PSIR MODEL ANSWERS FOR PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS PAPER-II

TOPIC: CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL CONCERNS SUB TOPIC: GENDER JUSTICE

11. Comment: Basic issues in Movements for Gender Justice? (05/II/1(c)/20).

Gender Justice: Gender Justice entails ending the inequalities between women and men that are
produced and reproduced in the family, community, market and the state. It also requires that
mainstream institutions are accountable for taking injustice and discrimination that keep too many
women poor and excluded gender justice is a basic human rights every women and girl is entitled to live
in dignity and freedom without fear gender justice is indispensable for development, poverty reduction,
and crucial to achieve human progress it requires sharing of power and responsibilities.

Despite tremendous advancements in the society and placing women on a pedestal of ‘mother of
mankind” rather women are treated equals and afforded equal opportunities, most horrendous cruelties
have been inflected upon her, often without reason and mostly without just cause. They are still at
peripheries of economic, political, social and cultural rights. About 70% of the worlds hungry women
less than 10% of parliamentarians globally.

Majority of world poor are women. Also they are the most vulnerable in the post disaster and conflict
situations. According to the UN women basic issues in gender justice and gender Inequality includes:

1) Female Suffrage: Some Countries still do not have Universal Suffrage for example in the Middle
East it is said that a quiet “women spring” is taking place in Arab World. Women Participated in big
number in popular up springs known as Arab Spring, show their keenness to play bigger role.

2) Discrimination within the Constitution and laws: In Many countries in Middle East, constitutions
discriminate against women. For example women rights are severely restricted in both Iran and Saudi
Arabia lack of universal citizenship impact their ability to effectively voice their needs and thus address
the exclusion.

3) Breakdown of Peace and Security: This leads to increase of physical & sexual violence. In conflict
areas women need special protection, hence it is recommended to integrate gender perspectives in peace
and security.

4) Early Child Marriages: Child marriage, a practice that hurts young women’s health, education and
long term ability to earn an income, is considered a human rights violation. According to the report of
“Pew Research” over 116 countries allow people under the age of 18 to wed. In the Arab region, one in
seven girls marries before her 18th birthday.

International day of girl child inaugurated on October 11, 2012, with the theme to end child marriage.
5) Feminization of Poverty: The gap between men and women caught in the cycle of poverty has
continued to widen in recent years. This alarming trend is called ‘the feminization of poverty’.70% of
the world's poor are women. The majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women
caught in the cycle of poverty they lack access to resources, credit education, skills to change their
situation.

“Women and poverty” is among twelve critical areas of concern as per Beijing platform for Action.

6) Women trafficking, Victimization of Widows: According to International Labour Organization

estimates that 21 million people are victims of forced labour globally. United Nations office on Drugs
and crime have mentioned that the most common form is sexual, and victims are predominantly women.

7) Genital Mutilation: According to WHO “More than 200 million girls and women alive have
undergone FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia
Somalia, Guinea has the highest record.

Despite being forbidden by national and international law, there is no sign of abating. In Dec 2012,
UNGA has adopted a resolution on elimination of female genital mutilation.

8) Honour Killings: So called “Honour Killings” are an extreme symptom of discrimination against
women, state institutions have failed to check this culture of Impunity worse thing that in number of
countries domestic legal systems still fully or partially exempt individuals guilty of Honour killings.

9) Female Foeticide: According to the report released by UNICEF, which suggest one of the worst
form of genocide is taking place in India, killing one million females in India annually with far reaching
and tragic consequences.

Steps taken by International Community:

United Nations Organization is the focal agency to initiate coordinate measures for protection of
women. It took following steps:

1. Declared 1975 as international women year. Since then, 8 March is observation as “International 1st
women day”.

2. 1979. UNGA adopted CEDAW convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against
women often described as an “International Bill of Rights for women”.

3. 1980, II World Conference on women was held in Copenhagen.

4. 1985, World conference to review and apprise the achievements of UN Decade for women was held
in Nairobi. It was the event which made movement for gender quality, truly global (Birth of global
feminism).
5. 1995, Beijing Conference on women, the fourth women conference asserted “Women rights as
Human rights” committed to specific actions to ensure respect for these rights. Beijing Platform for
Action is an Agenda for women’s empowerment it calls for strategic action plan in 12 critical areas of
concern:

1. Women and Poverty 2.Education and training 3.Women and health 4.Violence against women
5.Women and armed conflict 6.Women and economy 7.Women in power and decision making
8.Institutional mechanisms for advancement of women 9.Human rights of women 10. Women and
Media 11.women and environment 12.Women and girl child.

6. In 2005, UN had adopted Millennium development goals, to improve the lives of people living in
global south by reducing poverty and hunger, improving access to health, education, water and
sanitation. 6 out of 8 goals mention women and girls as priority target. Goal 3, sought to promote gender
equality and empower women.

7. In February, 2008, Mr Ban Ki Moon Launched the secretary-general global campaigning “Unite to
end violence against women”. He held that we “cannot wait” anymore 25th November is observed as the
international day for elimination of violence against women.

8. The United Nations is now focusing on 17 “sustainable Development Goals”. Women have critical
role to play in all of SDG’s with many targets specifically recognizing women equality and
empowerment as both objective and as part of solution.

Conclusion:

Gender Justice is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for peaceful,
prosperous and sustainable world. According to Anuradha M Chenoy, gender justice will make world
more egalitarian, responsive and democratic. To quote Hillary Clinton “Women are the largest untapped
reservoir of talent in the world”.

“Human rights are women’s rights and Women’s rights are Human Rights”.

12. Comment in what sense has gender justice become an urgent global concern today?
(07/II/1(d)/20).

Gender Justice:

Gender justice is a human right, in which every woman and Man is entitled to live in dignity and in
freedom, without any fear. Man and woman are two halves of humanity. Neither can reach its highest
creative excellence without the cooperation of the other.

Through the ages we have placed woman on a pedestal of ‘mother of mankind’. Paradoxically, the
most horrendous cruelties have been inflicted upon her, often without reason and mostly without just
cause.
In the words of former UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon “Until women and girls are liberated from
poverty and injustice, all our goals peace, security, sustainable development stand in jeopardy.”

Why Gender Justice has become a Global concern:

Gender justice is one of the most burning issues that today’s states face in International Politics which
affects both domestic politics and their international relations. Thus states are in the need to be clear that
gender equality is not just a moral issue, and it shares meanings beyond that. According to the Global
Gender Gap Report 2015, it would take another 118 years to fill the economic gender gap.

According to Feminist Scholars like Cynthia Enloe, Rose Susan “Gender justice has become urgent
global concern because they suggest that the Participation of women in International Politics leads to
peace and security” and also including women in political decision-making leads to more effective
governance, since women’s presence in government brings greater diversity and different experience to
the process. Anne Tickner says Research has also shown that international relations theory and practice
has been a ‘womanless world’ which certainly hinders peace-talks and Climate Negotiations.

According to the UN women Report “Gender inequality holds back the growth of individuals, the
development of countries and the evolution of societies, to the disadvantage of both men and women. It
makes sense – if women and girls can gain access to improved education, they will eventually get better
jobs and be able to better contribute to the economy”.

The inclusion of “Empowerment of women” as key factor in achieving Millennium Development

Goals (MDG’s) and Sustained Development Goals (SDG’s) by United Nations Organization and the
present status of women in various fields reveals, How Gender Justice has become an urgent global
concern.

Status of Women in Access to Education:

 Worldwide 37 million girls were not in primary school in 2008, compared to 32 million boys.
 Globally, the rate of Gender parity in secondary enrollment of schools remained very low (76
girls out of 100 boys) especially in the Sub Saharan Africa, South and West Asia.
 According UNDP report of the world's 979 million illiterate adults, two-thirds are women.
A recent study shows that the Increase in Women’s Education made the greatest contribution to
reducing the rate of child malnutrition, accounting for 43% of the total reduction.

Gender Gap Status:

 Only four out of over 135 nations have achieved gender equality including Costa Rica, Cuba,
Sweden, and Norway. Yemen was scored the lowest across all dimensions. The World
Economic Forum recently ranked the United States as 19th, India stands at 87th ahead of China
99 in the world on its gender gap index.
Status of Women in Political Power:

 Some countries still do not have Universal Suffrage. Among them are Brunei, Kuwait, Oman,
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
 Women hold only 6.4% of the seats in Arab states Parliaments, 14.4% of seats in sub-Saharan
African, 17.6% of seats in Europe and 18.5% of seats in Americas.
Economic status:

 Only 1% of the World’s assets are in the name of women. Over $7 trillion worth of women’s
work goes unpaid.
 2.1 billion Women live on less than $2 a day, and 330 million women live on less than a dollar a
day.
 In the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, only 40 women per 100 men are economically
active in the formal economy.
Health Status:

 More than half a million women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth
every year. 99% of these deaths occur in the Developing world.
 Providing basic maternal and newborn health services to Developing countries would cost an
average of $3 per capita per year. However, once complications develop, saving the life of a
mother or Infant costs about $230.
 Of the estimated 40 million people worldwide living with HIV, about 2/3 are in sub-Saharan
Africa, and young women are 2.5 times more likely to be infected as their male counterparts.
Violence against Women and girls:

 Gender-based violence against women - female infanticide, sexual trafficking and exploitation,
dowry killings and domestic violence - causes more death and disability among women in the 15
to 44 age group than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.
 Over the past 30 years, 30 million women and children have been trafficked for sexual
exploitation.
 An estimated 130 million women worldwide have undergone Female Genital Mutilation and 2
million more are mutilated every year. 98% of Somali women have been mutilated.
 41% of women in Columbia report having been physically abused in a current relationship. Up to
47% of women report that their first sexual intercourse was forced.
Wage gap, Labour participation status:

 According to UN women report of 2015-2016, women are paid 24% less than men globally.
 Women Participation is less than 50% in labour intensive works whereas men’s participation is
75%.
“Not all women are poor, and not all poor people are women, but all women suffer from discrimination”
says Kabeer.
 According to Post-colonial feminists the issues of women in post-colonial countries revolves around
caste, religion, Ethnic factors. Worldwide at least 54 countries had discriminatory laws against women.

Steps Taken by UN:

UN support for the rights of women began with the Organization's founding Charter. Among the
purposes of the UN declared in Article 1 of its Charter. 1st world conference on women in Mexico city,
followed by “International bill of rights” then 2nd world conference held in Copenhagen in 1980.
The Beijing Platform for Action asserted women’s rights as human rights and committed to specific
actions to ensure respect for those rights.

Women and Sustainable Development goals: The United Nations is now focusing its global
development work on the recently-developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Women have
a critical role to play in all of the SDGs, with many targets specifically recognizing women’s equality
and empowerment as both the objective, and as part of the solution.

Goal 5, to "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" is known as the stand-
alone gender goal, because it is dedicated to achieving these ends. Deep legal and legislative changes are
needed to ensure women’s rights around the world. While a record 143 countries guaranteed equality
between men and women in their Constitutions by 2014, another 52 had not taken this step.

Women and the Millennium Development Goals: In September 2000, building upon a decade of
major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at United Nations
Headquarters in New York to adopt the “United Nations Millennium Declaration”, committing their
nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound
targets -with a deadline of 2015. These have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.

Women-Related Goals: Tangible Time-bound Targets by UN:

Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by
2015. Reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015.
Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015. Achieve universal access
to reproductive health by 2015.

Conclusion:

Gender Justice is indispensable for development, poverty reduction, and is crucial to achieving human
progress. Realizing it includes sharing of power and responsibility between women and men at home, in
the workplace, and in the wider national and international communities.

Cynthia Enloe in her book Bananas, Beaches and Bases explains how feminist IR scholars have
emphasized the importance of looking at how gender shapes the current global political economy.

Social, political and economic equality for women is prerequisite for the achievement of all
Millennium Development and Sustained Development Goals. It is essential that we work together and
use our influence to create just and equitable relationships between women and men in order to achieve
fair, sustainable, resilient and thriving communities.

23) Identify the role and place of gender in the global economy? (13/II/4(c)/15).

Introduction:

Gender equality is considered a critical element in achieving Decent Work for All Women and Men, in
order to effect social and institutional change that leads to sustainable development with equity and
growth in Global economic prospectus. Gender equality refers to equal rights, responsibilities and
opportunities that all persons should enjoy, regardless of whether one is born male or female.

Given that women are usually in a disadvantaged position when it comes to Gender Justice, Gender
issues are prominent within the context of an increasingly globalized economy. As reflected in the
slogan «think globally, act locally» that became popular at the 1985 Third Conference of the UN
Decade for Women in Nairobi, the perspective of gender issues is well understood within international
institutions and women's groups.

In the words of Hillary Clinton “Women are the Largest untapped reservoir of economic talent in the
world”. Gender equality remains the greatest human rights challenge of our time. Economic
empowerment is a uniquely potent way for women to achieve greater control over their own lives.

Former UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon says “The economic empowerment agenda must, first
and foremost, be pro-poor and pro-marginalized”.

Feminists View of Gender in Global Economy:

According to Feminists gender is a Social Construct. If gender is a social construction, it can be

changed. It also enabled feminists to explore different meanings of gender.

In the words of “Simon de Beauvoir” we live in a gendered society which give privilege to one
particular gender and which is a matter of disadvantage to another gender.

We can trace the origins of the contemporary gendered division of labour back to seventeenth-
century Europe. At that time, definitions of male and female were becoming polarized in ways that were
suited to the growing division between work and home required by early capitalism.

Feminist Criticism of Capitalism:

There has been a long tradition of feminist theorizing about economic issues, particularly undertaken by
socialist feminists. The central idea of social feminism is that patriarchy and capitalism are overlapping
and “Interlocking systems of oppression”. The sexual division of labour, through which men dominate
the public sphere, has served the economic interests of capitalism in a number of ways.
 For some social feminists, women constitute a ‘reserve army of labour’, which can be recruited
into the workforce when there is a need for increased production, but easily shed and returned to
domestic life during a depression, without imposing a burden on employers or the state. In bearing and
rearing children, women are producing the next generation of capitalist workers.

The traditional family also provides male workers with the necessary cushion against the alienation
and frustration of life as a ‘wage slave’. However, such gendered processes are largely ignored by
conventional theories of political economy which concentrate only on commercial exchange and paid
labour, thus rendering much of women’s contribution to productive activity invisible. This can be seen
in particular in the feminist critique of the notion of ‘economic man’ written by J.Ann Tickner in
1992.

