The Rise of Human Rights in International Politics
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
What are some of the roots of modern human rights advocacy?
What are some examples of human rights initiatives before 1914?
How did the League of Nations attempt to advance human rights in the 1920s and 1930?
How has the international community sought to protect the rights of minority groups since 1919?
How did the United Nations attempt to correct failings in the League of Nations in protecting human rights?
What role has been played by private individuals and NGOs in push for respect of human rights?
Give a specific example of a human rights violation in a region of the world and the responses of the international community.
How did the Cold War influence respect for human rights?
Did the end of the bipolar environment of the Cold War influence human rights initiatives in the 1990s?
What is the controversy surrounding the “right to protect”?
Exam Questions
How have the great powers sought a balance between sovereignty and universal human rights?
How has respect for human rights been influenced by trends in international relations, such as the Cold War?
How have the great powers differed from the views of states in the developing world on human rights?
Weblinks
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/struggle_for_human_rights.htm – text of Eleanor Roosevelt speech on human rights in 1948
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights – text of UN Declaration on Human Rights 1948
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/genocide.asp – text of Genocide Convention 1948
https://www.equalrightstrust.org/sites/default/files/ertdocs//DDHC%201789%20ENG.pdf – text of Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/geneva04.asp – text of the 1864 Geneva Convention
https://1997-2001.state.gov/global/human_rights/971209_clinton_humrts.html – US statement on human rights and democracy 1997
http://www.blackpast.org/george-washington-williams-open-letter-king-leopold-congo-1890 – correspondence regarding humanitarian crisis in the Congo 1890
https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions – texts of the Geneva Conventions of 1949
http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html – text of the European Convention on Human Rights
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/child.asp – text of 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
Bibliography
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Gumz, Jonathan, “International Law and the Transformation of War, 1899-1949: The Case of Military Occupation”, Journal of Modern History 90:3 (2018) 621-660.
Hucker, Daniel, Public Opinion and Twentieth-Century Diplomacy (London: Bloomsbury, 2022).
Hurst, Mark, British Human Rights Organizations and Soviet Dissent, 1965-1985 (London: Bloomsbury, 2017).
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Lorenzini, Sara, Umberto Tulli, Ilaria Zamburlini, eds., The Human Rights Breakthrough of the 1970s (London: Bloomsbury, 2022).
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Tyskiewicz, Jakub, “Human Rights and the Jimmy Carter Administration’s Policy towards Poland, 1977-80”, Cold War History 22:2 (2023) 307-325.
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