unfortunately, the ICC has been weakened because several countries have not accepted this authority, including China, Russia, and the United States. 2 The United States was concerned that the court would be able to prosecute U.S. soldiers or political leaders at the request of the country's opponents. 3
In 2011, General Ratko Mladic was brought to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, He was accused of leading the massacre of more than 7,500 men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, during Bosnia-Herzegovina's bitter war of independence from Yugoslavia. 4
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Taking action to protect human rights is not just limited to organizations such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. Global campaigning groups work to remain at the forefront of the battle to ensure that human rights are respected.
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have an important role to play in drawing attention to human rights abuses, and in influencing the public's desire to tackle those abuses. They perform a role that governments often do not want to fill, as drawing attention to human rights issues may cause tensions between different countries — especially if the country accused of abuse is a powerful nation or an important trading partner.
Aung San Suu Kyi has led the fight for democracy in Myanmar (also called Burma) since 1988. As a result of her campaign, she has spent more than 15 years under house arrest in her native country. Despite this, Aung San Suu Kyi has continued to call for nonviolence in response to the often-brutal treatment of protestors by Myanmar’s military government. In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign. 5 This and other international awards have brought the attention of people around the world to the situation in Myanmar. But the fact that Myanmar is still a long way from true democracy shows the limits of international pressure when dealing with a determined regime.
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Campaigning for human rights
Pressure from ordinary people around the world has often been successful in highlighting and ending abuses of human rights. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have local groups where you can work with others to campaign for human rights. To campaign for people who have been imprisoned because of the views they hold, you can write letters or e-mails to authorities on their behalf. There are many examples of prisoners who have been released because of international pressure like this.
Debates about human rights are often not simple. Human rights apply to everyone, regardless of who they are and the views they hold. It may be that a victim of human rights abuses holds views we do not share, but freedom to express those views is usually considered to be a human right.
The case of terrorism suspects held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, is a good example. After the September 1 1, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., and the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that followed, many suspected members of al-Qaeda were held at Guantanamo Bay. The suspects were held without trial for long periods, and they were tried in military courts rather than going through normal federal courts. There were also allegations that torture was used when interrogating, or questioning, the alleged terrorists. Although people around the world recognized that these suspects may be terrorists with goals to commit mass murder, many people were also uncomfortable that they were not granted the same rights as other suspected criminals.