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Human Rights

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Title: Human Rights


1
Human Rights Global Affairs (PSC 354.001)
  • January 26, 2009 (M)

2
Today
  • Student gallery -- index cards (missing
    students?)
  • The quiz results
  • Your assignments (presentations and response
    papers)
  • Summary of Week 1/2
  • What are human rights?
  • Is the human rights movement in a crisis?
  • A controversial human rights issue limiting
    freedom of speech (the case of Geert Wilders)
    hand-out

3
Today (ctd)
  • Todays readings OByrne, chapter 9 and Hatzfeld
  • What is genocide?
  • Why does genocide take place?
  • What international instruments exist to prevent
    and end genocide? Are they sufficient?
  • If time permits UDHR video

4
What you should know (week 1/2)
  • What are human rights?
  • What are some justifications for upholding human
    rights?
  • What are contemporary challenges to the global
    human rights movement?
  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

5
Genocide and other mass atrocities
  • How can human rights be called incontrovertible
    and universal, if we have yet to find effective
    remedies even against the worst abuses?

6
Punishing genocide
  • Article III The following acts shall be
    punishable
  • (a) Genocide(b) Conspiracy to commit
    genocide(c) Direct and public incitement to
    commit genocide(d) Attempt to commit
    genocide(e) Complicity in genocide. 
  • Article VI Persons charged with genocide or any
    of the other acts enumerated in article III shall
    be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in
    the territory of which the act was committed, or
    by such international penal tribunal as may have
    jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting
    Parties which shall have accepted its
    jurisdiction.

7
Genocide convention vs. UDHR
  • Genocide convention, adopted December 9, 1948.
  • UDHR, adopted December 10, 1948.
  • Raphael Lemkin vs. Eleanor Roosevelt.
  • Convention legally binding.
  • Declaration not legally binding.
  • GC focus on effective protection of minorities
    creating state obligations.
  • UDHR focus on defining universal human rights,
    while creating no legal obligations threatening
    state sovereignty.

8
Eliminating genocide
  • The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
    of the Crime of Genocide (1948)
  • Raphael Lemkin, December 9, 1948 (OByrne, 299)
    in force 1951 (US ratification 1989).
  • Article I The Contracting Parties confirm that
    genocide, whether committed in time of peace or
    in time of war, is a crime under international
    law which they undertake to prevent and to
    punish (my emphasis). 

9
Defining genocide
  • Article II In the present Convention, genocide
    means any of the following acts committed with
    intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
    national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
    such
  • (a) Killing members of the group(b) Causing
    serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
    group(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group
    conditions of life calculated to bring about its
    physical destruction in whole or in part(d)
    Imposing measures intended to prevent births
    within the group(e) Forcibly transferring
    children of the group to another group. 

10
1948 gt 1994 The UN and Rwanda
  • Cold War period (1950- ) While the Genocide
    Convention was never invoked and largely ignored
    during the Cold War, the UDHR became a key
    inspiration for a global human rights movement
    starting in the 1960s (weeks 4-7).
  • Post-Cold War (1989- ) As superpowers withdraw
    from many, now non-vital regions, dormant
    conflicts lead to state failure and civil wars
    (Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, Zaire, Nepal, etc.)

11
Timeline, Rwanda (1894-1962)
  • 1894 Germany wants to be a superpower, too
    (colonial expeditions in Africa).
  • Indirect rule by German (and later, Belgian)
    authorities.
  • 1921 After WWI, German East Africa becomes
    Belgian.
  • 1931 Identity cards issued (Tutsi, Hutu, and
    Twa abolished in 1994).
  • 1957 Publication of the Hutu manifesto
  • 1959 End of the Tutsi kingdom.
  • 1960 Belgian authorities begin to replace Tutsi
    chiefs with Hutus in preparations for
    independence.
  • 1962 National independence. Thousands of Tutsi
    are killed or forced to leave the country between
    1960 and 1964.