Feminization of Poverty:

The gap between men and women caught in the cycle of poverty has continued to widen in recent years.
This alarming trend is called ‘the feminization of poverty’.70% of the world's poor are women. The
majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women. “Sustainable development is not
possible if feminization of poverty continues” says Lakshmi Puri.

According to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, women living in
poverty are often denied access to critical resources such as credit, land and inheritance. Their labour
goes unrewarded and unrecognized. Their health care and nutritional needs are not given priority, they
lack sufficient access to education and support services, and their participation in decision-making at
home and in the community are minimal. Caught in the cycle of poverty, women lack access to
resources and services to change their situation.

The Beijing Platform for Action blueprint highlighted twelve critical areas of concern, one of which
was ‘women and poverty’. It urged the international community, governments and civil society to act
in concert.

Why is women’s economic empowerment so important?

Women’s economic empowerment and gender equality are first and foremost about basic human rights
as enshrined in international human rights and labour conventions, laws and norms. Strong and
accumulating evidence suggests that lower levels of gender inequality are associated with gains in terms
of income, economic growth and national competitiveness.

According to the recent IMF, closing the gender gap in the labour market would raise the GDP of the
USA by 5 per cent, the UAE by 12 per cent, and Japan by 9 per cent and Egypt by 34 per cent.

Gender equality can reduce poverty and foster a more equitable distribution of income. Companies
with greater gender equality in their workforce and top management are better able to attract and retain
female talent, to motivate their female workers, to understand and respond to the needs of female
customers and to better address complex problems by incorporating more diverse views. Gender
equality can bring dramatic gains in human development and well-being for individuals, families and
societies.

Role of Gender in Global Economy:

Since women account for almost 50 percent of the world's population, the sustainability of development
of the global economy can be greatly impaired if the state authorities in individual countries pay less
attention to the improvement in the socio-economic status of women relative to men.

Hiring and Promoting talented women is the right thing to do for societies and it’s an economic
Imperative says Carlos Ghosn. Women are key agents for achieving the transformational economic,
environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. But limited access to credit,
health care and education are among the many challenges they face, which are further aggravated by the
global food and economic crises and climate change.

According to UN women reports role of women in global economy is seen in various quarters such
as when more women work, economies grow. An increase in female labour force participation or a
reduction in the gap between women’s and men’s labour force participation results in faster economic
growth as reflected in the UN Labour Force Participation report.

Evidence from a range of countries shows that increasing the share of household income controlled
by women, either through their own earnings or cash transfers, changes spending in ways that benefit
children. Women are the gatekeepers in most families, controlling 70% of global consumer spending.

Gender inequalities in time use are still large and persistent in all countries. When paid and unpaid
work are combined, women in developing countries work more than men, with less time for education,
leisure, political participation and self-care. Women comprise an average of 43 per cent of the
agricultural labour force in developing countries, varying considerably across regions from 20 per
cent or less in Latin America to 50 per cent or more in parts of Asia and Africa.

Increasing women and girls education contributes to higher economic growth. Increased
educational attainment accounts for about 50 per cent of the economic growth in OECD countries over
the past 50 years. A study using data from 219 countries from 1970 to 2009 found that, for every one
additional year of education for women of reproductive age, child mortality decreased by 9.5 per cent.

It is calculated that women could increase their income globally by up to 76 per cent if the
employment participation gap and the wage gap between women and men were closed. This is
calculated to have a global value of USD 17 trillion. Studies show that when taking part in government
and business, women are leaders, stabilizers, savers, collaborators, galvanizers and entrepreneurs.

State of Women in Global Economy:

In the past fifty years, women have made significant strides toward achieving economic equality around
the world. According to Women, Business and the Law 2014, more than half of the legal restrictions
affecting women’s economic opportunities around the world in 1960 were removed by 2010, raising the
status of women under the law. More and more women are able to own land, open up bank accounts,
apply for business loans and participate in the economy.

Despite such progress, economic equality for women has not yet been achieved. According to
the Global Gender Gap Report 2014 and 2016, the gender gap for economic participation and
opportunity stands at 60% worldwide – measured by the difference between women’s labor force
participation, wages, and incomes as compared to men.

According to McKinsey Global Institute projections, India could add $700 billion to its gross
domestic product by 2025 if it made faster progress toward gender equality, just by matching the
momentum toward gender parity made by its regional neighbors. The World Economic Forum, in
its 2016 Global Gender Gap Index, places India 87th out of 142 countries.

In the words UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “Women’s economic empowerment is at

the heart of the 2030 Agenda. We will not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) if there
is no accelerated action to empower women economically. We know that women’s participation in all
spheres of life, including in the economy, is essential to sustainable and durable peace and to the
realization of human rights”.

Conclusion:

Women’s economic empowerment is a pre-condition for sustainable development, say UN High-Level

Panel members at held an event titled, “Accelerating Women’s Economic Empowerment to achieve
the 2030 Agenda”. Investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender
equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth.

Gayatri Vasudevan says “Girl power can translate into economic power”. Widening opportunities
for girls, especially in South Asia, has been one of the main drivers of global progress toward broader
development goals. However, in order to reach the potential from this expansion, more far-reaching
policy efforts, and data to monitor progress, are needed. And because of persistent poverty and cultural
norms, more grass-roots efforts are also needed.

Integrating gender has the potential to make global economic system more resilient, successful, and
impactful. However, understanding the potential gains of gender integration is just the beginning.
25) State and place of Gender Justice in global political agenda? (13/II/5c/10).

Gender Justice:

Gender justice can be defined as ‘the protection and promotion of civil, political, economic and social
rights on the basis of gender equality’.

It necessitates taking a gender perspective on the rights themselves, as well as the assessment of
access and obstacles to the enjoyment of these rights for both women, men, girls and boys and adopting
gender-sensitive strategies for protecting and promoting them.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle held that the masculine was an active, creative force, while the
feminine was passive. Since the establishment of equality on civil rights made by the women’s suffrage
movement in the late 19th and Early 20th centuries, women have increased their presence in the
International political arena.

Women’s participation in all spheres of decision-making and policy formulation is both a form of
justice and redress and a necessary element of “real democratization”.

Carol Hanisch says “The personal is political”, is a political argument used as a rallying slogan
of student movement and second-wave feminism from the late 1960s. It emphasized the connections
between personal experience and larger social and political structures.

Feminist view of Gender in global Politics:

To understand the lack of women in higher places of international politics, Cynthia Enloe questions
“where are the women?” in her book and suggests that we need to look in unconventional places, not
normally considered within the boundaries of global politics.

There are many feminist theories. They include liberal, Marxist, socialist, post-colonial and post
structural. All feminist theories are trying to explain women’s subordination in global political agenda.
However, they all have different reasons for women’s subordination.

Liberal Feminists document various aspects of women’s subordination. They have investigated
problems of refugee women, income inequalities between women and men. Liberal feminists believe
that women’s equality can be achieved by removing legal and other obstacles that have denied them the
same rights and opportunities as men. Sandra Whitworth is a feminist critical theorist in her book,
“Feminism and International relations” 1994, claims that understanding gender depends only in part on
the material conditions of women and men in particular circumstances.

Post- Liberal feminists argue that we must look more deeply at unequal gendered structures in order
to understand women’s sub-ordination. Post structural feminists claim that there is a link between
knowledge and power. Since men have generally been seen as knowers and as subjects of knowledge,
this influences how we see global politics.
 Post-colonial feminists suggest that women’s subordination must be differentially understood in
terms of race, class, and geographical location.

Role and Importance of Gender Justice in global political Agenda:

According to Feminist Scholars like Cynthia Enloe, Rose Susan “Gender justice has become important
in global politics and suggest that the Participation of women in International Politics leads to peace
and security” and also including women in political decision-making leads to more effective
governance, since women’s presence in government brings greater diversity and different experience to
the process.

Anne Tickner says Research has also shown that international relations theory and practice has been
a ‘womanless world’ which certainly hinders peace-talks and Climate Negotiations in Global Political
scenario.

She also says Feminist perspectives, constructed out of the experiences of women, can add a new
dimension to our understanding of the world economy; since women are frequently the first casualties in
times of economic hardship, we might also gain some new insights into the relationship between
militarism and structural violence in international arena of politics.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union survey, female parliamentarians tend to prioritize

social issues such as childcare, equal pay, parental leave and pensions; physical concerns such as
reproductive rights, physical safety and gender-based violence and development matters such as poverty
alleviation and service delivery.

As more women reach leadership positions within their political parties, these parties tend to
prioritize issues that impact health, education and other quality of life issues. Strong evidence suggests
that as more women are elected to office, policy-making that reflects the priorities of families, women,
and ethnic and racial minorities also increases.

Using data from 19 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), researchers found that an increase in the number of women legislators results in
an increase in total educational spending.

Women are also more likely to work across party lines, even in highly partisan environments. Since
assuming 56 percent of the seats in the Rwandan parliament in 2008, women have been responsible for
forming the first cross-party caucus to work on controversial issues such as land rights and food
security.

From the book “Women War Peace” Research also shows that women tend to be deeply committed
to peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction and have a unique and powerful perspective to
bring to the negotiating table. Peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction and governance have a
better chance of long-term success when women are involved.
 The role of women in international relations theory and global politics is thus so important because
they give attention to those issues overlooked in our patriarchal system. Their thought provoking
contributions stimulate the problem solving apparatus that enhances new ideas and solutions to global
issues.

Place of Gender Justice in global Political agenda:

The field of international relations, much like global politics, has been deeply embedded in the western
tradition of making man as the political actor. This shows that international relations theory may well
actually be gender bias or even androcentric.

However, the emphasis on males as citizens and political actors, as seen in several classic works of
political thought such as Thomas Hobbes Leviathan and Niccole Machiavelli’s
The Prince, has completely disregarded the role of women. Taking history into account, women were
first allowed to vote in 1919 and this actually sparked a debate on how far they should be integrated into
the arena of foreign affairs via the Diplomatic Service and the League of Nations (now the United
Nations).

As of 2012, less than 6 percent of the world’s heads of state were women and most of the world’s
military personnel were men. Women remain vastly under-represented in democratic institutions
globally; women represent less than 10 percent of parliaments in a third of the world countries.
Gender equality outcomes in aid effectiveness are less prioritized overall. In post disaster and conflict
settings, women often suffer from lack of security and are excluded from decision making processes in
economic, social, and political spheres.

The modern global conversation around women’s rights and political participation has been taking
place for almost 40 years. Beginning in 1975 with the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), it has continued with the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action and led most recently to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
Through the conferences, declarations and action plans, a consensus has emerged that: women should be
able to play an equal role in politics; temporary special measures, such as quotas, are an effective means
to increasing women’s political roles.

But women have gained little ground in political leadership around the world, with men still in about
80 percent of key elected and appointed positions, according to the World Economic Forum’s annual
Global Gender Gap Report 2014 and 2016.
In places such as Rwanda and South Africa, an increase in the number of female lawmakers led to
legislation related to land inheritance and reproductive rights. Only five years after the women’s
suffrage movement achieved the rights of women to vote and run for office in Kuwait, newly elected
female legislators introduced new labor laws that would give working mothers mandatory nursing
breaks and provide onsite childcare for companies with more than 200 employees.

The candidature of Hillary Clinton for the US presidential Election, The recent historic win of
Teresa May in United Kingdom elections which came after the David Cameron’s resignation following
Brexit referendum. Substantial support of Germans for Angela Merkel decision for the opening up of
borders for the refugees as a part of Humanization of foreign relations. Appointment of Nirmala
Sitaraman as India’s Defense Minister. All these moves shows the present improving status of women
in Global Political scenario.

Conclusion:

The dynamic change in international relations and global politics has brought about the need for new
approaches in dealing with global security and other issues such as gender-Inequality, global poverty
and environmental degradation.

According to Anne J. Tickner many male scholars have already noted that we are desperately in
need of changes in the way world politics is conducted; many of them are attempting to prescribe such
changes to involve female gender into action.

There are a number of current overlooked issues that require immediate attention. Important issues
such as the environment and gender equality are greatly overlooked by international relations scholars
female scholars are needed now more than ever to bring such issues to lime light.
SUB TOPIC: HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Comment Human Rights in the US foreign policy? (92/II/5(a)/20)

Human Rights:

Human rights are considered as those rights which all humans should possess irrespective of their caste,
color, creed, race, gender and nationality. If we take out the Dimension of equality we destroy the idea
of human rights. These are the norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political,
legal, and social abuses in the global society. Five Fundamental features of human rights are “Equality,
Universality, Inalienability, permanence and individuality”.

In the words of Dworkin, Rights are Trumps that means rights are claims which will have priority
over all other claims.

History of Human Rights:

Historical sources for bills of rights include the Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689),
the French Declaration of the Rights (1789), and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution
(1791).

Early philosophical sources of the idea of human rights include John Locke who says “Intuition or
reason rather than institution is a source of right” and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who iterates moral
theory of rights.

The main sources of the contemporary conception of human rights are the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights “UDHR” (United Nations, 1948). UDHR and two covenants on civil, political, social
and educational rights 1966 together known as “International Bill of rights” The philosophy of human
rights addresses questions about the existence, content, nature, universality, justification, and legal status
of human rights. International Criminal court ICC established under Rome Statute is also the essential
component of global HR regime.

US foreign policy:

The foreign policy of the United States is the way in which it interacts with foreign nations and sets
standards of interaction for its organizations, corporations and system citizens of the United States. The
officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States are "to build and sustain a more
democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international
community.

The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the
United States over 200 years ago. Since then, a central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been the
promotion of respect for human rights. As claimed by the US Department of state “Promoting freedom
and democracy and protecting human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy”.
Human rights in the US foreign policy:

Human rights have always played a role in foreign policy throughout American history because this
country was founded on a constitution and bill of rights that proclaimed freedom and individual
liberties. But it was not until the US became one of the world’s superpowers after World War II, that the
government was expected to define what it stood for on the international stage. Roosevelt spoke of the
four freedoms and John F Kennedy mentioned human rights in his inaugural address but it took until
the late 1970s for human rights to be explicitly made a major part of US foreign policy formulation.

