Human Rights in International Politics

The sources of rights, how to classify different rights, and to what extent rights are universal stand as important questions that must be discussed in human rights theory

A number of names, especially Bentham and Hume, have been advocates of positive law, maintain that human-beings rather than natural law create rights. (Cranston 1983, 3-4; Freeman 2012, 32-33; Vincent 2010, 78)

This is because human rights have been thought as a common research subject to philosophy and theology. Aristotle’s and Plato’s emphasis on the concept of right, the Stoic’s
emphasis on the common values of humanity in the framework of cosmopolitanism, or underlining some moral values, especially compassion, in some interpretations of beliefs such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, might be related to human rights in one way or another.

Founding fathers played an important role in establishing confederacy and forming a constitution in the United States. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay,
John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are called as the founding fathers.

For the first time, in the Congress of Vienna of 1815 regulations were made to forbid trade of slaves, and similarly, the Slavery Convention of 1926, and afterwards the League of Nations had strictly forbidden the trade of slaves and slavery itself

The geostrategic necessities of the bipolar world during the Cold War prevented international initiatives on human rights from being effectively put in place.

Numerous organizations that have introduced the principle of conditionality for the protection of human rights could be mentioned. For example, the European Union effectively implements this principle in the process of membership, while encouraging candidate members to take steps in line with democratization and human rights

The UN constitutes commissions to prepare reports on the protection of human rights and to monitor concerned states at the  global level through the Council of Human Rights and the High Commissioner

The International Criminal Tribunal, which tries directly individuals due to the individuality of crime, is an important mechanism
in preventing serious human rights violations, especially genocide and war crimes.

It should be noted that international nongovernmental organizations such as Freedom House, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have an undeniable precaution in particular on the international disclosure of widespread human rights violations and the transfer of information, including human rights protection mechanisms, to local populations.

Some countries are in a leading position and play a leading role. For instance, Brysk (2009) states that some countries such as Sweden, Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Japan and South Africa attach special importance to human rights in their foreign policies, and they have noteworthy activities in the protection and promotion of human rights

According to Wagner, non-state actor is a concept that encompasses all those actors in international relations that are not state(s) such as “international organizations, corporations, non-governmental organizations, de facto regimes, trade associations, transnational corporations, terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations” (Wagner 2009)

Several international organizations exist acting in the field of human rights such as the European Union, African Union, ASEAN and UNASUR.

The United Nation (UN) is an international organization established on 24th October 1945.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) was announced by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, just after three years of the foundation of the United Nations.

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe aims to provide justice and international cooperation in terms of a closer unity, to promote democracy through the protection of individual freedom, political liberty, and the rule of law, and also to facilitate economic and social progress of its member states

The founding Treaty grants the ICC jurisdiction over four specific areas, which are genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are units of people who came together voluntarily toward a specified objective without a citizenship restriction, which means
that NGOs’ members do not belong to a particular country, and people can participate in NGOs from anywhere in the world

As being one of the well-known NGOs in the sphere of human rights, Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization through which members from 216 countries are gathered on the purpose of ensuring a world in which human rights are respected, promoting equality of the basic rights of human, preventing human rights violations

It is possible to talk about four diverse theories approaching the relation of international relations and human rights: Normative Theory, Liberalism Constructivism, and English School.

Normative theorists are the advocates of a global order in which respect for human rights becomes a norm