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Challenges Facing Global Human Rights Regime

The establishment of the human rights council changed the general approach of social change among world participants since the creation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in 1993. Nonetheless, Stephen Hopgood argues that the establishment of the human rights council has impacted negatively on social change (Hopgood, 2014). Hopgood clearly delineates that there have been several other commissions which have been established ever since, which do not meet the goals of the institution. For instance; the Rome Statute of 1998, the International Criminal Court (ICC) of 2002, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005, the new Human Rights Council of 2006 as well as the Universal Periodic Review of 2008 have all been created to try and create positive social change among the different world stakeholders.

First off, let us begin by establishing that the human rights council does not diminish the active role that it plays in bringing together the elements of what it means to treat a human legitimately. Human rights do not necessarily change the perceptions of individuals towards each other as it does not offer the essential motivations towards adopting and implementing human rights laws in the governance of majority countries (Anan, 2005). This is to say that human rights are indeed an ineffective language for advocating social change.

What’s more, the human rights influences change to slightly significant levels but cannot make much difference with regards to the rapid changes expected in the field. Hopgood theorizes that this might be due to the fact that human rights have been greatly marginalized to target specific identity groups such as women rights, racism, among others. With this proponent, the active participation of stakeholders towards solving the problems emanating from discrimination does not have the necessary backing required to see its success. When marginalizing human rights, you would be effectively creating a tandem group of individuals who feel disadvantaged or just plain unsatisfied with the proceedings.

We agree with Hopgood’s (2014), arguments that human rights have not even remotely curbed the problem of indecent human treatment in majority countries. In fact, human rights have not been made into a mainstream agenda where all the stakeholders are actively involved in reinforcing the collective implementation of core values (The Global Human Rights Regime, 2012). As such, we need to acknowledge the relative ignorance among the general population regarding the subject matter. Therefore, this means that people are not motivated towards actualizing the key principles of the human rights agenda.

Furthermore, there have been legitimate concerns about the involvement of security protocols with respect to the civil and political rights. For most countries, it is impossible to address human rights concerns without infringing on the security of a country. We agree with Hopgood’s (2014), impression that the subject of human rights has been intricately intertwined with that of political rights. It is therefore difficult for the international community to be able to address the violations of human rights without affecting the political status and standing of that political unit (Anan, 2005). For instance, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, after facing criminal charges and emerging triumphant in the ICC, has been the front runner, rallying the African Union from involvement with the ICC. This is a very unpopular move considering the goals and objective of collective implementation among world participants. To top it all off, there have been less than a total of 5 convictions since its inception two decades ago. Yet, there have been numerous reports of gross violations of human rights in multiple countries within this time.

Bibliography

Anan, K. (2005). Human Rights Challenges. Retrieved 20 August 2020, from https://humanrights.com/voices-for-human-rights-challenges.html

Hopgood, S. (2014). Challenges to the Global Human Rights Regime: Are Human Rights Still an Effective Language for Social Change?, International Journal on Human Rights. Retrieved 20 August 2020, from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2550279

The Global Human Rights Regime (2012). International Institutions and Global

Governance Program. Retrieved 20 August 2020, from https://cfr.org/report/global-human-rights-regime