For more than three decades, U.S. administrations have projected human rights as an important part
of their foreign policy. Two presidents in particular - Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican
George W. Bush - made the promotion of rights central to their foreign policy objectives, although both
were accused of uneven fidelity to their rhetoric. The policy of realpolitik, the hallmark of Henry
Kissinger, did not include human rights calculations in his foreign policy, In fact downgraded the
concept of human rights which reflected in the opposition to the formation of Bangladesh despite a
genocide raged by Pakistan inflicting human rights violations across East Pakistan.

The idea for the human rights policy, however, did not originate with President Carter. It originated
with Congress, pushed by the public – human rights groups, lawyers associations, church groups, labor
unions, scientists, academics and others. In the 1970s, many Americans felt that the US had reached a
moral lowest point in protecting human rights after the Vietnam War, the secret bombing of
Cambodia, the killing of civilians at Mylai by American troops, the Watergate scandal, and disturbing
revelations about US military and economic support for police states in the Americas, Asia and other
parts of the world.

In the Clinton years, democracy and elections occupied a central place in diplomacy, and the name
of the Bureau of Human Rights was changed to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
During this time economic interests overrode the pursuit of human rights when it came to China. In fact,
it was argued that the opening up of China economically would inevitably lead to greater democracy and
human rights in the country. President Bush’s presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai
Lama is a good example of a symbolic gesture targeting China in the human rights front. The Bush 2
Administration has placed great emphasis on using private and public diplomacy to promote democracy
and freedom in the Middle East.

In a 2011 speech at the State Department Obama said U.S. support for universal rights “is not a
secondary interest” but a “top priority that must be translated into concrete actions, and supported by all
of the diplomatic, economic and strategic tools at disposal.” But the truth is, a careful review of
Obama’s major human rights decisions shows a mixed record. In fact, he has often treated human rights
as a secondary interest.

Obama has taken a few important steps, some of which Trump is now threatening to reverse. Obama
passed health-care reform, going a long way toward upholding the right to the highest attainable
standard of health by enhancing Americans’ access to health insurance. His support for LGBT rights
also became an increasingly important part of his foreign-policy agenda. On the foreign-policy front, the
biggest stain on Obama’s record has been his ineffective response to the widespread slaughter of
Syrian civilians by forces under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, aided by the militaries of Russia,
Iran, and Hezbollah. The administration granted Israel an unprecedented military aid package despite
its war crimes in Gaza.

In Asia, the Obama played an important role in pushing for greater pressure on North Korea to curb
its totalitarian repression, encouraging the U.N. Human Rights Council to appoint a commission of
inquiry. With respect to China, the Obama administration sought cooperation on North Korea, climate
change, trade, and other issues but was unwilling to apply sustained pressure on Beijing’s disastrous
rights record. Under President Xi Jinping, China saw its most significant human rights erosion since
the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, yet Obama failed to strategy to support those across China struggling to
defend basic freedoms.

Amid the endless post-mortem of Donald Trump’s first overseas trip to Saudi Arabia, human rights
advocates have focused more fire on his failure to call out rights abuses in Saudi Arabia or anywhere
else left activists speechless. Yet, nearly five months into Trump’s administration, his attitude toward
human rights can come as no surprise. The president doesn’t go much for strictures of any kind, much
less international legal standards and softer norms developed by humanitarians, activists, and lawyers.
He has little regard for precepts and edicts enshrined in treaties and overseen by U.N. institutions. He
isn’t moved by the invocation of universal values, principles, or truths.

Criticism of US foreign policy in Human rights front:

Amartya Sen criticizes US foreign policy and its administration on human rights front. He says United
states is not neutral towards the foreign countries in the protection and promotion of human rights as a
comprehensive subject as USA talks about human rights violation and intervenes in the Syrian conflict
whereas overlooks the similar human rights violations in case of women in Saudi Arabia, Israel war
crimes in Gaza, Baluchistan in Pakistan and Xinxiang province in china.

Criticism of United States foreign policy encompasses a wide range of opinions and views on failures
and shortcoming of United States policies and actions. This belief is sometimes termed American
exceptionalism. It has widespread implications and transcribes into disregard to the international norms,
rules and laws in U.S. foreign policy. For example, the U.S. refused to ratify a number of important
international treaties such as Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Vienna Convention
on the Law of Treaties, and American Convention on Human Rights; and routinely conducts drone
attacks and cruise missile strikes around the globe.

Many Human rights activists criticizes the current Trump administration’s foreign policy as Rex
Tillerson the current secretary of the state says goodbye to human rights diplomacy, He made crystal
clear that when it comes to actual policies and national security, economic interests come first rather
than well-meaning principles like freedom and human rights.
Conclusion:

Human Rights Watch advocates for a US foreign policy that is consistent with its international
human rights obligations. The US government should integrate human rights into its wider foreign
policy agenda, engage regularly with independent civil society abroad, and work closely with allied
governments to promote and protect human rights where they are most at risk. Influencing US foreign
policy, whether directly with other governments or in intergovernmental organizations, is an essential
tool to address, highlight, and promote human rights globally.

2. Comment: Sovereign Nation state and International concern for Human Rights.(94/II/1(c)/20)

Sovereign Nation State:

In international politics, no concept is less understood and more misused than that of sovereignty.
Sovereignty came to be regarded as the hall mark of the nation-state. The concept of sovereignty
implied internal and external sovereignty. Internally, the state had the right to order the behavior of all
its citizens and their associations in all respects. Externally, sovereignty implied the right of the state to
act out its desired role in international relations on the basis of its desired policies.

The right to secure the goals of national interest by the use of national power got recognized as the
supreme power of the nation-state. The right of each nation to use war as an instrument of its policy
came to be defined as the sovereign right of each nation to protect and secure its sovereignty. In fact,
International Law recognized the sovereignty, territorial integrity and legal equality of all the nation-
states. “International relations came to be recognized as relations among sovereign nation-states”.

Human rights:

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex,
national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our
human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Sovereignty and International Concern for Human Rights:

Human rights are fundamentally concerned with the relations between states and their nationals;
precisely the area previously thought to have been reserved most emphatically to the freedom of the
former. This is the basis for the common view that human rights and sovereignty are essentially
antithetical, that a gain for one is automatically and inevitably a loss for the other.

State sovereignty and human rights typically have been seen as fundamentally opposing one
another the right to control the people and events within one’s border versus the rights of the individual
to a certain standard of living and treatment. Throughout the world, and on a daily basis, we see gross
violations of these rights by governments and regimes, all committed and justified by their claim to
sovereignty over their people.
 Sovereignty is paramount over military intervention in human rights violations. There are many
cases throughout even the 20th century where intervention was sacrificed in the name of state
sovereignty. One clear example is the genocide in Rwanda. In 1994, ethnic Hutus slaughtered 800,000
innocent Tutsis. The international community, specifically the United Nations forbidden to intervene
in internal affairs was slow to react, as not to breach Rwanda’s sovereignty. Examples of military
intervention precipitating the end of these violations are after the deaths of an estimated 850,000 to 2.5
million people, in 1978, the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia and removed the Khmer Rouge
from power. This put an end to their tyrannical extremist form of Communism, and liberated most of the
country. Similarly in the case of genocide raged by Pakistan

On its East Pakistan territory (Bangladesh) India Intervened and liberated East Pakistan into
Bangladesh ending severe human rights violation.

Conceptual Challenge:

Prior to World war II states treatment of their citizens was a matter of exclusive domestic jurisdiction.
In half a century this perception has changed significantly with the idea of human rights legitimizing this
issue as part of a global, ethical discourse. That is contrary to the traditional aim of public international
law, which is to regulate the interactions of states, as opposed to their internal practices. Human rights
question the primacy of states in the international system, stressing the importance of individuals and
non-state actors. Human rights give individuals grounds to claim rights, goods, treatments, services,
protection and opportunities of their states.

As such, they stand in stark contrast to what is traditionally considered the black letter international
law: the sovereign equality and legal supremacy of states. Furthermore, while the principle of the
jurisdiction of a state gives it authority over all persons, property and activities in its territory, airspace
and waters, human rights are concerned with individuals regardless of which jurisdiction they belong
to. The conflict so revolves around “Jurisdiction”, which is also reflected in recent case of
Khulbhushan jadhav at ICC Hague. Pakistan claims that the case is out the Jurisdiction of ICC as it
was an internal matter of their Sovereignty.

This is not to say that the concept of sovereignty is not important. In fact, our entire current
international system revolves around the concept of independent political units each possessing a
government that asserts its sovereignty over a percentage of the earth’s surface. That is the definition of
a state. However, each of these states is made of individuals; and these individuals, in general, enjoy
living in freedom and with dignity, the ability to express themselves, having their own opinion,
worshiping, working, creating a family, moving freely, associating with others, having a nationality, and
belonging to a community. And, in general, they like to experience these freedoms without fear of
physical harm, or threats of slavery, revenge or torture. These are Human Rights, guaranteed to all
humans. These basic “rights” are taken directly from the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of
Human Rights “UDHR”, drafted in Paris in 1948, just after the egregious atrocities against mankind in
the Second World War.
Conclusion:

National sovereignty is very important to many aspects of our societies the prevention of terrorists from
crossing our borders, the ability to raise or lower interest rates to adjust for market fluctuations, national
identity, etc. However, when gross violations of individual’s human rights occur such as genocide,
endemic sexual abuse, children recruited as soldiers, and total population repression, it is the
responsibility of the entire world as a whole to protect those people despite arbitrary delineations of a
political map.

Jack Donnelly in his book “Universal Human Rights” says International legal human rights are
instrumentalities rather than challenging state sovereignty are constrained by it their interpretation,
implementation and enforcement rely on states.

Today implementation takes many forms, ranging from top down monitoring by human rights treaty
bodies and adjudication by international courts and tribunals, to capacity building in civil society
organizations and human rights education at the grass-roots level. We should recognize that effective
implementation includes not only retrospective complaint mechanisms, but also forward-looking efforts
to cultivate respect for human rights.

6. Moral claims to today become the human rights of tomorrow. Trace the efforts in the
international protection of human rights in the twentieth century? (01/II/4/60)

Human Rights:

Human rights are the rights inherent to all human beings irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity,
gender, religion, language or any other status. These rights are universal, inalienable, interdependent,
indivisible, equal and non-discriminatory. The rights are often expressed and guaranteed by domestic
laws, international treaties, general principles and other sources of international law.

Morality and Human Rights:

Morality which is basically an individual need will transform into a human right with evolution of the
society. For example, having a clean environment is once a moral need, now is part of third generation
of human rights. Similarly, Moral claims to today become the human rights of tomorrow.

In the midst of all the distorted inhumanities of the twentieth century, the emergence of a discourse
of human rights in international law is a heartening story. Indeed, Human rights has become the
dominant global morality of our time the language of human rights is as close to a morality, as we
human beings are likely to achieve. Jurgen Habermas has noted, “In Asia, Africa, and South America,
human rights now constitute the only language in which the opponents and victims of murderous
regimes and civil wars can raise their voices against violence, repression, and persecution, against
injuries to their human dignity.
 What exactly does the morality of human rights hold is reflected in the International Bill of Rights,
as it is informally known, consists of three documents: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Emphatically these documents assert “the inherent dignity of
the human person,” and insist that from this dignity derive “the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family.” Thus the morality of human rights exerts a normative force upon us.

Human rights in twentieth century:

Historical sources for bills of rights include the Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689),
the French Declaration of the Rights (1789), and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution
(1791).

Early philosophical sources of the idea of human rights include John Locke who says “Intuition or
reason rather than institution is a source of right” and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who iterates moral
theory of rights. Theory of natural rights has remained a dominant idea and has been incorporated in
form of Fundamental Rights in the constitutions of many nation-states and by the United Nations
through Universal Declaration of human Rights.

Though the rights were first emphasized in UDHR in 1948, Czech jurist Karel Vesak proposed its
division into three generations at the international institute of human rights in 1977. The first generation
of rights focuses on civil-political rights like traditional civil and political liberties, freedom of speech,
religion, press etc. It was result of democratic revolutions in Europe and USA at the end of 18th
century. These rights are strongly individualistic which presupposes a duty of non-interference of
government towards individuals.

The second generation focuses on socio-economic rights like right to work, food, social security
etc. These rights came to the fore during fight for economic and social rights at the end of 19th century
and beginning of 20th century. These rights require affirmative action on part of the government for
their realization. These are exercised by all people collectively or set of people and is reflected in
Mexican constitution, German constitution and USSR constitution.

Third generation of rights are “collective developmental rights” of the people like right to
development, right to peace, right to healthy environment etc. These are the most recent inclusion to the
set of rights and its realization is predicted not only upon affirmative and negative actions of the state
but also upon behavior of each individual.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has lead responsibility in
the UN system for the promotion and protection of human rights. The office supports the human rights
components of peacekeeping missions in several countries, and has many country and regional offices
and centers.
Human Rights Council: The Human Rights Council, established in 2006, replaced the 60-year-old UN
Commission on Human Rights as the key independent UN intergovernmental body responsible for
human rights. In addition to the council there are certain other bodies which works for the protection and
promotion of human rights they are Human Rights Treaty Bodies, UNDG-HRM “UN development
group’s human rights main streaming mechanism”, Responsibility to protect and special advisers on the
prevention of genocide.

United Nations also developed other offices and bodies that are responsible for the protection of
human rights are:

Security Council: The UN Security Council, at times, deals with grave human rights violations, often in
conflict areas. The UN Charter gives the Security Council the authority to investigate and mediate,
dispatch a mission, appoint special envoys, or request the Secretary-General to use his good
offices. The Security Council may issue a ceasefire directive, dispatch military observers or a
peacekeeping force. If this does not work, the Security Council can opt for enforcement measures, such
as economic sanctions, arms embargos, financial penalties and restrictions, travel bans, the severance of
diplomatic relations, a blockade, or even collective military action.

Third committee of the General Assembly: The General Assembly’s Third Committee (Social,
Humanitarian and Cultural) examines a range of issues, including human rights questions. The
Committee also discusses questions relating to the advancement of women, the protection of children,
indigenous issues, and the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the
elimination of racism and racial discrimination, and the right to self-determination.

