1. Global governance: Human rights and environmental

3.1 Human rights

International law and institutions

Special UN tribunals

International Criminal Court (ICC)

  • Responsible for investigating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
  • Aims to work in addition to national courts, rather than to replace them - only tries a case where national courts are unwilling or unable - acts as a court of last resort
  • Separate from the UN, based in the Hague, Netherlands
  • A permanent organisation which replaces ad hoc tribunals
  • Established by the Rome Statute

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

  • Principal judicial organ of the UN - the main mediation organ of the UN
  • Based in the Hague
  • Settles legal disputes submitted by states in accordance with international law
  • Has no enforcement powers, but if states don't comply, the UNSC becomes responsible for maintaining peace and security
  • P5 UNSC members have the power to veto any enforcement
  • Cases can be heard against all UN member states provided they recognise the court's jurisdiction

Weaknesses

  • The ICTY has been criticised for its lengthy proceedings and apparent delays - the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Serbia, was ongoing when he died in 2006 after lasting several years from 2002
  • The ICTY has been accused of bias and selective justice, and criticised for disproportionately targeting Serb defendants - the tribunal has indicted far more Serbs than other ethnic groups (94 of 161 indictees are Serbs)

Weaknesses of the ICC

  • Perception of being biased against Africans so several African nations have removed themselves from the Rome Statue - appearance of a colonial organisation (by 2020, only Africans had been convicted by the court)
  • Cases can only be heard against states that have signed the Rome Statue (124 states), or cases referred by the UNSC - making it largely ineffective
  • Some states are not bound by the rulings of the court - China, Russia, the US, India and Israel are not under the court's jurisdiction - 70% of the world's population are outside of the court's jurisdiction
  • Attempts to establish a universal standard of human rights often clashes with sovereign self-interest of states
  • A year since the ICC issued Putin's arrest warrant, no further action has been taken to arrest him
  • Despite the ICC's warrants, al-Bashir has visited numerous countries without arrest - highlighting the ICC's challenges to enforce rulings

Weaknesses of the ICJ

  • Individuals or groups cannot use the court to bring states to justice - the Gambia has taken Myanmar to the court over accusations of genocide on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (who couldn't bring the case to court themself)
  • States have to agree to stand before the court and to be bound by its jurisdiction - in the USA vs Nicaragua case in 1986, the US chose not to subject itself to the court's ruling despite the court ruling against the US - Nicaragua turned to the UNSC to enforce the judgement, which the US, a P5 member, vetoed enforcement action
  • The court cannot initiate cases itself
  • There is a lack of enforceability as not all states have granted their consent - jurisdiction is not enforceable
  • The court's advisory opinions are not binding and are therefore limited - eg the court's opinion that the wall built by Israel in occupied Palestine was illegal was ignored
  • Criticisms of bias and a lack of separation of powers between the court and UNSC

Strengths of the ICJ

  • The court's rulings carry great moral weight, the UNSC an be approached to enforce a judgement (however it is unlikely coercive action would be taken)

Strengths

  • Tribunals often operate independently from national governments which ensures impartiality, therefore they are not subject to political influence or bias - eg the Special Court for Sierra Leone prosecuted individuals from various sides of the civil war, including former Liberian president Charles Taylor
  • Tribunals often prioritise the participation of victims in proceedings - eg the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia allowed victims of the Khmer Rouge regime to participate in judicial trials

Strengths of the ICC

  • Has secured the conviction of notorious war criminals, such as Thomas Lubanga in 2012 for using child soldiers in the Congolese civil war
  • The ICC's arrest warrant for Putin issued in March 2023 was the first time a permanent UNSC member leader has been issued with an arrest warrant
  • Omar al-Bashir (former president of Sudan) became the first sitting head of state to be issued an arrest warrant by the ICC in 2009 for war crimes and genocide
  • In May 2024, the ICC announced its plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity

Key issues of dealing with human rights

Rise of humanitarian interventions and growth in the 1990s

  • The collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of the US as the global hegemon led to the US acting as the 'global policeman' and enabled the UNSC to sanction humanitarian intervention missions
  • The end of the Cold War also seemed to encourage a new era of liberal thinking that justified this protection of human rights (new world order)

Failed interventions

  • The UN intervention in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War in July 1995 failed to prevent the genocide of over 8000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys - the UN had declared the area 'safe' but failed to demilitarise the Bosnian Army
  • The UNSC failed to authorise interventions and the proper mandate to prevent the mass killings during the Rwandan genocide in 1994

Successful interventions

  • The UN intervention in the Sierra Leonean Civil War was successful in disarming combatants and helped implement the Lomé Peace Accord in 1999 - the mission also later supported the process of democratic elections in the country

Criticisms of Western interventionism

  • Some have criticised Western powers of using interventionism as another form of neocolonialism and an opportunity for Western states to impose their values on others - many argued the 2003 invasion of Iraq was carried so the US could gain access to Iraqi oil
  • The US has been accused of hypocrisy for promoting human rights whilst also appearing to breach humanitarian law - eg Guantanamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
  • The UK has been criticised for selling arms to Bahrain, a country accused of human rights abuses in attempts to put down pro-democracy protests
  • The UK and US have been criticised for their alleged silence or inaction over human rights abuses in China (against Uyghurs in the XUAR) due to China's economic power

3.2 Environmental

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

  • The UNFCCC is an international environment treaty negotiated at the Earth Summit in 1992, created as a mechanism for developing global environment policy
  • The treaty came into force in 1994 and has 198 signatories including all UN member states
  • Parties to the treaty have to make national inventories of their sources of CO2 and emissions
  • At the 1997 Kyoto Summit, the signatory states were required to freeze CO2 levels from 2000 onwards - this paved the way for the introduction of legally binding emission targets
  • Requirements on states were determined on the basis of equity - states that had contributed most to global warming, had industrialised earlier or were mere developed were expected to accept greater reductions in their emission, while developing states were not expected to reduce theirs

Criticisms

  • The UNFCCC did not take account of the fact that emissions by developing states would increase rapidly as their economic growth accelerated
  • The UNFCCC is merely a set of recommendations for further action - its rulings and requirements are not legally binding

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

  • The IPCC is a UN body set up in 1988 as an internationally accepted authority on climate change
  • The IPCC has 195 members
  • The purpose of the IPCC is to provide impartial information and advice about climate change to decision-makers, organisations and groups
  • The panel consists of climate change scientists who volunteer to review the latest research on climate change
  • Through its reports, the IPCC influences understanding of, and state policy on climate change
  • It has established a consensus that climate change exists by providing evidence that Earth's temperature is rising as a result of human activity - the IPCC has made it increasingly difficult for states to ignore the issue

Criticisms

  • The IPCC's reliance on already published research means that its reports may be out of date, leading to an underestimation of the extent of climate change
  • Some people question the validity of some scientific assumptions on which the Assessment Reports' judgements are based - eg assumptions about the oceans' capacity to absorb carbon dioxide are much disputed by the scientific community
  • The IPCC has been accused of scaremongering, making predictions that do not stand up to scrutiny