Human Rights, International Law & International Agreements (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

• Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans on the planet are entitled to regardless of:

  • Nationality

  • Gender

  • Age

  • Ethnic origin 

  • Religion

  • Language

  • Or any other status

• They range from the fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health and liberty

• Despite there being international framework in place, human rights vary from country to country

• This may be due to different government opinions or culture/religion of a state

• The map shows the extent to which people:

  • Are free from government torture, political killings and forced labour

  • Have property rights

  • Enjoy the freedoms of movement, religion and expression 

  • The variable ranges from 0 (no/few rights) to 1 (most rights)

Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR)

• The UDHR, created in 1948, is a: 

  • Statement of intent, rather than legally binding

  • Framework for foreign policy to explain economic and military intervention 

• The UDHR sets out 30 universal rights, including: 

  • Everyone is born free and equal

  • Everyone has the right to an opinion and freedom to express it

  • Everyone has the right to marry

  • Everyone has the right to a nationality and to belong to a country 

•  The declaration defines the meanings of two key terms: 

  • Fundamental freedoms

  • Human rights. 

• These terms are now embedded in the UN Charter and therefore require all 193 member states to recognise and respect the 30 universal rights 

• The UDHR has been a significant factor in influencing foreign policies and international relationships, the UDHR has:

  • Been used to justify a number of military interventions

  • Inspired more than 80 international human rights treaties 

  • Used the promise of aid, especially economic, has been used to persuade other countries to improve their human rights record

• Despite the Declaration stating that these rights should be protected by law, not all countries agreed to it in 1948, including:

  • South Africa – to protect its system of apartheid

  • Saudi Arabia – under Saudi law conversion to another religion is punishable by death, so Muslims don’t have the right ‘to change their religion or belief’

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

• In 1953, the Council of Europe created the ECHR to prevent conflict and promote unity in Europe

  • It was in response to the human right violations seen in WWII and the post-war spread of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe

• The ECHR contains 59 rights, which closely follow the UDHR; these include:

  • Right to marry and found a family

  • Right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence

  • Right not to be punished for something which wasn’t against the law

• The European Court of Human Rights is an international court that interprets the ECHR

  • The court is responsible for monitoring respect for the human rights of approximately 700 million people across 46 member states

• Russia was expelled from the European Court of Human Rights in 2022 due to the deployment of troops in Ukraine

The Uk's Human Rights Act (1988)

• The Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to

• It incorporates the rights set out in the ECHR into domestic British law

• In Britain, most people understand that their ‘human rights’ are protected by law; for example: 

  • People cannot be imprisoned without charge

  • Being gay is not a crime

  • An employee’s religious belief must be respected by the employer

• The Act has three main effects:

  • You can seek justice in a British court if your human rights have been breached, rather than the European Court

  • Public bodies (police, hospitals, schools) must respect and protect your human rights

  • Parliament makes sure that new laws are compatible with the ECHR

• However, some people believe that the UK has lost some of its sovereighty due to the Human Right Act 1988 (and therefore the ECHR) e.g.

  • Appeals related to verdicts given in UK courts can be sent to, and possibly overturned by, the European Court

  • It prevents Britain from deporting terror suspects

• The Conservative Government announced plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a ‘British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities’ to regain some sovereignty

• This new Bill was scrapped in 2023 as opposers argued the bill was likely to reduce the protections currently provided by the Human Rights Act and weaken people’s rights set out in the ECHR

The Geneva Convention

• The four Geneva Conventions are a set of international rules that try to regulate war

• It aims to protect people’s rights during a conflict, including: 

  • Civilians

  • Medical staff, hospitals and aid workers in warzones

  • Wounded armed forces 

  • Prisoners of war 

  • Shipwrecked navy forces

• The Convention bans actions such as terrorism, torture, taking hostages and sexual assault

• Signed in Geneva, Switzerland, by representatives of many countries between 1864 and 1949.

• Currently 196 countries have signed the Geneva Convention (1949), including Russia, Iraq & North Korea

• Despite signing the convention some countries or militant groups have broken the conventions: 

  • In 2015, Amnesty International reported that 141 countries worldwide had allegations of torture made against them

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) holds trials for people accused of war crimes and genocide

• For example, Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, was convicted for 50 years by the ICC for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone’s civil war, including recruiting child soldiers under the age of 15, rape, slavery, terrorism

• The successful prosecution of countries, organisations or individuals who commit war crimes is rare due to little reliable evidence and few witnesses