UN Peace Operations: Many United Nations peacekeeping operations and political and peace building
missions also include the human rights-related mandates aimed at contributing to the protection and
promotion of human rights through both immediate and long-term action.

Conclusion:

According to Kofi Annan former secretary general of United Nations that “People everywhere still look
to the United Nations to uphold respect for universal and indivisible rights”.

Since there is lot of criticism that is going on the efficiency and working of the United Nations
Human rights Council, since 1948 United Nations Organization has diligently protected human rights
through legal instruments and on-the-ground activities. Though the work done and the programmes
conducted by UN bodies and offices is not yet satisfactory, United Nations requires a strong
political will and comprehensive effort from the membered countries as well.
7. Comment Human rights and Humanitarian Intervention. (02/II/1(c)/20).

Human rights:

In the words of Dworkin, Rights are Trumps that means rights are claims which will have priority over
all other claims.

Human rights are the rights inherent to all human beings irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity,
gender, religion, language or any other status. These rights are universal, inalienable, interdependent,
indivisible, equal and non-discriminatory. The rights are often expressed and guaranteed by domestic
laws, international treaties, general principles and other sources of international law.

Human rights as a Prime Parameter played a critical role in the various Humanitarian Intervention
missions from the end of cold war to recent French Intervention in Mali.

Intervention and International Law:

Intervention is ordinarily defined as coercive foreign involvement in the internal affairs of a state;
violation, short of war, of a state’s sovereign rights imposition that impairs a state’s policy
independence. Foreign policy usually aims to influence the behavior of other states, thus “interfering”
with their decision making. Persuasive diplomatic “interference,” however, stands in sharp contrast to
intervention, which coercively seeks to impose one’s will. Thus defined, intervention is, on its face,
illegal. Nonintervention is the duty correlative to the rights of sovereignty. As Article 2.7 of the UN
Charter puts it, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to
intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.”

One of the first champions of the duty of humanitarian intervention to prevent atrocities around the
world, was the Victorian liberal John Stuart Mill, who wrote in his 1859 essay A Few Words on
Non-Intervention. According to Mill's opinion (in 1859) barbarous peoples were found
in Algeria and India where the French and British armies had been involved. Mill's justification of
intervention was overt imperialism.

Humanitarian Intervention:

An intervention is typically called humanitarian if undertaken to halt, prevent, or punish genocide,

understood as gross and systematic and severe human rights violations involving extensive political
killing, or in response to humanitarian crises such as famines or massive refugee flows. The nationality
of those aided is also relevant. Rescue missions to save one’s own nationals, although sometimes called
humanitarian interventions, are more accurately seen as self-defense.

There is no one standard or legal definition of humanitarian intervention in various field of

analysis. Often influences the definition that is chosen. Differences in definition include variations in
whether humanitarian intervention is limited to instances where there is an absence of consent from the
host state; whether humanitarian intervention is limited to punishment actions; and whether
humanitarian intervention is limited to cases where there has been explicit UN Security Council
authorization for action.

The customary international law concept of humanitarian intervention dates back to Hugo
Grotius and the European politics in the 17th century. The subject of humanitarian intervention has
remained a compelling foreign policy issue, especially since NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999,
as it highlights the tension between the principle of state sovereignty a defining pillar of
the UN system and international law and evolving international norms related to human rights and the
use of force. During the Cold War, hundreds of regimes were guilty of gross, systematic, and persistent
violations of internationally recognized human rights. We can count on our fingers, though with digits
to spare the interventions with a central humanitarian intent. The regular practice of states when faced
with grossly repressive regimes was not to intervene. And this was almost universally seen as a matter of
obligation.

The Potential examples of Military Humanitarian interventions include Russian, British and
French Anti-Ottoman Intervention in the Greek War of Independence (1824), United States occupation
of Haiti (1915), United Nations Operation in the Congo (1964), US intervention in Dominican Republic
(1965), Indian intervention in East Pakistan against brutal genocide (1971), Vietnamese Intervention in
Cambodia ending Authoritarian Khmer Rouge Regime (1978), NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (1999),
Coalition military intervention in Libya (2011), Military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq
(2014- present).

Humanitarian Intervention holds an important place even in the foreign policy Doctrines of Blair,
Clinton and Obama.

Dilemma around Legal grounds:

Humanitarian intervention is a concept that can allow the use of force in a situation when the UN
Security Council cannot pass a resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations due to
veto by a permanent member. Chapter VII allows the Security Council to take action in situations
where there is a "threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression". However, any resolution
to that effect must be supported by all five permanent members. The reference to the "right" of
humanitarian intervention was, in the post-Cold-War context for the first time invoked in 1990 by the
UK delegation after Russia and China had failed to support a no-fly zone over Iraq. Therefore, in
addition to humanitarian objectives the concept is designed to circumvent the UN Security Council by
invoking a right.

Thus, because both proponents and opponents of humanitarian intervention have their legal grounds
on the charter of the United Nations, there is still an ongoing controversy as to whether sovereignty or
humanitarian causes should prevail.
Current approaches to humanitarian intervention:

Although most writers agree that humanitarian interventions should be undertaken multilaterally,
ambiguity remains over which particular agents – the UN, regional organizations, or a group of
states – should act in response to mass violations of human rights. Thus Humanitarian interventions
are broadly classified into authorized and Non-authorized interventions.

In several instances states or groups of states have intervened with force, and without advanced
authorization from the UN Security Council, at least in part in response to alleged extreme violations of
basic human rights. Fairly recent examples include the intervention after the Gulf War to protect the
Kurds in northern Iraq as well as NATO's intervention in Kosovo. These certainly come under non-
authorized interventions.

Criticism of Humanitarian Intervention:

Many criticisms have been levied against humanitarian intervention. Some argue that humanitarian
intervention is a modern manifestation of the Western colonialism of the 19th century; the subjects of
such intervention are ruled not by one sole party or entity, but by a mix of local institutions, NGOs and
the interveners themselves

Others argue that dominant countries, especially the United States and its coalition partners, are
using humanitarian pretexts to pursue otherwise unacceptable geopolitical goals and to evade the non-
intervention norm and legal prohibitions on the use of international force. Noam Chomsky and Tariq
Ali are at the forefront of this camp, they argue that the United States has continued to act with its own
interests in mind, with the only change being that humanitarianism has become a legitimizing ideology
for projection of U.S. Hegemony in a post–Cold war world. Tariq Ali in particular argues that NATO
intervention in Kosovo was conducted largely to boost NATO's credibility. Chomsky’s expression of
“our excess of righteousness and disinterested benevolence” is often used to describe Kennedy’s
invasion of South Vietnam, which spread to all of Indo-china. Nobel Laurate Amartya Sen also
criticizes the Dual sidedness of US in intervening in the Syrian conflict in the name Human rights
violations whereas overlooking the similar human rights violations in Saudi-Arabia and Israel.

Another criticism argues that humanitarian intervention has historically consisted of primarily actions
directed by so-called Northern states within the internal affairs of so-called Southern states, and has
also led to criticism from many non-Western states.

Responsibility to Protect:

Responsibility to Protect is the name of a report produced in 2001 by the International Commission on
Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) which was established by the Canadian government in
response to the history of unsatisfactory humanitarian interventions. The report sought to establish a
set of clear guidelines for determining when intervention is appropriate, what the appropriate channels
for approving an intervention are and how the intervention itself should be carried out.
 It argues that the notion of a 'right to intervene' is problematic and should be replaced with the
'responsibility to protect'. Under Responsibility to Protect doctrine, rather than having a right to
intervene in the conduct of other states, states are said to have a responsibility to intervene and protect
the citizens of another state where that other state has failed in its obligation to protect its own citizens.
United States and Western Lead air strikes Ousting Qaddafi from Libya Promoted criticism from
Security Council members like Russia that the R2P doctrine was cover for a regime change strategy.

Conclusion:

Criticisms challenging the effectiveness of humanitarian interventions are multiple. Nonetheless, United
Nations efforts to promote and defend peace and human rights since the end of the Second World War
are endless.

In spite of opposition to military interventions, experience has proven that such measures can Free
State populations from dictatorships and abusive government restrictions. The recent intervention in
Mali by France provides a fair example of the success and prevention of a military intervention. Hence,
human rights violations can justify humanitarian intervention if one can prove that the intervention is
based on an ethical and selfless duty to intervene. The responsibility to protect should be the moral
basis on which humanitarian intervention is founded.

8. Critically examine the protection and enforcement of Human Rights under the UN system?
(03/II/4/60)

Human Rights:

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity,
language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from
slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many
more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

Status of Human Rights:

Despite United Nations Peace missions and Human rights Declarations the status of Human rights is
not yet satisfactory as it deemed to be. Human rights advocates agree that, sixty years after its issue, the
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights” is still more a dream than reality. Violations exist in every
part of the world.

As per the latest Amnesty International’s World Report and other sources of United Nations itself
show that individuals are Tortured or abused in at least 81 countries, Face unfair trials in at least 54
countries, Restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 77 countries. Not only that, but women
and children in particular are marginalized in numerous ways, the press is not free in many countries,
and dissenters are silenced, too often permanently. While some gains have been made over the course of
the last six decades, human rights violations still plague the world today.
Protection and enforcement of Human Rights under the UN system:

Democracy, based on the rule of law, is ultimately a means to achieve international peace and security,
economic and social progress and development, and respect for human rights – the three pillars of
the United Nations mission as set forth in the UN Charter.

According to Kofi Annan former secretary general of United Nations that “People everywhere still
look to the United Nations to uphold respect for universal and indivisible rights”. He also points out the
basic challenges to the protection of Human Rights are Poverty and global inequities, Discrimination,
Armed conflict and violence, Democracy Deficits, Weak Institutions. The challenges to the
implementation includes Knowledge gap, capacity gap, commitment gap, security gap among the
world countries.

The term “human rights” was mentioned seven times in the UN's founding Charter, making the
promotion and protection of human rights a key purpose and guiding principle of the
Organization. Since then, the Organization has diligently protected human rights through legal
instruments and on-the-ground activities.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has lead responsibility in the
UN system for the promotion and protection of human rights. The office supports the human rights
components of peacekeeping missions in several countries, and has many country and regional offices
and centers.

The United Nations has created a global structure for protecting Human Rights. The organization’s
work on Human Rights is carried out by a two bodies namely charter based Human Rights bodies and
treaty-based Human Rights, bodies, aimed at advancing democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law
throughout the world.

The General Assembly Resolution mandates a “Universal Periodic Review” of each states
fulfilment of its Human Rights obligations and commitment. The General Assembly and the Economic
and Social Council has contributed much for the protection of Human Rights through its various
commissions and bodies. For long the nearest approach machinery for the supervision of the problem of
protection is the commission on Human Rights established by the Economic and Social Council in 1946.
In 2006 growing uneasy with the way in which the commission functioned led to its replacement by the
Human Rights Council consisting of 47 member states. The United Nations condemned the Apartheid
and other Human Rights violations. The International Court of Justice repeatedly quoted the Human
Rights provisions of the U.N Charter, which paved the way for the development.

The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide acts as a catalyst to raise awareness of the
causes and dynamics of genocide, to alert relevant actors where there is a risk of genocide, and to
advocate and mobilize for appropriate action; the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to
Protect leads the conceptual, political, institutional and operational development of the Responsibility to
Protect. The ‘Human Rights Up Front’ is an initiative by the UN Secretary-General to ensure the UN
system takes early and effective action, as mandated by the Charter and UN resolutions, to prevent or
respond to serious and large-scale violations of human rights or international humanitarian law.

UN Peace Operations: Many United Nations peacekeeping operations and political and peace-
building missions also include the human rights-related mandates aimed at contributing to the protection
and promotion of human rights through both immediate and long-term action; empowering the
population to assert and claim their human rights; and enabling State and other national institutions to
implement their human rights obligations and uphold the rule of law. Human rights teams on the ground
work in close cooperation and coordination with other civilian and uniformed components of peace
operations, in particular, in relation to the protection of civilians.

Commission on the Status of Women: The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the
principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the
advancement of women.

Criticism of UN system Protecting Human Rights:

According to the author Geoffrey Robertson protection of human rights under UN system is almost a
failure process He sites some reasons for failure and made suggestions for the effectiveness of United
Nations in enforcing human rights

Government Mouthpiece: The eighteen “experts” that make up the Human Rights Committee of
United Nations are more often government mouthpieces than independent experts. Some of the
Committee members are actually in government service as ambassadors or cabinet ministers. This biases
the Committee toward defending state actions rather than censuring them. Until the Committee is made
up of truly independent experts, there is little hope of serious state accountability.

Meets infrequently: The Committee meets three times a year for only three weeks each. Robertson
says that expecting the Committee to be able to do a year's worth of work in nine weeks is ridiculous. If
the Committee is to become effective, it will need to have sufficient time to carry out its commitment to
monitoring and problem-solving.

Dependence on UN secretariat: The Committee is a UN “organ,” not a quasi-judicial body—much less

a court. It depends totally on the UN Secretariat for structure, budget and status. The UN's Tendency
to avoid member criticism is reflected in the work of the Committee. The Committee must be able to
criticize states in more than polite “comments.” To do this, it needs to be independent of UN apron
strings.

No Independent Fact Finding Capacity: The Human Rights Committee does not have any
independent fact-finding capacity. This is a crippling weakness since it prevents the Committee from
effectively monitoring state activities. Even though the Committee has access to the Human Rights
Commission's fact-finding reports, these are inadequate. The Committee must have the ability to gain
information necessary in order to carry out its mandate effectively.

Not focused on Individual rights: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights focuses on state duties
toward individuals and not individual rights against states. It has no power as a court to protect
individual rights. It cannot compel or even pressure states to abide by their Covenant duties. The
Committee needs some way of protecting individual rights rather than simply encouraging states to do
their duty. There also needs to be some way of putting pressure on states to live up to the Covenant's
standard of human rights.

No Enforcement Power: The Human Rights Committee cannot enforce its views. Assuming that
member states even file reports, they can easily ignore Committee views. In fact, rather than increase a
state's support of human rights, an individual's appeal to the Committee may even have a perverse effect.
Robertson says that death row inmates are sometimes targeted for execution precisely because they have
filed a complaint with the Committee. Without any mechanism to enforce Committee views, states will
have little incentive to take the Committee's views seriously.

