Refection Paper 12

RESEARCH PROPOSAL 7

Research Proposal: Human rights, and Environmental Movements

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Introduction

Contemporary society faces a lot of diversified problems that can be classified into social, economic, political, and ecological justice. As a result, different types of activists have often come up with unified strategies, through movements to counter the spread, and effects of those particular problems. One of the most prevalent transnational social movement involves the human rights movements which unite both nations from the global north and global south. Historically, the human rights movements were described as social movements that were involved in advocating for issues such as imperialism, racism, colonialism, slavery, and the oppression of indigenous people which was very much prevalent in the 1920s.

The foundation of human rights movements can be traced back to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which pushed for the establishment of “International declaration of human rights” in 1927 (FIDH, n.d). However, modern-day human rights movements, starting the 1960s, mainly focus on policy issues that affect society (Human rights History, n.d). The concept of sovereignty, which refers to the authority vested in a state to govern itself, gave states supreme power to dictate their policies, that may override the power of the international movements.

This research paper will analyze the issues involving the relationship between the human rights movements and the environmental movements due to their perceived interconnectedness of looking out for the welfare of human beings. Subsequently, the paper will also analyze the possible strains to the relationship between different nations, subdivided into the global north, and south, as well as provide a conceptual framework for the solution of the identified issues. Although the relationship between the different aspects of the movements points towards having a common objective, the affiliation of the environmental movements to the politics of different states in regards to human rights often acts as a barrier towards the full implementation of human rights

Background

Despite the widespread advocacy for the development of standardized human rights policies that cover various aspects such as protection of the environment and oppression of the minority, there still exists a wide gap in the achievement of the level of unity desired by the Transnational environment movements. Modern states exhibit a diversified range of policies when it comes to certain aspects such as protection of human rights, which also involves the protection of the wellbeing of the environments human beings live in. This provision has reduced international organizations into using strategies such as “Naming and Shaming” in lobbying for support against activities exhibited within sovereign states (Human Rights History, n.d).

Secondly, there has been friction between the global north, described as the developed nations, and the global south, often associated with developing nations’ overexploitation of the global south to enhance their economic development (Gonzalez, 2015 pg.412). Thus, to achieve global human rights policies and effective human rights overwatch authorities, there needs to be identification and elimination of underlying factors limiting the functioning of human rights and environmental movements. Some of the research questions that need to be addressed include:

1. What is the nature of the relationship between the Human rights movements and the environmental movements?

2. What is the impact of economic disparities between the global north and south on the effective development and implementation of protection of human rights and environmental policies?

3. How do human rights needs affect the effort of environmental movements?

The huge economic disparities and sovereignty between different nations undermine the efforts of human rights activities by being dragged by overexploitation of the environment, thus leaving human beings to fall victim to the harsh environments.

Objectives

The main goal of the research study is to develop effective human rights initiatives through the identification of barriers to success and also sustainable solutions to those particular problems. Sustainable solutions refer to long term strategic initiatives aimed at improving a situation or changing the current state of affairs. Thus, the research will analyze the factors behind the inverse relationship between the different two movements that include human rights, and environmental movements because of how the global south and global north regions interact with each other. In particular, the research will focus on the following objectives:

1. To establish a relationship between human rights, and environmental movements.

2. Determine how the relationships between nations and their policies impact the activities, and success levels of the movements.

3. To develop a conceptual framework for eliminating the gap in performance by different movements on their target objectives for example the human rights movement objectives.

The results attained from this research will enable the human rights movements to establish a concise argument on the possible over-exploitation of human rights based on the environmental conditions of the countries being affected for example economic conditions that allow human rights to be exploited. Thus, the international organization will be in a better place to advocate for a more sustainable solution to the human rights problem by identifying problems and their solutions.