12
Timeline, Rwanda (1962-1994)
  • 1972 Mass killings of Hutu in Tutsi-dominated
    Burundi.
  • 1973 Military coup brings J. Habyarimana to
    power.
  • 1980s Push for multi-party politics challenged
    Habyarimanas dictatorship and increased
    anti-Tutsi violence.
  • 1986 Yoweri Museveni wins civil war in Uganda.
  • 1990 Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)
    invades Rwanda from Uganda.
  • 1990-92 Civil war and peace negotiations in
    Arusha.
  • August 1993 Arusha agreement signed.
  • October 1993 Post-election massacres in Burundi.
  • 1994, April 6 President Habyarimana killed.
    Genocide begins.

13
Rwanda, 100 days in 1994
  • The victims
  • Combatants of an ongoing civil war
  • Hutu moderates
  • Tutsi
  • About 800,000 people killed in 100 days from
    April to mid-July 1994.

14
Understanding genocide
  • Macro-level long-term and structural
  • What are social, historical, and political causes
    enabling genocide? (OByrne, 314-320)
  • Max Weber Bureaucratic state (1) competition
    among social groups (2) elites control means of
    violence (3).
  • Micro level short-term and situational
  • Why (and how) do in some instances leaders
    succeed in organizing a genocide? (OByrne,
    312-314, Hatzfeld)

15
Macro level explanations Rwanda
  • Ecological factors
  • Increasing land pressure and lagging food
    production
  • Socio-economic factors
  • Long-term
  • Pastoral (Tutsi) vs. farming (Hutu) communities
  • Existence of a quasi-caste system (Uburetwa)
  • Short-term
  • Growing poverty among Hutu as a result of1989
    coffee crisis
  • Growing competition for control over economic
    resources during the 1990s
  • Political factors
  • Tutsi dominance in the 19th century
  • Colonial powers reinforce Tutsi leadership
    through indirect rule, 1894-1962
  • End of the Cold War creates opening for political
    entrepreneurs.

16
Micro level explanations Rwanda
  • Macro-level factors do not in themselves explain
    the occurrence of genocide (OByrne, 312).
  • The role of agency and leadership
  • Leaders plan genocide (in particular when power
    is threatened Straus, p. 11/12).
  • Genocide as an outcome of escalation (cumulative
    radicalization).
  • Ordinary people commit extraordinary crimes.
  • Groups diffuse responsibilities.
  • Dehumanization of victims.

17
Example the role of group dynamics
  • Diffusion of responsibility (enabled by
    bureaucracy)
  • Focus on details, rather than meaning
  • Displaced authority
  • Everyone can be replaced
  • Deindividuation (Hatzfeld, p. 38, the gang and
    p. 48)
  • Loss of self-awareness
  • Less fear of sanctions
  • Peer pressure (Hatzfeld, p. 38, the gang)
  • Normative social influence
  • Informational social influence
  • Morality enables the commission of evil

18
Responses to genocide
  • Rwanda, 1994 Why did the Clinton Administration
    refuse to use the term genocide?
  • About 800,000 killed and 4 Mio. displaced.
  • DRC, 1995-2004 Who pays attention?
  • About 4 Million killed.
  • Darfur, 2004 Why did the Bush Administration
    declare the situation a genocide?
  • About 200,000 killed and 2 Mio. displaced.
  • The United Nations refused to call the situation
    in Darfur genocide.

19
Prosecuting the Rwandan genocide
  • Revival of the Genocide Convention (GC)
  • International Tribunal (ICTR)
  • Domestic Gacaca courts (Hatzfeld)
  • Creation of the International Criminal Court,
    2001
  • Limits of the GC
  • Limited definition of genocide (OByrne, 301),
    excl. politicides
  • Requirement to prove intent to destroy.. as
    such (Milosevic trial)
  • Lack of effective preventative strategy

20
Lessons learned?
  • Why has it taken 50 years to apply the GC and
    prosecute those responsible for mass atrocities?
  • Does the label genocide make ending violence
    more difficult?
  • Is a punitive approach really effective? What is
    most likely to prevent a future genocide?
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