Conclusion:

Minimizing the Institutional Problems and strong political will of the member countries of United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and all Veto Powered Nations is the Need of hour in protection
and enforcement of Human Rights.

In fact, the problems are endemic to the UN system. Because the UN is made up of member states, it
will often go out of its way to avoid criticizing its members. Though the UN Security Council will
occasionally level sanctions against a member state, the balance of history demonstrates that UN organs
are more likely to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses.

18. Human Rights constitute the third Generation of rights. Analyze the range and complex
dimension of human rights in the globalized era. (12/II/5(b)/12)

Introduction:

Rights of man is a concept of modern times. In medieval times the theory of Divine rights of the King
was prevalent. Rights belongs to the liberal discourse. Rights are considered as claims of persons. In
the words of Dworkin, “Rights are trumps” means rights are claims which will have priority over all
other claims.

John Locke was one of the Earliest Proponents of “theory of natural rights”. According to it Intuition
or reason rather than institution is a source of right.

Human Rights: Human Rights are the rights inherent to all human beings irrespective of their
nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, language or any other status. These rights are universal,
inalienable, interdependent, indivisible, equal and non-discriminatory. The rights are often expressed
and guaranteed by domestic laws, international treaties, general principles and other sources of
international law.

Though the rights were first emphasized in “Universal Declaration of Human rights” UDHR in 1948,
Czech jurist Karel Vesak proposed its division into three generations at the international institute of
human rights in 1977.

Generation of Human Rights:

The First generation of rights focuses on civil-political rights like traditional civil and political
liberties, freedom of speech, religion, press etc. It was result of democratic revolutions in Europe and
USA at the end of 18th century. These rights are strongly individualistic which presupposes a duty of
non-interference of government towards individuals.

The Second generation of rights focuses on socio-economic rights like right to work, food, social
security etc. These rights came to the fore during fight for economic and social rights at the end of 19th
century and beginning of 20th century. These rights require affirmative action on part of the
government for their realization. These are exercised by all people collectively or set of people and is
reflected in Mexican constitution, German constitution and USSR constitution.

The Third generation of rights are “collective developmental rights” of the people like right to
development, right to peace, right to healthy environment etc. These are the most recent inclusion to the
set of rights and its realization is predicted not only upon affirmative and negative actions of the state
but also upon behavior of each individual.

The Key theme of ‘third generation of rights’ (post 1945) is Fraternity. Stockholm convention on
the Human environment 1972 and Rio ‘Earth summit’ 1992 are the Key Documents involving third
generation of rights.

Human Rights as Third Generation of Rights:

Since 1945, a further set of rights have emerged in the form of solidarity, or so called ‘third generation’
rights. These encompass a broad spectrum of rights whose main characteristic is that they are attached to
social groups or whole societies, as opposed to separate individuals. They are sometimes, therefore, seen
as collective rights or people’s rights. Whereas ‘first-generation’ rights were shaped by liberalism and
‘second-generation’ rights were shaped by socialism, ‘third generation’ rights have been formed by the
concerns of the global South.

The right to Self Determination was thus linked to the post-1945 process of decolonization and the
rise of national liberation movements. Other such rights include the right to development, the right to
peace, the right to environmental protection and multicultural rights. Solidarity rights have
therefore been used to give issues such as development, environmental sustainability and cultural
preservation a moral dimension. Nevertheless, critics of ‘third generation’ rights have high lightened
their inherent vagueness and more seriously, questioned whether the human rights can actually belong to
peoples or groups as opposed to individuals. From this perspective, the very idea of human rights is
based on model of individual self-worth, which is in danger of being weakened whenever people are
thought of in terms of group membership.

Dimension of human rights in the globalized era.

There is a compelling case for pursuing development policies within the framework of human rights,
with or without globalization. But the need for framing policies on the foundation of human rights
becomes even more compelling in a rapidly globalizing world. The process of globalization can have a
profound impact on the process of development, in positive as well as negative ways.

The Intended goal of the Universal Declaration of Human rights as a common standard of
achievement for all people is still a dream yet to come true. The role and scope of the UN’s actions in
the promotion and protection of human rights has expanded enormously during the last six decades.
Consciousness about the rights has also increased widely. Under the collective efforts of the UN, global
standards of acceptable national behavior haven been set. Several funds and Donations by Individuals,
organizations and states have been used to improve common standards of human life. People’s
awareness has also increased. The work of Non-Governmental organizations has immensely
contributed towards the popularization of human rights.

But hurdles, too, are many. The realization of a common standards of human rights is still a
challenging task. Even violations of human rights have increased many times than before. “Ethnic
Cleansing” has taken disastrous forms in many parts of Asia and Africa. Fascist political regimes exist
in many regions. Racial Discrimination is being nurtured in suburban areas of even developed
societies. The Gap between the poor and the rich has widened. Eradication of poverty is yet to be
achieved though the Millennium Development Goals have been spelt out by UN members. The
developing societies face financial challenges to realize equal economic, social and Developmental
rights for their peoples. The third Generation of rights or the right to development, right to clean
environment, and so on, seem far too difficult to be achieved. Extreme lack of resources, infrastructure,
political willingness, illiteracy and ill health have posed many challenges to the underdeveloped world
in the era of globalization.

Conclusion:

The major cause of democracy and development have been integrated with the concern for human
rights. Now, international relations has recognized human rights as a major issue of concern under the
UN, the creation of comprehensive body of human rights law is one of the greatest achievements of the
organization.

A wide range of Human rights from first to second and now to third generation have been
conceptualized and documented, which all nations can operationalize. These instruments include civil,
political, economic, social, cultural, rights as well as the right to development and the right to a clean
environment. The struggle is spread over a long period of time and there are many challenges and threats
in the path of realization, promotion and protection of human rights.

31. Do you endorse that the conventional discourse on human rights has failed to include women's
rights. Explain in the context of feminist theories. (15/II/3(a)/20)

Introduction:

For many Feminist scholars, in spite of a concerted effort by the international community towards
international legislation on women’s rights as human rights, including the Convention on the
“Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1979 (CEDAW)” the only matter for
contention surrounding human rights is not whether they are gender equal, but rather, whether the entire
concept of human rights is “gender-biased and gender-blind”.

Drawing on the work of feminist lawyers and analysts, as well as human rights groups, Many
feminist scholars argue that a non-feminist approach to women’s human rights all too often sees them as
separate or in some way secondary to other human rights concerns, does not take women’s lives and
daily experiences into account, and sees women’s human rights as conflicting with other rights such as
religious practices, the rights of men. As there are overwhelming numbers of examples of violations of
all aspects of women’s human rights including their political, social and economic rights.

Many Feminist scholars such as Hannah butt, Uma Narayan re-iterates that the present convention
of Human rights failed to stop Human rights violations against women in domestic sphere, trafficking,
sexual abuse, Genital Mutilation, Honour Killings, forced labour etc... So, one can endorse that the
conventional discourse on human rights has failed to include women’s rights.

According to Shazia Qureshi, the human rights discourse is an extension of a gendered international
legal system that fails to take into consideration the voices of women. She argues philosophy behind
human rights is unsatisfactory for women because the core theme it reflects a male viewpoint which
may not necessarily resonate with the lived realities of women’s lives.

‘Public arena’ in most societies is predominantly occupied by men, women are restricted to private
sphere of home and family. Given the sanctity attached to it, private realm is often beyond the reach of
state regulation which makes the position of women vulnerable within domestic sphere.

Catherine MacKinnon opines that being a woman is ‘not yet a name for a way of being human’.
She also argues that the subject of human rights reflects a distinctly masculine experience, first
generation of rights is androcentric in its construction of the opposition between the public sphere of
rights and the private sphere of family, intimacy and household relations outside the scope of rights
discourse For example, the UDHR defines the family as entitled to ‘protection from society and the
state. This means that violence against women in the private sphere is not seen in human rights terms as
a contravention of civil rights that is limited to a man.
 The second set of rights is set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR). Although this set of rights is more socialist than liberal, it nevertheless constructs a
public/private distinction that maps closely on to that of liberal rights. Again, it is assumed that power
rests with the state and that it is exercised over civil society so that power in relation to the domestic
sphere is denied. Charlesworth in this regard explains that “In terms of economic rights, for example,
only paid labour is valued women’s unpaid work goes unrecognized and unreported as a contribution
to national wealth”.

Peterson and Parisi Analyzes that the third generation of rights is similar in intent and
consequences to the rights to cultural self-determination are equally problematic insofar as culture and
religion are seen as ‘private’ and protected from legal regulation they are frequently invoked to justify
‘traditional’ practices enacting or contributing to the subordination of women.

Will Kymlicka says “At first glance, it seems fundamentally at odds with liberalism insofar as
rights are accorded to collectivities rather than to individuals, but political philosophers have justified
group rights in liberal terms”.

Feminist re-workings of human rights in practice have been greatly facilitated by the “Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)”. It was adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and has now been ratified by most states albeit with the
greatest number of reservations on any Convention, a serious constraint on its practical efficacy says
Lawson, James and Charlesworth. The Convention has been used to argue against discrimination
against women in human rights declarations themselves, challenging the androcentric exclusion of
women from the humanity they construct.

Conclusion:

Hillary Rodham Clinton at the United Nations Fourth world conference on women in Beijing also
reiterated that "As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the
world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not
schooled, subjected to violence in and outside their homes—the potential of the human family to create
a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized."

Clinton declared that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human
rights. She followed this by saying "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it
be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights, once and for all."

Many Feminist scholars like Nash Kate, Cynthia Banham also had a strong belief that the fight they do
on the domestic front and the global front for women’s rights are not two separate battles, they are one
and the same. Women’s rights are human rights.
SUB TOPIC: ENVIRONMENT

4. People are concerned about the degradation of the environment and the problems that go with
it. Discuss the international response. (98/II/3/60)

Introduction:

The environment is often viewed as the archetypal example of a global issue. This is because
environmental processes are not just restricted to national borders they have an intrinsically
transnational character. Environmental Degradation is not only the most prominent global
environmental issue, but it is also, the most urgent and important challenge currently confronting the
international community.

As countries are environmentally vulnerable to the activities that take place in other countries,
meaningful progress on environmental issues can often only be made at the international or even global
level.

Environmental Degradation and problems that go with it:

Environmental degradation is the disintegration of the earth or deterioration of the environment through
consumption of assets like air, water, soil, the destruction of ecosystems, habitat destruction,
the extinction of wildlife and pollution.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has stated "Climate change is
not just a distant future threat. It is the main driver behind rising humanitarian needs” and we are seeing
its impact in several forms such as:

Global Warming: Global warming, referred to as climate change, is the observed century-scale rise in
the average temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects. In 2013, (IPCC) Fifth
Assessment Report concluded that "It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant
cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century." This is due to emission of greenhouse gases
(GHG’s) such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

The problems that arise with global warming are melting of ice caps there by rise in sea levels,
expansion of deserts and it’s detrimental to food security. Abrupt climatic changes occur causing
Typhoons, Hurricanes, early volcanic eruptions, recently occurred Hurricane IRMA which devastated
the Caribbean islands and Florida is one such clear example of environmental degradation due to global
warming.

Melting of Ice-caps: If current increases in sea level persist, one-sixth of the land area of Bangladesh
could be lost to the sea by the middle of this century, if not earlier, leaving 13 per cent of the country’s
population with nowhere to live or farm. The increased incidence of extreme high sea levels also causes
a greater risk of death and injury by drowning, especially in the world’s great river deltas, such as the
Bengal delta in Bangladesh, the Mekong delta in Vietnam, the Nile delta in Egypt and the Yangtze
delta in China.

Ozone Layer Depletion: Ozone layer is responsible for protecting earth from harmful ultraviolet rays.
The presence of chlorofluorocarbons, hydro chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere is causing the ozone
layer to deplete. As it will deplete, it will emit harmful radiations back to the earth which has numerous
effect on Human and plant Health, marine ecosystems, biological cycles etc.

Over Population: Rapid population growth puts strain on “natural resources” which results in
degradation of our environment. Mortality rate has gone down due to better medical facilities which has
resulted in increased lifespan. More population simple means more demand for food, clothes and
shelter. You need more space to grow food and provide homes to millions of people. This results in
deforestation which is another factor of environmental degradation.

Deforestation: Deforestation is the cutting down of trees to make way for more homes and industries.
Rapid growth in population and urban sprawl are two of the major causes of deforestation. Apart from
that, use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing, harvest for fuel wood and logging are some of the
other causes of deforestation. Deforestation contributes to “global warming as decreased forest size
puts carbon back into the environment”.

Landfills: Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of that area. Landfills come within
the city due the large amount of waste that gets generated by households, industries, factories and
hospitals. Especially the plastic waste generated takes year to decompose pose a great risk to the health
of the environment and the people who live there. Landfills produce foul smell when burned and cause
huge environmental degradation.

Pollution: Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or noise is harmful for the
environment. Air pollution pollutes the air that we breathe which causes health issues. Water pollution
degrades the quality of water that we use for drinking purposes. Land pollution results in degradation of
earth’s surface as a result of human activities.

Oil spills: These occur due to the leakage of chemical, toxic, biological substances into the marine water
when transported through Cargo ships posing a serious threat to marine ecology which involves coral
bleaching, extinction and endangerment of marine species.

International response:

Climate change is a global challenge and requires a global solution. The international response to
climate change was launched in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, with the signing of the
“United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)”. The Convention established
a long-term objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere "at a level that
would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". Currently 191 parties,
including the US, have ratified the UNFCCC.
The “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” (IPCC) is an international panel of scientists and
researchers that provide advice on climate change to the international community. The most significant
work of IPCC is in publishing Assessments Reports. Another most significant international agreement
on climate change was the Kyoto Protocol to the FCCC, negotiated in 1997. The significance of the
Kyoto Protocol was that it set binding targets for developed states to limit or reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions by 2012.

The targets were designed to reduce total emissions from the developed world to at least 5.2 per
cent below their 1990 levels. However, the Kyoto Protocol also had significant limitations USA’s
failure to ratify the treaty dealt Kyoto a fatal blow and set the process of tackling climate change back
for over a decade. Moreover, China’s carbon emissions continued to rise steeply, and have exceeded
those of the USA since 2008, meaning that climate change could no longer be seen merely as a
developed world problem, “eight out of ten of the world’s most polluted cities are in China”. This was
the context in which the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen took place in December 2009.
However, the Copenhagen Summit has widely been seen as a severe disappointment, highlighting yet
again the difficulties of achieving international agreement on the issue of climate change.