Disparities in the Global North and South

A review of past research studies indicates that the main emphasis of past research studies focused on the correlation between human rights, and the environment by indicating that humans have a solemn responsibility to protect the environment to avoid adverse effects of climate change on the enjoyment of some of the preconceived human rights such as inter-boundary pollution, and desertification, which might lead to the development of other spill effects (Boer & Boyle, pg.6). An example of this is Amnesty international that fights against the oppression of minority groups within different nations for example prisoners' rights to a fair trial in cases where they feel like there was bias (Amnesty International, 2020). This notion creates a platform for checks and balances for various governmental policies and procedures in making sure that proper processes are followed when delivering decisions that could significantly impact the lives of an individual, or individuals.

The environmental movements are usually focused on the development of initiatives aimed at protecting and conserving elements found within an ecosystem. However, there is little information, or studies conducted to establish the exact effect of the type of relationship between different nations and how it affects the implementation, and effectiveness of transnational initiatives by transnational movements. Due to the parallel relationship between the two variables, there is a need to develop an organizational framework that is more sustainable in promoting both elements since the lack of success of one element subsequently affects the success rate of the other. However, this notion has often been undermined, with the global north constantly found overexploiting natural resources such as farming, and mining lands (Odeh, 2010). As a result, the overexploitation had created a negative relationship between the two sides basically because the southerner’s believe that the global Northern subjected them to climate degrading activities so as to repay the date they presumably owe the global north which has more developed economies (Gonzalez, 2015 pg.415). However, the resentment of the global south nations is also fueled by the high level of inferiority and systematic oppression that the people from the global south had been exposed to through colonialism. Thus, there needs to be further investigation into how the various effects relate to each other in affecting the level of success of the initiative by transnational movements.

Impacts of disparities on movements

States are not only responsible to other states, but also their citizens and the international community as a whole (Vukasovic, n.d.). Human rights initiatives and international policies have been widely accepted in the past to support the worldwide conservation of human dignity. However, there still exists a gap in the development of a framework for both aspects, which include the environment and human rights. This notion can be explained from a political point of view whereby nations exhibiting inefficient levels of control over its regulation create loopholes for lack of integration of a worldwide initiative in finding solutions to human rights and climatic conditions.

The most apparent impact has been the systematic degradation of the general environment, including its inhabitants whereby the global North companies use cheap Labour and fraudulent government policies that can easily be maneuvered to develop products for global north markets. Thus, the efforts, and operations of human rights groups are usually degraded due to the perceived economic significance of those companies within the economy hence concealing some information to protect those particular suppliers.

Despite the wide range of research studies in establishing a relationship between human rights, and environmental movements, little, or no research studies have been conducted to identify the exact effect of the relationship between the global north, and global south on the outcomes of the interventions by those particular movements.

References

Amnesty International. (2020). This year’s epic human rights wins. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/12/this-years-epic-human-rights-wins/

Boer, B., & Boyle, A. (n.d.). Human Rights and the Environment: 13th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights. https://www.asef.org/images/docs/Background%20Paper%20-%20FINAL.pdf.

FIDH. (n.d.). Landmarks. International Federation for Human Rights. https://www.fidh.org/en/about-us/archives-about-us/landmarks/

Gonzalez, C. (2015). Bridging the North-South Divide: International Environmental Law in the Anthropocene. https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1772&context=faculty

Human Rights History. (n.d.). The human rights movement – Advocacy for policy change. Human Rights Advocacy and the History of Human Rights Standards. https://humanrightshistory.umich.edu/policy-decisions/the-human-rights-movement/

Ikeziri, L. M., Souza, F. B., Gupta, M. C., & De Camargo Fiorini, P. (2018). Theory of constraints: Review and bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Research, 57(15-16), 5068-5102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1518602

Odeh, L. E. (2010). A comparative analysis of global north and global south economies. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265425871_A_comparative_analysis_of_global_north_and_global_south_economies

Vukasovic, V. (n.d.). Human rights and environmental issues. http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu06he/uu06he0i.htm