International politics: key concepts and systems

Human Rights

National Sovereignty and Human Rights Violations

It is taken almost for granted in most instances that the sovereignty of every nation on this Earth is guaranteed implicitly by the very concept of a modern nation, as well as explicitly under international law. In reality, of course, such sovereignty is somewhat permeable in certain regions, whether or not it is officially regarded as such. Generally, however, international laws and organizations have upheld the right to sovereignty in most cases. This has led to many verified cases of human rights violations that have been carried out as official practice by sovereign governments within their own borders, as well as allegations of many more cases. It remains unclear exactly how much power the various international bodies and laws have or even desire when it comes to punishing national leaders for human rights violations, especially when these leaders are still in power. Also in question is whether or not there is a true duty or responsibility for a national leader to grant his people human rights.

Moralistically, of course, there is no debate; a human right by very definition is a right that is inalienable to all humans, and therefore the denial of someone's human rights is a morally and ethically repugnant act. In the real world, however, there are very real questions of what exactly constitutes a human right, or if they even exist; what the power of the State is, and what the power of the people; and the very serious question of whether one sovereign state has the right to inhibit, prohibit, or in any way discourage what it perceives as human rights violations in another sovereign nation. This last question has led to many political altercations in the past, and still leads to several a year currently. Much recent attention has been paid to human rights violations in China, with United States' leaders speaking out directly against these acts.

Shortly before traveling to Beijing to attend the Olympic opening ceremony in August of 2008, President George W. Bush used very strong and direct terms to denounce several of China's most well-documented human rights abuses, including the imprisonment of political dissidents and members of the press who do not toe the party line (Abramowitz 2008). In response, the Chinese press and government did absolutely nothing. Despite increasingly strong language from a growing ally and an essential trading partner, the Chinese government was largely unconcerned either by the allegations or the long-standing evidences of the abuses that are conducted there (Abramowitz 2008). China was making major efforts to clean up its city and even to loosen some of its hold on politics and expression, but it did not show the same level of concern in addressing the many explicitly identified and extreme criticisms of the American President.

A similar tone was struck by President Obama in July of this year at an address he made before certain Chinese and American leaders in Washington for an economics conference, but the Chinese were much more vehement in their response attacking the President's statements not only as baseless, but as a direct attempt to interfere with internal Chinese affairs (Young 2009). According to various sources, the human rights situations has not progressed in China over the past few years, and in fact has grown worse in some areas (Young 2009). The Chinese deny this completely, and say that there are no human rights violations. They also add that the President has no right to interfere with Chinese affairs, and the Chinese Foreign Minister suggested that the United States address its own issues of alleged human rights violations before its leaders start accusing other countries of abuses (Young 2009).