Recently organized 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference was an international meeting
of political leaders and activists to discuss environmental issues. The conference incorporated the
twenty-second Conference of the Parties (COP22), the twelfth meeting of the parties for the Kyoto
Protocol (CMP12), and the first meeting of the parties for the Paris Agreement (CMA1).

The purpose of the conference was to discuss and implement plans about combatting climate change
and to [demonstrate] to the world that the implementation of the “Paris Agreement is underway".
Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus by all by bottom-up approach consisting INDCs
(“Intended Nationally Determined Contributions”) of the 195 UNFCCC participating member states and
the European Union to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas. Members
promised to reduce their carbon output "as soon as possible" and to do their best to keep global warming
"to well below 2 degrees C", it adopted CBDR (Common but Differentiated Responsibilities) – RC
(Respective Capabilities) with provisions for market mechanisms and long term plan of ‘zero
emissions’.

Difficulties in achieving International Co-operation: Effective international action to tackle climate

change will only occur if solutions are found to a series of obstacles to international cooperation. The
most significant of these obstacles are the following:

 Conflict between the collective good and national interests.

 Tensions between developed and developing states.
 Economic obstacles.
 Ideological obstacles.
 Another problem is that the issue of climate change exposes significant divisions between
developed world and the developing world. (North–South divide).
Conclusion:

In the Words of Vandana Shiva “we must remember that there is no peace between if we do not make
peace with the mother Earth”.

Climate change has dominated the international environmental agenda since the early 1990s.
Although some disagreement persists, there has been a growing consensus that climate change is
happening, and that it is the product of human activity, notably the greenhouse gas emissions. Climate
Change talks after change in US Presidency i.e., Trump’s decision to stay out of Paris Agreement
might see a shift in future which needs to be watched closely and the next summit on climate change in
Fiji (COP23) will be crucial in this regard.

5. Comment: Agenda 21 and after responses of international community towards environmental

concerns. (99/II/1(b)/20).

Introduction:

The environment is often viewed as the archetypal example of a global issue. This is because
environmental processes are not just restricted to national borders they have an intrinsically
transnational character. Environmental Degradation is not only the most prominent global
environmental issue, but it is also, the most urgent and important challenge currently confronting the
international community.

As countries are environmentally vulnerable to the activities that take place in other countries,
meaningful progress on environmental issues can often only be made at the international or even global
level.

Agenda 21:

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by

organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which
human impacts on the environment.

Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of principles
for the Sustainable Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to
14 June 1992.

The “Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)” was created in December 1992 to ensure
effective follow-up of UNCED, to monitor and report on implementation of the agreements at the local,
national, regional and international levels. It was agreed that a five year review of Earth Summit
progress would be made in 1997 by the United Nations General Assembly meeting in special session.
Agenda 21 and after responses:

The “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” (IPCC) is an international panel of scientists and
researchers that provide advice on climate change to the international community. The most significant
work of IPCC is in publishing Assessments Reports. Another most significant international agreement
on climate change was the Kyoto Protocol to the FCCC, negotiated in 1997. The significance of the
Kyoto Protocol was that it set binding targets for developed states to limit or reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions by 2012.

The targets were designed to reduce total emissions from the developed world to at least 5.2 per
cent below their 1990 levels. However, the Kyoto Protocol also had significant limitations USA’s
failure to ratify the treaty dealt Kyoto a fatal blow and set the process of tackling climate change back
for over a decade. Moreover, China’s carbon emissions continued to rise steeply, and have exceeded
those of the USA since 2008, meaning that climate change could no longer be seen merely as a
developed world problem, “eight out of ten of the world’s most polluted cities are in China”. This was
the context in which the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen took place in December 2009.
However, the Copenhagen Summit has widely been seen as a severe disappointment, highlighting yet
again the difficulties of achieving international agreement on the issue of climate change.

Recently organized 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference was an international meeting
of political leaders and activists to discuss environmental issues. The conference incorporated the
twenty-second Conference of the Parties (COP22), the twelfth meeting of the parties for the Kyoto
Protocol (CMP12), and the first meeting of the parties for the Paris Agreement (CMA1).

The purpose of the conference was to discuss and implement plans about combatting climate change
and to [demonstrate] to the world that the implementation of the “Paris Agreement is underway".
Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus by all by bottom-up approach consisting INDCs
(“Intended Nationally Determined Contributions”) of the 195 UNFCCC participating member states and
the European Union to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas. Members
promised to reduce their carbon output "as soon as possible" and to do their best to keep global warming
"to well below 2 degrees C", it adopted CBDR (Common but Differentiated Responsibilities) – RC
(Respective Capabilities) with provisions for market mechanisms and long term plan of ‘zero
emissions’.

Conclusion:

In the Words of Vandana Shiva “we must remember that there is no peace between if we do not make
peace with the mother Earth”. Climate Change talks after change in US Presidency i.e., Trump’s
decision to stay out of Paris Agreement might see a shift in future which needs to be watched closely
and the next summit on climate change in Fiji (COP23) will be crucial in this regard.
9. Comment the need for and the Hindrances to the development of a common global approach to
ecological concerns. (04/II/1(d)/20)

Introduction:

While an unusually stable global ecology and environment has been the precondition for
unprecedented human development over the last ten thousand years, this stability is now under threat
from human activity. Most critically, energy consumption has skyrocketed owing to rapid population
and economic growth, resulting in unprecedented concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere and
anthropogenic climate change which threatens ecological atmosphere of the environment.

Ecological Concerns: The global climate is changing and it’s going to affect the ecology, environment,
and resources. It will also change the biodiversity on the planet. Global warming, climate change,
pollution, and ecological imbalance – these are some of the major concerns of the ecologists and
environmentalists around the world today. Ecologists already know that climate change is here and it’s
changing the life on earth.

Need for the development of common global approach:

There is need for the development of a common global approach for the sustainable development
because of the following ecological concerns that certainly threatens the life on earth some of them are:

Water Scarcity: Today, we don’t think of water as a valuable commodity but many ecologists and
environmentalists like Raman Sukumar, Vandana Shiva, believes that in the future fresh water could
become as rare and valuable as oil and gold. Scientists have even made speculations that there will be
Future wars between nations to take control of freshwater resources.
According to the United Nations report on water scarcity “The world could suffer a 40 percent
shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource”.

Air pollution and climate change: Burning of fossil fuels, deforestation for agriculture, and industrial
activities have pushed up atmospheric CO2 concentrations from 280 parts per million (ppm) 200 years
ago, to about 400 ppm today. That's an unprecedented rise, in both size and speed. The result of which
is ecological disruption. Carbon overloading is only one form of air pollution caused by burning coal,
oil, gas and wood.
The World Health Organization recently estimated that “one in nine deaths” in 2012 were
attributable to diseases caused by carcinogens and other poisons in polluted air.

Deforestation: Species-rich wild forests are being destroyed, especially in the tropics, often to make
way for cattle rearing, soybean or palm oil plantations, or other agricultural monocultures. Tropical
forests used to cover about 15 percent of the planet's land area; they're now down to 6 or 7 percent.
Much of this has been degraded by logging or burning. Not only do natural forests act as
biodiversity reserves, they are also carbon sinks, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere and oceans.
Loss of Bio-Diversity: Our activities are directly impacting the ecology and biodiversity of the earth.
Deforestation, pollution of land, air, and water, over fishing, hunting, climate change, and unplanned
agriculture, all affect natural evolution and biodiversity, giving rise to more serious ecological
imbalances. Humans have destroyed and are continuously destroying wildlife and habitat and causing
damage to biodiversity.

According to the convention about life on earth “At least 40 percent of the world’s economy and 80
per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources”.

Habitat destruction: Habitat destruction happens when the ecosystem is disturbed or lost and the
biological beings in the ecosystem can no longer function or live their normal lives. The loss and
destruction of habitat are also major factors contributing to a wave of extinction, IUCN's Red List
of threatened and endangered species continues to grow.

According to World Wild life Fund (WWF) “without a strong plan to create terrestrial and marine
protected areas important ecological habitats will continue to be lost”.

Overpopulation: The increase and over population of the human race, especially high density of
population in the urban areas, is one of the biggest issues faced by our environmentalists and ecologists.
With the increase of population comes demand for resources, waste management, energy requirement
and other aspects of governance and control over resources.
If we don’t use our resources sustainably, we may not have anything at all in the future, and scientists
are realizing that.

Hindrances to the development of common global approach:

Though, many Conventions and Agreements such as CITES “Convention on the International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna” 1973, CBD convention on Biological Diversity, Nairobi
1992, UNFCCC, Kyoto protocol, Copenhagen summit, Paris Agreement 2015 there are still many
hindrances to the common global approach in protecting ecology and environment as a whole.

For many years the US refused to sign the international agreement on climate change, the Kyoto
Protocol (the forerunner to the 2015 Paris agreement), thus blocking many international efforts to reduce
global carbon emissions. It is hard to make countries commit to specific conservation goals (in forest
policy) or emission-reduction targets (in climate policy) or standards for pollution in rivers (in water
policy) because each nation has its own national development objectives that may conflict with other
countries goals, thus making it hard to find common ground for collaboration.

Technology transfer from developed nations to developing nations in tackling the growing
ecological and environmental concerns is one of the major hindrance towards a common approach

Effective international action to tackle ecological and environmental concerns will only occur if
solutions are found to a series of obstacles to international cooperation. The most significant of these
obstacles are:
  Conflict between the collective good and national interests.
 Tensions between developed and developing states.
 Economic obstacles.
 Ideological obstacles.
 Another problem is that the issue of climate change exposes significant divisions between
developed world and the developing world. (North–South divide).

Conclusion:

It is clear that we still have a lot of work to do with regard to our shared understanding of what
constitutes strong, robust, effective and efficient global ecological and environmental governance. We
need to better integrate regional and transnational initiatives with domestic policy strategies to tackle
these problems. This means creating the conditions for a model of governing the environment that is
flexible and cuts across different levels, from the local to the global.

10. Comment Sustainable development (05/II/1(b)/20).

Introduction:

Sustainability is a dynamic concept born out of the environmental debate of the last quarter century.
There is growing concern nationally and internationally about biodiversity and protection of plants and
animals and community based activity. The Rio Summit emphasized on economic growth and poverty
alleviation for sustainable development.

The Agenda21 called all countries to develop national strategies for sustainable development to
translate the words and commitments of Earth summit into concrete policies and actions. The important
issue in the 21st century is to create “greater economic and societal well-being without deterioration of
the environment and depletion of the resources”.

Sustainability Development:

Sustainable Development as a norm has been accepted in the literature ever since the publication of the
Brundtland Commission report in 1987.The Brundtland Commission defined Sustainable
Development as that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the
future generations to meet their own needs".

It is also defined as “a pattern of social and structured economic transformations that optimizes the
economic and societal benefits available in the present, without jeopardizing the likely potential for
similar benefits in the future”. A primary goal of sustainable development is to achieve a reasonable
and equitably distributed level of economic well-being that can be perpetuated continually for many
human generations.

It also implies using renewable natural resources in a manner that does not eliminate or degrade
them, or otherwise diminish their usefulness for future generations. Sustainable development also
requires depleting non-renewable energy resources at a slow enough rate so as to ensure the high
probability of an orderly society transition to renewable energy sources.

Need for Sustainable Development:

In the Words of Mahatma Gandhi “There's enough in the world to meet the needs of everyone but
there's not enough to meet the greed of everyone”. But in contemporary world situation negation to the
statement is occurring which is a serious global threat for the sustainable development.

Over the past 20 years total population in the industrialized countries has increased by 28%. These
countries are facing many problems such as environmental degradation, over dependence on non-
renewal sources of energy, declining standards of living. These problems are more acute in developing
countries. These countries have formed their economic systems on western models ignoring their
indigenous requirements.

The percentage of cultivable land has been decreasing over the years due to increase in population
and non-judicial use of resources. Forests are being destroyed and concrete jungles are taking their
place. This has been compounded further by the long-term impact of past industrialization,
exploitation and environmental damage.

Traditional diseases such as malaria and cholera, caused by unsafe drinking water and lack of
environmental hygiene, have not yet been controlled. In addition, people are now falling prey to modern
diseases such as cancer and AIDS, and stress-related disorders. Many of the widespread ailments
among the poor in developing countries are occupation-related. The problems are complex and the
choices difficult. “Our common future can only be achieved with a better understanding of our common
concerns and shared responsibilities”.

Ways to achieve Sustainable Development:

In Order to achieve Sustainable Development United Nations Organization has come up with
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) which are new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators
that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next
15 years. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) follow and expand on the millennium
development goals (MDGs), which are due to expire at the end of 2015.

These SDGs came into being in 2015 with a deadline of 2030. It has a set of 17 global goals and 169
targets, all of which, directly or indirectly, focus on poverty, health, education, climate change and self-
sustainability. Some of them are illustrated as

1) People: to ensure healthy lives, Knowledge, and the inclusion of women and children.

2) Dignity: to end poverty and fight inequality.

3) Planet: to protect our ecosystems for all societies and our children.
4) Partnership: to catalyze global solidarity for sustainable development.

5) Prosperity: to grow a strong, inclusive and transformative economy.

6) Justice: to promote safe and peaceful societies, and strong institutions.

22. Compare and Contrast Sino-India approaches to global Environmental Concerns

(13/II/2(c)/15).

Introduction:

There are more commonalities than differences between the Indian and the Chinese approach on issues
of global environmental concern, such as the debate on global climate change. A common approach on
the issue of climate change brings the two countries together within the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa,
India and China) framework.

As large developing countries, their common concern is about the carbon space that they need in
order to develop their economies and improve the living standards of their population. They also have
common concern with regard to the provision for finance and technology and capacity building,
before they take on any commitments about capping and ultimately reducing their gross national
emissions.

Chinese Approach to global Environmental Concerns: China being a largest global emitter of GHGs
contributor of 29.5% of total global emissions, it’s a key challenge to Chinese leadership in the
environmental protection. Both as result of domestic and International pressures, Chinese leaders have
become increasingly cognizant of the need in protecting global environment.

