Topic: Human Rights | The Global Community

Subject: International Affairs/Relations

Human Rights | 
The Global Community

Introduction
Just as the end of the Thirty Years War brought forth a new era for the global system in the form of the nation-state system, the wars of the 20th century contributed to the emergence of new forms for the global system as well, with the proliferation of regional and global governmental and non-governmental organizations and other non-state actors. One of the consequences of this proliferation of actors other than nation-states is a burgeoning agenda of issues that are no longer determined by states.
There are issues that many states would prefer remained on the back burner and others they would just as soon not share with lesser players and non-state actors but this is increasingly not the case, as is readily apparent from Third World-sponsored United Nations General Assembly Resolutions that are not enthusiastically supported by many nations of the developed world. One such area is that of human rights ? a topic historically deemed to be a matter for states to deal with domestically. But this has been a losing battle as human rights have come front and center since the mid-twentieth century, with the recent emergence of the International Criminal Court as only the latest of a growing list of accomplishments on the human rights front.

Objectives
? Gain an understanding of the changes in how human rights have been addressed over the past several centuries

? Compare regional and global human rights regimes
? Appreciate the varying perspectives on what exactly are human rights from region to region

Essay Instructions
Go to read the ?Genesis and Challenges of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement? by Roberta Cohen and Francis Deng. Then compare that article with one of the related commentaries by Williams, Ferris, or Kalin and answer the following questions:

1. What was the origin of the Principles? What were the Principles?

2. How necessary are they?

3. How successful have they been?