Research Topics: Human Rights Violation In Middle Eastern Countries

Sample the State of Human Rights in the word Essay

Chapter 1 Problem and its Background   I.                   Introduction The state of human rights in the world is among the most heated and possibly the most recurring debates in nowadays. International policies held by individual states and even regional blocs have taken several amendments and developments in order to acquire a more universally acceptable laws pertaining to human rights. An area that has been incessantly present in human rights discourses is its implementation in Middle Eastern countries. Atrocities and other dreadful acts of human rights violations have been noted in news articles. Countless articles and studies have been published seeking to address this issue. The international community has also taken the initiative to deal with this problem by conducting dialogues and meetings with these countries. However, up until now, actual development has yet to be seen. In the recent reports of NGOs, like the Human Rights Watch, indicates that the situations seem to have actually turned to a far worse scenario. This study intends to analyse this situation by looking into the conditions prevailing in a particular country similarly known for its indiscretions on its policies pertaining to human rights, Iran. The following discussions in this chapter will provide the framework of the study.   II.                Background of the Topic Middle Eastern countries, specifically Islamic ones, have been under the watchful eyes of international organisations especially on their violations of international human rights laws. Iran is not exempt on this scrutiny. Early reports dating back at over two decades ago validates that the country do implement acts which is considered internationally as violations of human rights. (UN Chronicle, 1985, 46) In these reports, it is noted that civil liberties like “right to life, the right to freedom from torture or cruel; inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to liberty and security of person and to freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention; the right to a fair trial; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and to freedom of expression; and the right of religious minorities to profess and practise their own religion” are among the alleged violations of the country. It is important to note that these allegations were over two decades old. After this span of period, it appears that the same allegations are still in the lists of “supposed” human right violations of Iran. Recently, a recent report of the Human Rights Watch (2006), they indicated that the “respect of human rights” in the country of Iran has significantly spiralled down since its 2005 analysis. This only shows that the same “supposed” human right violations of Iran accused of them over twenty years ago seems to exist even at the present day. With this phenomenon, questions on the reason why Iran shows signs of being pathologically incapable of adhering to international human rights laws tend to recur in recent studies on the subject. Answers are consistently being sought to help stop the said country in any more violations and even reform its policies towards conforming to these international standards. To illustrate, there have been studies that indicated the inappropriate fit between the religion of Islam and civil liberties. These studies claim that the religion in the state has been one of the main reasons for human right violations. (Monshipouri, 1998, 198) Other studies have noted that the existing foreign policies are the cause of the supposed violations of Iran. (Forsythe, 2000, 212) They even claim that in the perspective of Iran, the regime covering the area of human rights is a mere component of a hegemonic attempt of countries like the United States and other influential nations. In any case, Iran is now on the political lime light not only because of its supposed human right violations. To some extent, these issues on human rights, though recurring as indicated earlier, tend to become a component of a more complicated international issue, nuclear proliferation. Apparently, Iran has been among the few countries that have turned to nuclear generation to deal with its issues in energy. (Sashimi, 2005, 42) An appended issue on having a nuclear program is the possibility of development of nuclear weaponry. (Chloe, 2006, 38) This posed to be a significant issue in the international community as Iran’s nuclear program is up and running. To a certain extent, there may well be a good reason for this apprehension from the international community since Iran was formerly known as a haven of terrorist groups several decades ago. (Forsythe, 2000, 212) Recent studies have highlighted the threat of a nuclear-powered Iran against defenceless countries in conflict with the said state (i.e. Israel) Thus, the international community is giving an enormous amount of consideration on Iran’s case, along with the issues on the nuclear programme, the concerns of human rights violations in the country has also been noticed.   III.              Aim and Objectives of the Study Human rights laws are plainly defined as “the way a state treats those within its domain.” (Crone, 2006, 1447) This is the operational definition of human rights law that will be used in this thesis. Basically, the law covers the conduct of states. Other studies have indicated that human rights laws tend to have an effect on international peace. Specifically, the violation of these laws tends to compromise the continuing existence of international peace as the most recent humanitarian interventions made by the international community have, one way or another, elements of human rights violation as a part of its justifications. (Aikman, 1999, 23) In the study of Goodman and Jinks (2004, 621), they noted that there are a couple of factors that makes the implementation of an international regime pertaining human rights laws rather complicated. First, they noted that “human rights norms are not self-enforcing.” (p 621) This means that the laws present in the existing international regime tends to show signs of lack of direct interest in implementing these rules with other states. This is reinforced by the second issue noted by Goodman and Jinks (2004, 621) indicating that “good faith” states that adopts these laws tend to veer away from making other countries follow or at least be disciplined if they are found to violate these existing international regimes.   The discussions above establish the fact that violations of human rights laws do have some adverse effect in international peace. However, it appears that the implementation of these laws tend to be voluntary which means that the international community could only do so much in monitoring the conduct of states towards the people in their borders. Following this line of reasoning, there is an ominous implication that human rights violations will never be stamped out. Given these issues, it is the intention of this study thus to accomplish the following aims and objectives:   ·        Establish the reasons why the international community has not been very successful in persuading Iran to protect human rights; It would be interesting to see the methods and attempts made by the international community in encouraging Iran to adhere to human rights laws. Specifically, international bodies like the United Nations, European Union, and influential nations like the United States have distinctive approaches in forwarding their attempt to make the Iranian government deal with the human atrocities within their borders.   ·        Provide justifications for the international community in conducting humanitarian interventions in sovereign states like Iran; and Studies and arguments pertaining to the right of international organisations and other nations to intervene with the business of Iran will be noted. Specifically, issues on sovereignty and rights of humanitarian intervention will be addressed to realise this objective of the dissertation. To do this, reference with scholarly and academic journals discussing the matter will be consulted along with the interpretation of international laws pertinent to this types of situations.     ·        Provide possible recommendations in dealing with these issues of human rights violations. The fulfilment of this objective requires the researcher to provide an in-depth analysis of the primary and secondary data acquired for this thesis. The interviews as well as the analysis of the existing literature on international law, human rights, and humanitarian interventions will be the core element in realising this objective. In essence, these recommendations will constitute the major findings and serve as the foundations of the conclusion of this thesis.   IV.Plan of the Study The study will provide a qualitative analysis of the implementation of human rights law in the Iranian situation. The thesis will be divided into five chapters to provide a clear presentation of the topic. The first chapter will serve as the introductory part of the thesis. It is in this chapter that the foundations of the study are established. The statement of the problem, the discussion of the background as well as the significance of the findings of the study will be provided in this part of the thesis. It is also in this part of the thesis that the scope and perceived limitations of the study is going to be discussed. The second chapter will provide the review of the existing literature on the topic. Basically, the discussions will be covering the situation in Iran, particularly the local and international implications of Iran’s stand in the whole human rights issue. The chapter is divided into three major parts. The first part will cover the laws and legal foundations on which Iran’s encounter with the issues on human rights are based. The second part will cover the supposed violations in the civil liberties in the state. In this part of the chapter, reports on the supposed violations will be indicated separately by specific civil liberty. The third part of the chapter will be looking into the reactions of the international community on Iran. Specific connections will be made with the state’s nuclear programme and supposed violations of human rights. The end of the chapter will constitute a synthesis of the entire discussions made within the three parts. This synthesis will also be used as a foundation on the interpretations of the data acquired from the respondents in this study.             The third chapter of this thesis will discuss the methodology employed as well as the procedures taken in this paper. Basically, the chapter will include the description of the models used, the respondents, the tools used, and the ethical considerations that the researcher has to deal with in acquiring the data needed in this study. The fourth chapter will cover the interpretation of the data acquired from the interviews conducted by the researcher. Tables, figures, and charts will also be used to show summaries of the collected data to facilitate the interpretation based on the discussions made in the second chapter of the thesis. Moreover, the chapter will also be taking statistics from international organisations to support the claims, observations, and arguments made by the researcher on this chapter. The findings on this chapter will be the basis of the conclusion and the recommendations of the paper. The final chapter will cover the conclusions and recommendations made by the researcher. These are based on the discussions and summary of the major points and arguments made in this study.       V.               Rationale of the Study This paper is composed of a couple of rationales. The first one is the age-old conflict between the Islamic-Middle East and the principles of the West. Superficially, this rationale is seen in plain religious undertones, however, the issue is more complex as it seems. In relation to the main topic of this paper, which is human rights, there has been a rather wide range of rhetoric pertaining to the relationship of the religion of Islam and democracy. With these studies come the prevailing issues on Islamic countries and the perceived violations of the international standards of human rights law. Contradictions on the principles of Islam and democracy has bee discussed lavishly in articles of international politics. (Terabit, 1992, 49) This poses a problem in the case of Iran given that majority of the elements of human rights law are based on democratic principles whereas Iran is operates under a theocratic rule (Islamic Republic). (1994, 33) The second rationale is based on the recent trend in foreign policies relating to Middle Eastern countries. Basically, this is the major outcome of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Western policies pertaining to its relationship with the Middle East turned to an unpleasant turn. The focus of western countries, particularly the United States, has shifted towards the Middle East because of the issue of terrorism. As noted in the earlier part of this chapter, Iran was considered before as a have for terrorist groups. It is no surprise the leaders of the “free world” takes careful check on the affairs of countries like Iran. This situation is also compounded by the fact that Iran has a fully functional nuclear programme. Regardless of any other considerations or perspectives, common sense will always say that the combination of “nuclear” and “terrorism” always spell dreadful fortune. This notion alone will make any country consider averting or at least place considerable attention on any other state that minutely has the possibility of harbouring these two. Unfortunately for Iran, they fit the bill. It is for this reason that they are in the close scrutiny of the international community.       Insignificance of the Study There are already a considerable number of studies regarding Middle Eastern Islamic countries and human rights. The findings of this study will similarly be a welcome contribution to the existing data on that subject. Moreover, a closer look and a detailed account on the case of Iran will be provided, which is basically timely as the country is currently under public scrutiny. In the same regard, the data used in this study will be coming first hand from people who actually experienced the conditions in Iran. This will provide the reader with the perspective of an individual who encountered the prevailing conditions present in the said state. In addition, the study may also be an important part of the existing literature on the topic. It could serve as an impetus for other academics to push through with further investigations on this topic. In the same way, the learners and students of international law and human rights legislation will also benefit on the findings of this study.             VII.          Scope and Limitations The discussion on this thesis will be based on the rationale as well as the aims and objectives indicated in this chapter. Moreover, the responses of the respondents as well as the existing literature will serve as the primary and secondary sources of data which will then be interpreted and analysed by the researcher. However, this study has some limitations. Given the chosen mode of data acquisition, the findings will be based highly on the perspective of the respondents in the conditions in Iran. Thus, it is the responsibility of the researcher to regard each of the responses dutifully in relation to the existing literature. In the same regard, the use of qualitative form of research could open the interpretation of data to a considerable level of researcher bias. To prevent this, the researcher has to constantly check with the rationale and aims of this paper so that the interpretations would remain objective and impartial.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample the State of Human Rights in the word Essay

Chapter 1 Problem and its Background I. Introduction The state of human rights in the world is among...

Sample the State of Human Rights in the word Essay

Sample the State of Human Rights in the word Essay

Chapter 1 Problem and its Background I. Introduction The state of human rights in the world is among...

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