International Relations - POSC 292 Resource Guide

The rights guaranteed by the state to its citizens. It incorporates the belief that governments should not arbitrarily act to infringe these rights, and that individuals and groups, through political action, have a legitimate role in determining and influencing what constitutes them.

In recent years, the moral doctrine of human rights has come to occupy centre-stage in our understanding and evaluation of both national and international political affairs. Indeed, one might reasonably argue that human rights are fast becoming the dominant global moral vocabulary for the twenty-first century. Human rights offers the promise of finally reconciling the profound moral differences and cleavages which continue to divide humanity and have been the cause of so much conflict and suffering.

Human rights are expectations that individuals may reasonably place on society to meet their basic needs. Human rights apply to everyone, regardless of citizenship or any other social status. Such rights are also conceived of as universal in terms of time and space, being the same for everyone throughout history and throughout the world.

Civil and political rights of the individual in relation to the state; see also civil rights. Under the terms of the United Nations Charter human rights violations by countries have become its proper concern, although the implementation of this obligation is hampered by Article 2 (7) of the charter prohibiting interference in domestic affairs.

Transnational crimes are those which by their nature extend beyond national boundaries. They may involve the movement of information, people, money or other items across borders, all of which typically have a monetary value of some sort.

With 56 States from Europe, Central Asia and North America, the OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization. It offers a forum for political negotiations and decision-making in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation, and puts the political will of its participating States into practice through its unique network of field missions.

This nonprofit, nongovernmental organization's site reports on human rights offenses and conditions around the world. Information is provided by country and issue, and the site includes photographs, an archive of the organization's full-text reports, ..

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in 190 countries and territories to save and improve children's lives by providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.

Every year, at least two million people are packed in shipping containers, pulled through sewage tunnels, secreted in car chassis, and ferried across frigid waters. Among this human cargo, an alarming number end up as prostitutes, thieves, or sweatshop laborers.