2 short essay

Global Human Rights

Transnational Threats and Opportunities (Alison Brysk)

“Globalization—the growing interpenetration of states, markets, communications, and ideas across borders—is one of the leading characteristics of the contemporary world. International norms and institutions for the protection of human rights are more developed than at any previous point in history, while global civil society fosters growing avenues of appeal for citizens repressed by their own states. But assaults on fundamental human dignity continue, and the very blurring of borders and rise of transnational actors that facilitated the development of a global human rights regime may also be generating new sources of human rights abuse. Even as they are more broadly articulated and accepted, the rights of individuals have come to depend ever more on a broad array of global actors and forces, from ministries to multinationals to missionaries.”

Some key points: Globalization ▪ the growing interpenetration of states, markets, communications, and ideas across borders—is

one of the leading characteristics of the contemporary world.

▪ liberals claim will promote development, democracy, personal empowerment, and global governance.

▪ Globalization is a package of transnational flows of people, production, investment, information, ideas, and authority (not new, but stronger and faster).

Some key points: Globalization ▪ The effect of globalization on state-based human rights violations will depend on the type of

state and its history.

▪ Globalization creates new opportunities to challenge the state “from above and below".

▪ The research in this volume suggests that the human rights impact of globalization depends on three types of factors: the type of globalization involved, the level of analysis addressed, and the type of state that is filtering globalizing flows.

Some key points: Globalization (2) What do we mean by globalization?

▪analysts treat globalization as a predominantly economic process or even a synonym for global capitalism, others focus on the growth of international institutions and organizations.

▪Some scholars emphasize the impact of transnational demographic, environmental, and cultural flows while others plot the emergence of cross-border networks that may constitute a “global civil society”.

▪In this project, these developments are seen as facets of a linked, albeit uneven, process. In an extension of Jan Aart Scholte’s definition, globalization is an ensemble of developments that make the world a single place, changing the meaning and importance of distance and national identity in world affairs.

▪Nevertheless, aspects of globalization that occur simultaneously may have very different logics and impact for human rights—as the sections of this book reflect. (p.3)

Globalization and Effects on Rights Three “generations” of human rights (p.4)

• Security rights • Social and economic rights • Collective rights Linked threats > linked rights

Linked rights: “Some vulnerable groups, notably women and indigenous peoples, may face linked threats that emanate from public and private actors, and seek cultural freedoms to meaningfully participate in civic life. Furthermore, the very process of globalization blurs distinctions among categories of rights: humanitarian intervention seeks to rescue ethnic groups, women working as prostitutes are beaten by police for “bothering tourists” to feed their children, and rights to privacy and expression collide on the Internet In this volume, these linked rights can be delineated by granting priority to those rights that enable others and those violations that present the greatest harm to victims.

Why applying a “linked perspective”?

1. Reflect! 2. Analyze: “these linked rights can be delineated by granting priority to those rights that

enable others and those violations that present the greatest harm to victims.” (p.4)

3. Discuss: How does this “linked perspective” relate to the Thinking Globally/Global Studies perspective?

Codified Norms “Human rights are a set of universal claims to safeguard human dignity from illegitimate coercion, typically enacted by state agents. These norms are codified in a widely endorsed set of international undertakings.” (3)

The problem: Globalization creates new challenges (p.5), which is a paradox (p.3) ▪ The increasing presence of multinational corporations has challenged labor rights throughout

Southeast Asia, along the Mexican border, and beyond.

▪ Increasing levels of migration worldwide make growing numbers of refugees and undocumented laborers vulnerable to abuse by sending and receiving states, as well as transnational criminal networks. Hundreds of Mexican nationals die each year crossing the U.S. border.

The problem: Globalization creates new challenges (p.5), which is a paradox (p.3) (2) ▪ International economic adjustment and the growth of tourism are linked to a rise in prostitution

and trafficking in women and children, affecting millions in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, the post-Soviet states and even the United States.

▪ The same Internet that empowers human rights activists increases government monitoring, instructs neo-Nazis, and carries transnational death threats against dissenters.

▪ Unelected global institutions like the World Bank, international peacekeepers, and environmental NGOs administering protected areas increasingly control the lives of the most powerless citizens of weak states.

Read, reflect, annotate, study! ▪ GLOBALIZATION AND THE CITIZENSHIP GAP ▪ GLOBALIZATION, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER ▪ CLOSING THOUGHTS