China’s per capita and gross emissions are higher than that of India. This is primarily because a
large amount of products made in Chinese factories are for exports. To make these products, China still
relies on coal which is not always efficient and leads to higher emissions. As China is home to some of
the world’s most polluting industries and companies, it is shifting rapidly towards the increase in “Solar
Capacity building”.

China is negotiating with the United States on a bilateral climate deal which could be a game
changer as far as the global agreement on the issue is concerned. The US and China are two largest
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitters and their deal could boost the prospect of a global deal or could even
derail it. Nearly a dozen other developed countries like Japan and Germany have bilateral energy deals
with China that helps it improve efficiency and reduce emissions per unit of the GDP produced. China
intends to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions around 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and
intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% by 2030.

Emerging practices in China: China's NDRC announced a variety of green stimulus measures. Over
one-third of the massive Chinese stimulus package and nearly 27% of the 2009 budget was allocated to
green themes, mostly rail, grids, and water infrastructure, along with spending on environmental
improvement. As the key intermediary agents of indirect financing, banks are powerful forces to guide
economic restructuring in China. China is the first country to establish the green credit policy system.

India’s Approach to Environmental Concern:

As Indian ancient text says; "Keep pure! For the Earth is our mother! And we are her children!"
The ancient Indian practice of Yoga, for example, is a system that is aimed at balancing contentment and
worldly desires, that helps pursue a path of moderation and a sustainable lifestyle. Environmental
sustainability, which involves both intra-generational and inter-generational equity, has been the
approach of Indians for very long.

In the words of former vice-president Hamid Ansari India Prefers ‘Aspirational’ rather than
‘Prescriptive’ approach to global environment Concerns. India being the world’s fourth largest carbon
emitter ratified the historic “Paris Agreement on Climatic change” and submitted its INDC’s
integrated nationally determined contributions. India Plans to reduce its carbon emissions Intensity
emission per unit by GDP by 33-35% from 2005 levels over 15 years. India aims at producing 40% of
its installed electricity capacity by 2030 from non-fossil fuels. Another Initiative is to increase its forest
cover by 5 million hectares.

India Recently in 2015 initiated the Prestigious Project to harness solar energy i.e., “International
Solar Alliance” (ISA) which is a treaty based international inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar
resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The
headquarters will be set up in India with an initial investment of $30mn. India will endorse “clean
energy, sustainable environment, public transport, and climate adaptive agriculture” through this
initiative.

India has also launched a tool named IESS 2047 (India Energy Security Scenarios 2047 calculator)
which aims to explore the potential of future energy scenarios for India.

Emerging Practices in India: In June 2008, India launched its NAPCC that encompasses a multi-
pronged, long-term and integrated framework for addressing climate change as a core development
issue. As of March 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has
endorsed 30 state action plans.

Contrast between India and Chinese approach:

Though there are numerous examples of similarities, there are certain core differences of both the
nations in approaching environmental concerns. India takes “Protection of Global Environment and
Ecology” as its Global Responsibility whereas, China limited it to mere achievement of national
Interests. On one hand China acting towards to cleaning its own environment and on other hand it is
exploiting the natural resources of Africa and Latin American nations. In contrast India is working on
Capacity Building and Inclusive Development through Initiatives such as “Solar Mamas” which is huge
success.
Apart from different stances at the domestic and multilateral policy levels, China and India have
reaffirmed their Commitment to work together on climate change at the bilateral level also. To
strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries the Indian government has set the goal of “INCH
(India–China) towards MILES (Millennium of Exceptional Synergy)”. In May 2015, the two countries
issued a Joint Statement on Climate Change between the Government of India and the Government of
China, promoting bilateral partnership on climate change and reaffirming their commitment to engage
through the UNFCCC process.

Conclusion:

Globally, there is an increasing awareness of the need to move away from a carbon-intensive
development model. This, however, requires fundamental policy changes in key sectors of the
economy including, but not restricted to, the energy sector. For China and India, beyond the energy
sector, factors such as overall level of development, governance structure and vulnerability to climate
change will also determine a country's targets and strategies.

India and China were key players in tackling the abrupt climatic changes and increasing Global
warming. As both nations have vibrant emerging societies, to safeguard them through sustainable
development goals is the need of hour for both the nations.

28. Critically evaluate the approaches of global south towards addressing environment concerns.
(14/II/2(b)/15).

Introduction:

Global South is a group of economically least developed, emerging and developing countries whereas
Global North is a group of well-placed advanced countries. Both the groups are concerned about the
worsening climatic condition due to change in climate resulted out of carbon emissions. Major countries
of both the groups are signatory of climate pacts like Paris Climate Agreement.

The Approach of Global south towards environmental concerns is critical in achieving sustainable
development around the world.

Environmental Concerns: Why it matters for global south Countries?

Developing countries are the key to achieving sustainable Ecology and Environment in two major
ways. Firstly, the potential economic and social impacts of environmental degradation are particularly
important for developing countries. They are the most vulnerable to climate change and tend to be more
dependent than advanced economies on the exploitation of natural resources for economic growth.
Secondly, many developing countries face severe economic, social and ecological threats from energy,
food and water insecurity to climate change and extreme weather risks.
Approach of Global South Addressing environmental concerns:

In the words of Ram Chandra Guha environmentalism shown by global south (Developing nations) is
like “Empty stomach” and whereas it is like “Full Stomach” for Developed nations.

India, Brazil, China and South-Africa are the forerunners in measures adopted against the climate
change and global warming. A number of other large developing countries (such as the ‘Next 11’ -
Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, South Korea and
Vietnam) have also contributing to the environmental protection though they lack of institutionalized
technology and Funding.

In 21st century, the emerging economies have come under increasing pressure from other countries to
reduce their GHG emissions. In the lead up to the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) in
Copenhagen in December 2009 the “BASIC group” – Brazil, South Africa, India and China - was
created. They pledged voluntary mitigation targets for the first time. Thus, in in context of global
south, COP15 was a significant milestone.

India’s Response to Climate Change: India is a key global player with its huge population, set to
become the largest in the world by 2025, and rapidly growing economy. The Government of India (GoI)
has been involved in addressing climate change since the 1970’s although the key drivers were energy
security and natural resource management.

Under the Copenhagen Accord, India voluntarily pledged to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP
by 20-25% by 2020 relative to 2005 levels. India has made significant progress in wind, solar and
hydropower and grid transmission efficiency. In 2011 India achieved a record USD 10.3 billion in
clean energy investments, up 52% year-on-year, to have the fastest growth of any major country
globally. India being the world’s fourth largest carbon emitter ratified the historic “Paris Agreement on
Climatic change” and submitted its INDC’s integrated nationally determined contributions. India Plans
to reduce its carbon emissions Intensity emission per unit by GDP by 33-35% from 2005 levels over 15
years. India aims at producing 40% of its installed electricity capacity by 2030 from non-fossil fuels.
Another Initiative is to increase its forest cover by 5 million hectares.

India Recently in 2015 initiated the Prestigious Project to harness solar energy i.e., “International
Solar Alliance” (ISA) which is a treaty based international inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar
resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. India is
guided by the Principle of CBDR (Comprehensive but differentiated Approach) and takes climate
protection as its global responsibility.

China’s Response to Climate Change: China has substantial environmental problems associated with
the extremely fast growth of the economy. Air quality in China’s cities is among the worst in the world.
China has come under increasing international pressure to limit its GHG emissions. In 2009, China
submitted its first national mitigation target to the Copenhagen Accord following COP15. China’s
pledge outlined that it would undertake to lower its CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 40 – 45% by
2020 compared with a 2005 base level. China’s pledge also stated that it would aim to increase the share
of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% by 2030. It would also increase forest
coverage by 40 Million hectares. It had also ratified Paris Agreement and submitted its INDC’s.

China is currently extremely successful as one of the fore-runners in the green technology race.
ACCC (Adapting to Climate Change in China) was set up in 2009 in collaboration with UK
Switzerland as well as adaptation planning in three pilot provinces; Guangdong, Ningxia and Inner
Mongolia. On the international stage, China’s stance on action on climate change is in line with that of
developing countries and the BASIC group.

Brazil’s Response to Climate Change: Brazil has a leading role to play in global efforts to mitigate
climate change due to its emissions. McKinsey estimates that Brazil is one of the top five countries in
potential to reduce emissions, primarily due to emission reduction potential in the forestry sector.

However, Brazil has also been a world leader in low carbon agriculture and renewable energies,
including hydropower and biofuels. In the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, hosted in Rio de Janeiro, the Ministry of Environment (MMA) was responsible for
Brazil’s negotiations pertaining to the Biodiversity Convention. Brazil has ambitious targets to reduce
deforestation over the next decade. It had ratified Paris Agreement 2015 and also submitted its
INDC’s. Brazil being a developing country is working in line with India, china and South Africa in
mitigating climatic changes and global warming.

There are many other global economies like Bangladesh, Srilanka, Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia and
Iran that are working together with BRICS nations in addressing global environmental concerns.

Paris Accord 2015 and Status of Developing Countries:

Global climate talks have been mixed with regards to developing countries. The Paris Agreement
acknowledges the development imperatives of developing countries by recognizing their right to
development and their efforts to harmonize it with the environment, while protecting the interests of the
most vulnerable. Paris agreement sets a binding obligation on developed countries to provide
financial resources and Technology transfer to developing countries.

Paris Agreement acknowledges that peaking of emission in developing countries will take longer and
calls upon developed countries to take the lead in mitigation actions and to support developing countries
for implementation of climate change actions.

Sunita Narayan calls environmentalism in south as conservative utilitarian and in North as

conservative protectionism.

Conclusion:

While the global South has been and will continue to be disproportionately affected by global
environmental degradation, it has been a site of innovation with respect to the environmental interface.
Compared to their Northern Counterparts, countries of the global south have been the most active in
incorporating environmental rights into their constitutions and their courts have been very active in
enforcing environmental obligations even where no legal instrument provides for explicit environmental
rights, such as in India. It is also noteworthy that the human rights frameworks in many global south
countries are specifically aimed at the protection of environmental related rights.

33. Examine the main problems and challenges involved in looking after environmental concerns
in world politics? (16/II/7a/20).

Introduction: Environment is now a key component of international relations and, given the rising
attention climate change receives in particular, a matter that now has high priority in diplomatic
circles. With states in danger of disappearing below rising seas and major disruptions to water supplies
and food systems projected for future decade’s environmental matters have become central plank to
contemporary international politics.

As countries are environmentally vulnerable to the activities that take place in other countries,
meaningful progress on environmental issues can often only be made at the international or even global
level.

Problems Involved in looking after the environmental concerns:

As there are numerous number of Problems involved in addressing environmental concerns some of
them are illustrated as:

Global Warming: Global warming, referred to as climate change, is the observed century-scale rise in
the average temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects. In 2013, (IPCC) Fifth
Assessment Report concluded that "It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant
cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century." This is due to emission of greenhouse gases
(GHG’s) such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

The problems that arise with global warming are melting of ice caps there by rise in sea levels,
expansion of deserts and it’s detrimental to food security. Abrupt climatic changes occur causing
Typhoons, Hurricanes, early volcanic eruptions, recently occurred “Hurricane IRMA” which
devastated the Caribbean islands and Florida is one such clear example of environmental degradation
due to global warming.

Melting of Ice-caps: If current increases in sea level persist, one-sixth of the land area of Bangladesh
could be lost to the sea by the middle of this century, if not earlier, leaving 13 per cent of the country’s
population with nowhere to live or farm. The increased incidence of extreme high sea levels also causes
a greater risk of death and injury by drowning, especially in the world’s great river deltas, such as the
Bengal delta in Bangladesh, the Mekong delta in Vietnam, the Nile delta in Egypt and the Yangtze
delta in China.
Ozone Layer Depletion: Ozone layer is responsible for protecting earth from harmful ultraviolet rays.
The presence of chlorofluorocarbons, hydro chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere is causing the ozone
layer to deplete. As it will deplete, it will emit harmful radiations back to the earth which has numerous
effect on Human and plant Health, marine ecosystems, biological cycles etc.

Over Population: Rapid population growth puts strain on “natural resources” which results in
degradation of our environment. Mortality rate has gone down due to better medical facilities which has
resulted in increased lifespan. More population simple means more demand for food, clothes and
shelter. You need more space to grow food and provide homes to millions of people. This results in
deforestation which is another factor of environmental degradation.

Deforestation: Deforestation is the cutting down of trees to make way for more homes and industries.
Rapid growth in population and urban sprawl are two of the major causes of deforestation. Apart from
that, use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing, harvest for fuel wood and logging are some of the
other causes of deforestation. Deforestation contributes to “global warming as decreased forest size
puts carbon back into the environment”.

Landfills: Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of that area. Landfills come within
the city due the large amount of waste that gets generated by households, industries, factories and
hospitals. Especially the plastic waste generated takes year to decompose pose a great risk to the health
of the environment and the people who live there. Landfills produce foul smell when burned and cause
huge environmental degradation.

Pollution: Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or noise is harmful for the
environment. Air pollution pollutes the air that we breathe which causes health issues. Water pollution
degrades the quality of water that we use for drinking purposes. Land pollution results in degradation of
earth’s surface as a result of human activities.

Oil spills: These occur due to the leakage of chemical, toxic, biological substances into the marine water
when transported through Cargo ships posing a serious threat to marine ecology which involves coral
bleaching, extinction and endangerment of marine species.

Challenges Involved in looking for Environmental concerns:

In 1968 Garrett Hardin published a hugely influential article that suggested that many challenges could
be understood in terms of a ‘tragedy of the commons’. Conflict between the collective good and
national interests, Tensions between developed and developing states, Economic obstacles, Ideological
obstacles are some of the challenges in achieving global common approach, In addition to these there
are other challenges such as:

North-South Differences: ‘Global South’ wants to differentiate the responsibility in accordance with
the contribution to the climate change whereas ‘Global North’ wants to share equal responsibility saying
that climate change effects equally to all. Global South insist upon mandatory transfer of fund and
technology to the them to counter climate change but Global North say that it should be voluntary.
Global North wants to move completely towards clean energy but Global North argue that they can't
shun the use of conventional fuel abruptly and agree on step-by-step transformation.

