11 8 10 Traditional Approach Dominates world politics Human Rights Sovereignty and nationalism Hands off policy policy is usually to ignore human rights abuses Alternative Approach Increasing technology and IGOs Actually seeing the violations changes attitudes People are usually well aware of human rights violations Darfur 2 presidents have been put on trial for crimes against humanity Proscriptive Rights Rights that a government cannot do to groups private individuals and organizations negative rights prevalent in US 58 of Americans support these Prescriptive Rights basic necessities that a society and its government are obligated to try and provide in order to assure certain standards of life for everyone in the community Positive rights Western Europe Asia Place productive obligation on society 33 of Americans support these Universalists all humans possess the same rights and they are not debatable Human rights are bigger than culture and are created outside society Example Right to Life cannot be violated Relativists Rights on culture dependent They are a product of society s contemporary values Rights can change with social norms Applying Human Rights One standard Western concept Individualist vs communitarian concerns Western countries lean toward individualist Developing nations lean toward communitarian Ranking human rights Freedom House 1 7 30 of countries are at a 5 or lower UN as Center of Universal Human Rights From the UN Commission to the Council on Human Rights Abolished high commission created UN council 47 members 2003 elected Libya to be on commission 2004 Sudan elected 43 were below 4 on freedom house scale Multilateral Treaties UN Declaration of Human Rights 1948 universalist Not legally binding ICCPR 1966 80 of countries signed ICESCR 1966 80 signed Barriers to Progress Just sovereignty and nationalism 1 Using human rights to criticize Lesser Developed Countries 2 cultural standards differ 3 political selectivity 4 human rights is a low priority