9781422285510

The United Nations Leadership and Challenges in a Global World

Human Rights and Protecting Individuals

Series Advisor Dr. Bruce Russett, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations, Yale University

The United Nations Leadership and Challenges in a Global World Human Rights and Protecting Individuals

The United Nations: Leadership and Challenges in a Global World T i tle L i st

• The Birth of the UN, Decolonization, and Building Strong Nations

• The History, Structure, and Reach of the UN

• The UN Security Council and the Center of Power

• Humanitarian Relief and Lending a Hand

• International Security and Keeping the Peace

• International Law and Playing by the Rules

• Antiterrorism Policy and Fighting Fear

• Cultural Globalization and Celebrating Diversity

• Economic Globalization and Sustainable Development

• Human Rights and Protecting Individuals

The United Nations Leadership and Challenges in a Global World

Human Rights and Protecting Individuals

Roger Smith

Series Advisor Bruce Russett

Mason Crest Publishers Philadelphia

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Copyright @ 2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3427-3 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3437-2 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8551-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

Design by Sherry Williams and Tilman Reitzle, Oxygen Design Group. Cover photos: Fotolia/Nobilior (top); Dreamstime/Sadık Güleç (bottom).

Contents Introduction . 6 1. The UN Charter and the UN’s Role in Human Rights. . . . . . . . . . . 9 2. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 21 3. The UN Human Rights System . 35 4. Human Rights and International Law. 47 5. The United Nations in Action. 57 Time Line. 78 Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Series Glossary. 81 Index . 84 Picture Credits. 87 Biographies. 88 Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxedmaterial within themain text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. SeriesGlossary of KeyTerms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout the series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field. KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR:

Introduction by Dr. Bruce Russett

T he United Nations was founded in 1945 by the victors of WorldWar II. They hoped the new organization could learn from the mistakes of the League of Nations that followedWorldWar I—and prevent another war. The United Nations has not been able to bring worldwide peace; that would be an unrealistic hope. But it has contributed in important ways to the world’s experience of more than sixty years without a new world war. Despite its flaws, the United Nations has contributed to peace. Like any big organization, the United Nations is composed of many separate units with different jobs. These units make three different kinds of contributions. The most obvious to students in North America and other democracies are those that can have a direct and immediate impact for peace. Especially prominent is the Security Council, which is the only UN unit that can authorize the use of military force against countries and can require all UN members to cooperate in isolating an aggressor country’s economy. In the Security Council, each of the big powers—Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States—can veto any proposed action. That’s because the founders of United Nations recognized that if the Council tried to take any military action against the strong opposition of a big power it would result in war. As a result, the United Nations was often sidelined during the Cold War era. Since the end of the Cold War in 1990, however, the Council has authorized many military actions, some directed against specific aggressors but most intended as more neutral peacekeeping efforts. Most of its peacekeeping efforts have been to end civil wars rather than wars between countries. Not all have succeeded, but many have. The United Nations Secretary-General also has had an important role in mediating some conflicts. UN units that promote trade and economic development make a different kind of contribution.Some help to establish free markets for greater prosperity, or like the UN Development Programme, provide economic and

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The United Nations

technical assistance to reduce poverty in poor countries.Some are especially concerned with environmental problems or health issues. For example, the World Health Organization and UNICEF deserve great credit for eliminating the deadly disease of smallpox from the world. Poor countries especially support the United Nations for this reason. Since many wars, within and between countries, stem from economic deprivation, these efforts make an important indirect contribution to peace. Still other units make a third contribution: they promote human rights. The High Commission for Refugees, for example, has worked to ease the distress of millions of refugees who have fled their countries to escape from war and political persecution.A special unit of the Secretary-General’s office has supervised and assisted free elections in more than ninety countries. It tries to establish stable and democratic governments in newly independent countries or in countries where the people have defeated a dictatorial government.Other units promote the rights of women, children, and religious and ethnic minorities. The General Assembly provides a useful setting for debate on these and other issues. These three kinds of action—to end violence, to reduce poverty, and to promote social and political justice—all make a contribution to peace. True peace requires all three, working together. The UN does not always succeed: like individuals, it makes mistakes . . . and it often learns from its mistakes. Despite the United Nations’ occasional stumbles, over the years it has grown and moved for-ward.These books will show you how.

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Introduction

Twelve-year-old Tan Son Nhut, a child soldier in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, holding a grenade launcher during the Vietnam War in 1968. The UN has helped to bring the world’s attention to this concern through its creation of the position of “advocate of childern affected by war” in 2007 and through its yearly international days in obvservation of child soldiers.

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The United Nations

Chapter one

The UN Charter and the UN’s Role in Human Rights

Imagine you are a young boy of thirteen —a child soldier— forced to fight by the government of Myanmar (Burma), a country in southeast Asia, or armed groups fighting against the government.The independent human rights organization Child Soldiers International reports that, while the Myanmar government committed to stopping the use of underage boys in the military in 2012, armed opposition groups still engage in this practice. Imagine you are a girl living in a rural village in the central American country of Guatemala who must help with chores and raising her Wo r d s t o U n d e r s ta n d discrimination : the practice of unfairly treating a person or group based on their differences. humanitarian : describing work done to improve human welfare. isolationism : the belief that a country should limit their involvement in the affairs of other countries. standard of living : the minimum amount of necessities essential to maintaining a comfortable life.

