Limits of the UN's Human Rights Agenda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Limits of the UN's Human Rights Agenda - Essay Example However, League of Nations failed to achieve its objectives, which is evident from the occurrence of a Second World War. The formation of United Nations helped a lot in settling human rights issues and global political, cultural and economic issues. According to Kennedy (2007), â€Å"Without the actions and the existence of UN, human kind would be a lot worse off than it is today† (Kennedy, 2007, p.285). However, there are plenty of people who argue that United Nations failed to fulfil its objectives as far as the human right protection of the global community is concerned. â€Å"The first International Conference on Human Rights, held in Tehran in April and May 1968† (Burke, 2008, p.275). Since then plenty of global incidents happened in which human right violation occurred in one way or another. UN interfered in some international crisis successfully whereas it failed miserably on many such occasions. â€Å"The story of UN peace keeping operation in the 1990s - some success and some failures - to agree that the record is a mixed one†(Kennedy, 2007, p.285). This is because of the fact that UN failed to act neutrally on global issues. Some people argue that UN is working as a toy in the hands of America and its allies. In their opinion, UN fails to interfere properly in human rights violation incidents in which America and its allies are the culprits. They cite incidents from Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq etc to substantiate their arguments. This paper analyses the limits of the UN’s human rights agenda. Limitations of UN’s Human right protection efforts The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, declared explicitly for the first time on September 15, 2004 that the US-led war on Iraq was illegal. Mr Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN Security Council or in accordance with the UN's founding charter (MacAskill & Borger, 2004). Even though Anan showed the4 courage to openly criticize America’s interventions in Iraq, UN failed to take any effective measures to stop America’s war with Iraq. It should be noted that thousands of Iraqi people suffered a lot because of America’s effort to seize Saddam and weapons of mass destruction from Iraqi soil. Even after years of battle and the execution of Saddam, America failed to establish peace in Iraq or seize any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons from Iraq. In other words, Iraq war was definitely the violation of international laws related to sovereignty and human rights. America vetoes any UN efforts which may go against their interests as well as the interests of their allies like Israel. Middle East is a region in which human right violations are going on for the last few decades. UN is acting as silent witness amidst all human right violations happening in Middle East. It failed to ensure safety and security to the lives and properties of the innocent Palestinian people from the hands of Israel. The right for having an independent state is a human right for Palestinians. However, Israel in company with America blocking Palestine’s every effort to become a sovereign state. Israelis have settled in to lands that Palestinians call home and these Israelis believe that they have the right to live there and call it home themselves. Palestinians want the Israeli "occupiers" to leave, and they desperately want a homeland of their own, a country of their own (The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, n. d). Israel’s ability to stop the functioning of a sovereign Palestine is definitely a failure to United

What is Hegel's critique of Kant in Reason as Testing Laws Is Hegel Essay

What is Hegel's critique of Kant in Reason as Testing Laws Is Hegel fair to Kant - Essay Example For Kant the categorical imperative is important mainly because it "determines the will independently of the sensuous motives of which ordinary moral deliberation is suspect."2 Therefore for him there is a marked difference between acting honestly for ones own sake and acting honestly with the belief that truth is a "universal requirement" the latter of which relates to categorical imperative.3 For Kant duty requires more than the universal form of action and he brings out these ideas and notions of the categorical imperative which Kant claims are "merely so many formulations of precisely the same law."Also for him the categorical imperative contains an end which functions as the single limiting condition of moral action. 4 Thus in his book the Formula of the End, Kant says "Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end" Kant goes on to clarify further that if humans are to be treated as "ends in themselves" then each individual should be allowed to choose their own ends at the same time. Furthermore he claims that misleading someone (by lying to them) for a particular Design is the way of using that other person as means rather than an end. Therefore the assertion not to treat humanity as a means but an end, i.e. when they choose to help you themselves. Hegel's criticism of Kant Hegel has made some interesting criticisms of the emptiness that seems to surround the Categorical Imperative when he says that "The criterion of law which Reason possesses within itself, fits every case equally well, and is thus in fact no criterion at all."5 However in the... What is Hegel's critique of Kant in "Reason as Testing Laws† Is Hegel fair to Kant? For Hegel this idea is fruitless in many respects as he thinks that even immoral behaviour would qualify under the test given by Kant' and that there no formulation of a universal set of duties .Thus Hegel's criticism of Kant largely concerns Kant's so called formalism as has been discussed by Julian. Before discussing Hegel's critique of Kant it would be useful to explain the ideas of Kant who expresses interest in the relationship between reason and experience. For Kant knowledge begins with experience in a rather chronological sense. For Kant empirical knowledge should be a "compound of that which we receive through impressions and that which our faculty of cognition supplies from itself". And that reason should become the tool that isolates knowledge from everything empirical from it. Julian has pointed out that Hegel believes that Kant’s idea of a duty does not produce an â€Å"immanent list of duties;†. To be fair this is not one of Kant's objectives at all and it can be safely said that Hegel is missing the point of Kant’s claim, because devising such a list is not possible at all due to people’s differing notions of what morality or duties should be like.In this regard I would like to give the example of local conventions in certain areas. The notion of hospitality in Asian countries allows anyone to be welcome in another’s house and there is hardly any concept of â€Å"unauthorized entrance† as in the case of western countries.