You are required to answer three questions from the six listed below. The work must be your own - no collaboration with other members of the class is allowed. However, you may use whatever reading material you wish from that covered in the course, remembering to reference your answers accordingly. The total length of your examination paper should not exceed 12 double spaced type written pages (approx 4 pages per question). Your examination paper is due to be returned on

May 3 by 4pm, and should be handed in to the SIS office. Note that late submissions will be severely penalized.
 

1. John Locke is often taken as the starting point for the development of modern human rights. What were the distinctive features in Locke's approach? What gives his approach universal appeal while at the same time arousing considerable debate over its limitations?
 

2. To what extent does the principle of state sovereignty constrain efforts to protect and promote universal human rights? How might such constraints be overcome? Are current global processes eroding state sovereignty a source for optimism that a fundamental shift in the monitoring and enforcement of human rights is close at hand?
 

3. It might be argued that regional human rights regimes offer the optimal means for implementation of human rights norms. Does a regional system weaken or dampen universal human rights norms or give these a regional flavor essential for effective implementation? Discuss with regard to either the European or Inter-American or African human rights regimes.
 

4. It might be argued that US foreign policy should be predicated on the promotion of universal human rights except in cases where this may be to the detriment of the 'national interest'. Discuss with reference to amendments of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act. What conclusions do you draw from your analysis for an effective international human rights regime? [Extracts of the amendments are in Steiner & Alston 1996, pp. 822-26]
 

5. In debates preceding the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Anthropological Society issued the following statement:

Standards and values are relative to the culture from which they derive so that any attempt to formulate postulates that grow out of the beliefs or moral codes of one culture must to that extent detract from the applicability of any Declaration of Human Rights to mankind as a whole. Quoted in Steiner & Alston, 199

6. US ratification of the ICCPR had a reservation concerning Article 20 proscription of war propaganda and any "advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence". What constitutional considerations prompted the US in making such a reservation? In what way does the US action and accompanying constitutional arguments undermine the movement towards national implementation of human rights norms both in the US and other countries?