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Chapter One

younger siblings. According to the UN Foundation’s GirlUp, only 26 percent of indigenous Guatemalan girls remain in school until age seventeen. Girls with limited education face highly limited opportunities in life, often being forced to marry at an early age with no prospects for ways to earn a living. Indeed, GirlUp also reports that 40 percent of Mayan girls under the age of eighteen are married. These sorts of problems are common for children around the world. The rights of health, safety, and education are among the rights of children declared by the United Nations. They are rights the United Nations says everyone in the world should have—so we call them“human rights.”

Mayan women and girls in traditional dress at a market in Chichicastenango, Guatemala. Young Mayans in Guatemala are not the only girls in the world to face lack of educational opportunity: in all regions the educational gap between boys and girls is a pressing problem.

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The United Nations

Purposes of the United Nations The UN’s primary goals are to keep the peace throughout the world; to develop friendly relations among nations; to achieve international co-operation in solving economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian problems. The UN also promotes respect for human rights regardless of race, sex, language, or religion.

Since 1945, the United Nations has worked to promote and protect human rights around the world. It has attempted to make peace, provide aid for people who suffer, and guarantee rights to all the world’s citizens, but it has often been unable to achieve those goals. At the same time, the United Nations holds a unique position that sometimes enables it to succeed in bringing about peace and human rights. The UN Charter The founders of a nation write a constitution when their nation is established. It contains important ideas and outlines critical principles that the country should follow as long as it exists. Nations are not alone in having constitutions: when companies or other groups form, they create documents that explain who they are and what they will do.The UN Charter is a sort of“constitution”for the United Nations. The word“charter”usually refers to a document giving rights or powers to a group of people. For example, in the Magna Carta, written in 1215, the king of England promised certain rights to the English people. In the UN Charter, the people of the world granted themselves the rights, powers, and responsibilities listed in the charter. The ideas and rules contained in the UN Charter apply to all its member states. The United Nations in 2015 includes 193 member states, nations that work together for their common good. Fifty nations signed the UN Charter in San Francisco on June 26, 1945.The charter contains 19 chapters and 111 articles.It begins with the expression,“We the peoples of the United Nations.”

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Chapter One

The Magna Carta was a document outlining political and civil rights promised to English noblemen by King John of England in 1215; it was reissued by King Edward I in 1297, when it became part of England’s official body of law. This is an image of one of the four original copies of the 1297 version.

History Behind the UN Charter Most constitutions or charters contain older ideas—previous documents inspire the people who write them. The UN Charter is no different. Its history reaches back at least a century or more. For as long as people have existed, they have warred against one another and violated each other’s rights. After more than a half million Europeans died in wars in the early nineteenth century, nations gathered together at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the first global meeting intended to negotiate a peace. The Vienna Congress

made agreements that helped European nations keep peace between them for almost a century. However, the agreements of Vienna fell apart with World War I, which caused more than 20 million deaths. The world had never seen such horrors. Reacting to the horrors of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States led the movement to create a new organization called the League of Nations. The basis for President Wilson’s plan was an article titled “The League of Nations: A Practical Suggestion,” by General Jan Smuts of South Africa.This article expressed the belief that “civilization is one body and. . .we are all members of one another.” Founders organized the League of Nations around a document titled the Covenant of the League of Nations. The primary goal of the League was to use discussion as a means to settle disputes between nations,but the covenant did not include the term“human rights.” Ironically, the United States, despite the fact that Woodrow Wilson was U.S. president when he

Official presidential portrait of Woodrow Wilson, by Frank Graham Cootes done in 1913. President Wilson proposed the League of Nations as an integral part of carving out a peaceful solution and path forward from the horrors of World War I.

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Chapter One

promoted the League, doomed it when the U.S. Congress refused to join. After World War I, people in the United States favored isolationism . They thought the United States would be better off avoiding involvement with other countries,having already gotten involved in the horrors of WorldWar I. As World War II began in 1939, people around the world discussed ideas for a replacement to the League of Nations. In 1941, nations that were warring against Germany gathered at St. James’s Palace in London and signed a document called the Inter-Allied Declaration. It promised they would work together to promote worldwide freedom and peace.This beginning led four years later, at the end of the war, to the United Nations. The basic shape of the UN charter came from the governments of the Allied forces during World War II, including the United States, England, and the Soviet Union. President Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 first used the expression “United Nations” when referring to those nations that joined their forces to oppose Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in World War II. The conference that founded the United Nations took place in San Francisco in June 1945.At the conference, all the nations that had declared war on Germany and Japan prior to 1945—fifty-one nations in all—were invited to help finish writing the UN Charter, which was begun during the war in an effort led by U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull. They agreed that the charter would become official as soon as the five permanent The United Nations By the Numbers • The UN provides food to 90 million people in 80 countries. • The UN has vaccinated 58 per cent of the world’s children, saving 3 million lives a year. • The UN helps more than 38.7 million refugees and people fleeing war, famine or persecution. • The UN keeps the peace with 120,000 peacekeepers in 16 operations on 4 continents. • The UN helps find and distribute $22 billion in humanitarian aid.

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The United Nations