International Human Rights

Comparative Constitutionalism in Central Europe : Analysis on Certain Central and Eastern European Countries

“…in France or in the United States. 6 It must also be mentioned that while national constitutions served as the cradle of the modern conception of fundamental rights, they began to enjoy the protection of international law with the adoption of the UN Charter (1945) along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1 Haas, 2014, pp. 44-45.…”

Revisiting international human rights treaties: comparing Asian and Western efforts to improve human rights

“…Meanwhile back in the 16th and 17th century, Christianity was considered as the most intolerant religion (Zagorin 2003 ). The expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain following the Alhambra Decree in 1492 and the Thirty Years War between Protestant and Catholic that gave birth to the Treaty of Westphalia were some of the historical events showing the religious intolerance in the West (Haas 2013 ; Brackney 2013 ). In fact, scholars have asserted that the first proponents of religious tolerance were not from the West, but leaders from the East such as Ashoka the Emperor of India (Sen 1999 ) and Cyrus the Great-King of Persia (Talbott 2005 ).…”

“…Western Europe, often dubbed to have the most advanced human rights system in the world, is considered a role model in human rights discourse, especially after the creation of European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom (ECHR) in 1953 (Mower 1976 ; Moravcsik 2000 ; Davies 2012 ; Donnelly 2013 ; Haas 2013 ). Governments are cooperative (Mower 1976 ) and intergovernmental organization, such as European Union (EU), strategically utilizes rewards and sanctions to encourage compliance among the member states (Davies 2012 ).…”

“…For example, through its policies and foreign aids, the United States has shown greater concern and created greater impact on developments related to human rights than any other nation (Barnds 1995 ; Donnelly 2013 ). Although scholars still argue the effectiveness of foreign aids towards the improvement of human rights (Cingranelli and Pasquarello 1985 ; Lebovic and Voeten 2009 ), by creating USAID in 1961, Human Rights and Democracy Fund in 1998 and established human rights acts such as the North Korean Act of 2004, the USA has shown its commitments to support other countries contingent to their human rights progress (Haas 2013 ). Scholars also argued that human rights play a more prominent role in US decision to provide economic aid in comparison with the decision to provide military aid (Abrams and Lewis 1993 ; Apodaca and Stohl 1999 ; Carleton and Stohl 1987 ; Cingranelli and Pasquarello 1985 ; Meernik et al 1998 ; Poe 1992 ).…”