Sunita Narayan calls “environmentalism in south as conservative utilitarian and in North as

conservative protectionism”.

Ensuring a low-carbon future: Fossil fuels account for roughly 75 percent of the global emissions
causing climate change. To limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, we must drive changes
in energy policy that accelerate our transition to a clean energy future. Maintaining the momentum of
ambitious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Paris Agreement, will be key
to accelerating the transition to clean energy solutions worldwide.

Maximizing nature’s role as a climate solution: Nature is the sleeping giant in solving climate change.
Increased investment in nature based solutions such as avoiding forest loss, reforestation, investing in
soil health and coastal ecosystem restoration gives us the best opportunity to prevent catastrophic
warming.

Improving management of the world’s fisheries: Fisheries represent a $130 billion industry that spans
and feeds the entire world. But 57 percent of fish stocks are fully exploited and another 30 percent are
overexploited, depleted or recovering. Solutions lie in engaging directly with fishermen to pilot and
replicate worldwide new practices and technologies.

Expanding sustainable agricultural practices: Humans have already cleared or converted nearly 40
percent of Earth’s ice-free surface for agriculture. Additionally, agriculture is the second largest source
of greenhouse gas emissions globally after fossil fuels. Encouraging more productive agricultural
activities will be essential to meeting the growing demand for food and securing water, all while
ensuring nature continues to thrive.

Creating a green urban future: By 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities.
Humans have already made tremendous investments in the buildings and transportation, water and
energy systems that sustain cities, but the sheer demand for the additional urban infrastructure necessary
to support growing cities is straining both natural resources and public finances.

Conclusion:

Much before the climate change debate began, Mahatma Gandhi, regarded as the father of our nation
had said that we should act as ‘trustees’ and use natural resources wisely as it is our moral
responsibility to ensure that we bequeath to the future generations a healthy planet. This should be the
motive of every nation in combating climate change.
Climate Change talks after change in US Presidency i.e., Trump’s decision to stay out of Paris
Agreement might see a shift in future which needs to be watched closely and the next summit on climate
change in Fiji (COP23) will be crucial in this regard.
SUB TOPIC: TERRORISM

14. “Either terrorism triumphs or civilization triumphs”. (11/II/1(a)/20)

Terrorism:

Violence or rebellion by armed means as an expression of disagreement with/opposition to ideologies

have been an integral part of mankind since longstanding. However, terrorism as we know it today is a
more recent phenomenon, evolving specifically towards the latter half of the 20th century. Terrorism
has no universal definition but broadly it refers to unofficial or unauthorized use of violence, in order
to purport a political, cultural, religious, or ideological change. Terrorism can be committed in several
ways.

Clash of Civilizations and birth of Terrorism:

After the end of Ideological war, In Post-cold war era “conflicts between civilizations struggling for
influence on a new world order gave birth to global threat called Terrorism which pose the greatest
danger for international stability and peace”.

In response to Francis Fukuyama's “End of History” thesis Samuel P.Huntington in 1996 wrote a
book called “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order”, in which he describes clash
of civilizations as a hypothesis which explains that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the
primary source of conflict in the Post-cold war world.

Huntington divided the world into the eight "major civilizations" mutually deeply antagonistic
because of great divisions ( tectonic ‘fault-lines’) based on more or less immutable characteristics such
as history, language, tradition and religion namely the western, orthodox, Latin American, Hindu,
Buddhist, Islamic, Sinic and African. Huntington argues that future wars would be fought not between
countries, but between cultures, and that Islamic extremism would become the biggest threat to world
peace.

Spread of terrorism

Despite the fierce criticism of Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” in 1996 it became prominent after the
attacks of 9/11, perpetrated by Islamic terrorists and targeting buildings widely considered to be
symbols of America, capitalism and the western world. Indeed, it acts as a proof of the validity of the
‘Clash of Civilizations’ theory for several reasons. First of all, these attacks were proclaimed by ‘Islamic’
terrorists who were vocal in support of religious justifications.

Indeed, they led to what was called the ‘War on Terror’, which appeared not only to be a reaction
against these particular attacks but an illustration of the ‘war between civilization Predicted by
Huntington.
 Furthermore B. Lewis stated that Bin Laden himself declared war on America and the western world
in order to vindicate the purported values of Islam. This phenomenon soon turned out into the spread of
Islamic terrorism which has become a grave threat to whole world peace and security.

ISIS Ideology and threat to civilization:

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria now rules a substantial piece of territory within the borders of two
states in Middle East, administering its own form of justice, persecuting religious minorities, collecting
taxes, and exploiting natural resources. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has risen dramatically
throughout the last decade and has gained a greater importance in the international relations. ISIS does
undoubtedly represent a threat to democratic values and modern civilization.

The Caliphate is the concept of an Islamic religious state that would be composed by every Muslim
on earth. Indeed, their violence against people that are not from the same civilization or even the same
religious group within Islam can be understood by their objective to re-implement an Islamic state and
the ending modern civilizations of the other religions in order to extend their domination and
territories.

Steps to tackle all forms of terrorism:

To create an effective global counter terrorism regime, foremost step should be to arrive at consensus on
definition of terrorism. Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) presented by
India is under discussion in 6th Ad-hoc committee of UN. Making it reach its logical end should be a
priority for world community. There needs to be formation of global alliance based on overlapping
consensus & not an alliance of convenience as per every country's real political gain.

Many scholars also suggest to Impose sanctions and isolate the state-sponsored terrorist nations like
Pakistan to achieve immediate results. In the same context of curbing state sponsored terrorism Hillary
Clinton says “It's like that old story - you can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to
bite your neighbors. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard”.

Sushma Swaraj Minister of External Affairs of India also stressed the implementation of global counter
terrorism regime that is CCIT at recently held 72nd session of United nations General Assembly UNGA
2017.

Brahma Chellaney suggests launching a concerted information campaign to discredit radical ideology
in Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Praveen Swami suggests better intelligence services, military, police & most
importantly better politics.

Conclusion:

Though the Terrorism is a contemporary phenomenon and can be destroyed anytime, with many nuclear
weapons available today and increase in state sponsored terrorism for political gains, the threat to
civilization by terrorism is a reality. Civilization is a continuous growth in human population, culture,
societal values and can never be wiped out. With the current globalized world, only a nuclear war which
can destroy the whole planet and can remove the signs of civilization. Thus, civilization always
triumphs, but not terrorism.

SUB TOPIC: NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

24. What roles do norms, taboos and epistemic communities play in the context of nuclear
nonproliferation? (13/II/3(a)/20).

Nuclear non Proliferation:

Nuclear Proliferation is a term used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons-
applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as
"Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or NPT.

The subject of nuclear proliferation has been the focus of numerous studies in the International
Politics. However, mainstream approaches in IR such as Realism and structural theories have not been
able to offer a satisfying explanation to the nuclear proliferation puzzle. On the other hand, only a
relatively small number of patterns like role of nuclear taboo, norms and epistemic communities that
have analyzed their effect towards “nuclear nonproliferation”.

Role of taboos and Norms:

According to Nina Tannen Wald “we cannot overlook the role of taboos, norms and values in nuclear
nonproliferation. USA is the only state to use Nuclear Weapon so far. She explains that we have recently
witnessed the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only use of Nuclear
weapons in warfare.

The non-use of Nuclear weapons since then remains the single most important phenomenon of the
nuclear age. Yet we still lack a full understanding of how this tradition arose and maintained and of its
prospects for the future. The widely cited explanation is deterrence, but a normative element must be
taken into account in explaining why nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945, which has
stigmatized nuclear weapons as unacceptable weapons of mass destruction. Without these normative
stigma, there might have been “use of nuclear weapons”. So the real credit goes to the taboos, norms
and values that have developed international treaties and academic communities in nuclear
nonproliferation.

In addition to the norms, taboos and values there exists another pattern i.e. epistemic communities and
nonproliferation.

Role of Epistemic communities and nonproliferation: In recent years, the role of epistemic
communities – groups of experts knowledgeable in specific areas are shaping international policies
towards nuclear non-proliferation.
 Examination the role of an Argentine and Brazilian epistemic community in the creation of the
“Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials” (ABACC) is one such
clear example of ‘epistemic communities’ influence towards non-proliferation.

ABACC is one of the key factors in the non-proliferation of Argentina and Brazil, two countries that
could have pursued a nuclear weapons Programme but chose to remain non-nuclear, because it
created a binational system of mutual inspections and verification of indigenous non-safeguarded
nuclear installations between the two states, verifying the non-nuclear weapon status of the two states.
Despite these patterns of analysis scholars like Kenneth waltz a structural realist and Scott D. Sagan
debate around nuclear non-proliferation.

Debate between Kenneth waltz and Scott D. Sagan:

Kenneth Waltz supports Nuclear-Proliferation, and states that “nuclear weapons are the weapons of
peace”. He even suggests arms race and Nuclear Balance. Whereas, Scott D. Sagan says that “Nuclear
Deterrence” may fail, he supports “Madman theory”. He suspect of accidental usage of nuclear weapons
as third world countries do not have democratic culture. Militaries may be more tempted to use nuclear
weapon as many were failed states, hence he does not support Non-proliferation.

Conclusion: However, role of taboos, norms, and epistemic communities play a significant role in
nuclear non-proliferation, the issue around “Use of Nuclear weapons” is never ending and debatable in
modern world. Due to increase in number of failed states like Pakistan an alleged terror sponsoring state
by many neighboring states, the threat of Nuclear weapons in the hands of Non-state actors is a reality.
As NPT and CTBT have almost failed, United Nations recent treaty “Comprehensive Nuclear
Prohibition Treaty” which is yet to be ratified is a key factor in this regard.

30. Discuss the theory of Nuclear Deterrence. Did Nuclear Deterrence prevent a superpower war?
(15/II/2(b)/15)

Nuclear Deterrence:

Nuclear Deterrence is a realist approach to the security concerns. The term ‘deterrence’ comes from
Latin word “De terrere” means to frighten. Deterrence strategy is to frighten the advisory or the potential
aggressor. It works realist game theory which is to make “the game of war so costly that victory is not
worth the cost”. Hence, deterrence automatically implies arms race. Deterrence by punishment was
based on the concept of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) which implies massive retaliation in
case of nuclear attack.

Theory of Nuclear Deterrence:

Deterrence is supported by realists but rejected by liberals and social constructivists like Nina
Tannen Wald says deterrence has lost its relevance so far only USA is the only country that has used
Nuclear weapon and that too once. USA also could not dare to use Nuclear weapon second time.
According to Henry Kissinger deterrence does not work for suicide bombers.
 According to realists, Nuclear Deterrence will help in achieving “balance of power”. They are
supporters of limited nuclear proliferation. According to Mearsheimer, Nuclear weapons acts as superb
deterrence and nuclear weapons makes world safer. With the development of first and second strike
ability by USA and USSR, "Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)" was assured. States become
extremely cautious when they possess nuclear weapons and they will not fight. Rather they will go for
diplomatic solutions. Thus ND led to the balance of terror and hence balance of power.

Did Nuclear Deterrence prevent a superpower wars:

When the USA dropped two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in
August 1945, the world witnessed the first and so far the last use of these weapons. Their devastating
effect led to a worldwide fear of atomic bombs, but could not, however, prevent a number of states from
developing these fatal devices.

By the mid-1960s, unilateral deterrence of 1950’s gave way to "mutual deterrence," a situation of
strategic stalemate. The superpowers would refrain from attacking each other because of the certainty of
mutual assured destruction, better known as MAD Theory which is still a major part of the defense
policies of the United States and Russia.

In fact, the two superpowers engaged in the subsequent arms race during the Cold War, but did not
went for a face to face nuclear war. This is because that Nuclear Deterrence changed the perception of
conflict from the confrontation of army in battle field to Political Dimension (Threat of use of Force).

Possession of N-weapons has made states more responsible and cautious. Realists give the example of
Cuban missile crisis to support this view. Many believe that the world has witnessed long duration of
peace between the super powers after the invention of N-weapons. The Adoption of treaties like SALT
(strategic arms Limitation Talks) namely SALT 1, SALT 2 comes as immediate example to this and
which led to Anti-ballistic Missile treaty between United States and Soviet Union.

Nuclear Deterrence led to ‘The war that must never be fought’ but it also led to the arms race and
nuclear proliferation. Although these weapons exist in huge amounts, they have never been used
for military purposes since. This distinction is important to make, because superpowers did make use of
their nuclear arsenal on a political level, namely with the strategy of nuclear deterrence. Based on the
US assurance that a Soviet attack on the USA or its allies (NATO countries) would be answered with
massive retaliation, and vice-versa this strategy has prevented a nuclear war between superpowers.
Though, it prevented the direct war between USA and USSR after the 2nd world war, but it led to
Pseudo conflicts in the form of Cold war and even exists in post-cold war era such as in Syria.

Both the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
(START) treaties all reflected attempts by the superpowers to manage strategic nuclear developments in
such a way as to stabilize mutual deterrence. Ballistic missile defenses were outlawed; "first strike"
weapons were decommissioned; civil defense was discouraged. However, neither the U.S. nor the Soviet
Union was comfortable basing their country's defense on deterrence. As the essence of Nuclear
Deterrence is not physically to obstruct or prevent a particular course of action, but to make such a
choice costly and unreliable. Thus, it can be said that nuclear deterrence is one of the factor and to an
"extent" has prevented a superpower war.

However, Liberals believe that nuclear deterrence is naive and dangerous. According to them, deterrence
will fail due to miscalculations and incase of increasing non state actors in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.

Conclusion:

Nuclear deterrence is still relevant in dealing with contemporary security issues. Nuclear deterrence is
still an important part of the official strategy of the US and Russia to fight traditional threats, and has
been adapted to meet today’s new security concerns. The other nuclear armed states, the traditional as
well as the non-traditional ones, have shown their willingness to maintain the nuclear taboo, pursuing in
most cases a “minimal deterrence” policy.

However, nuclear deterrence alone cannot be the answer to every security issue in the contemporary
world, and its application needs to be strengthened by other strategies. The main role it held during the
First Nuclear Age is lost, but its relevance still exists. However, it changed the military strategy
fundamentally from the “Purpose of winning wars to Purpose of preventing wars.