Why is the UN Human Rights agenda so limited? (PDF)

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1,5, University of East London, course: BA (Hons) International Politics with Psychology, language: English, abstract: Although all civilisations and religions have had certain rights and duties, benefits and obligations for their people, the notion of human rights as it is currently understood is a Western model and arguably a rather young idea. The study of human rights is an extremely complicated matter and has been discussed and researched for decades and yet still no general agreement has been reached. This piece is set out to examine human rights and the importance of the UN agenda in the worldwide promotion of human rights.

A brief historical overview will be given over the enforcement of human rights in international organisations, although it would go beyond the boundaries of this piece to describe the history of human rights activism in detail. The author will then discuss whether human rights are universal and go on to show the benefits of general and international rights of men. Finally, this piece shall debate why the UN human rights agenda is so limited given human rights are universal and promote international peace and security and it shall be argued that limited UN activism towards human rights is actually benefitting instead of interfering with the global promotion of human rights.