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How to use this

Two grids on the same template. The first is empty - print it, fill in each cell with a one-line note while you revise. The second is a worked example to check yourself against.

Each cell asks one question: does this row strengthen the column quality (mark +) or weaken it (mark -)? Then add a one-line note saying why. The plus and minus columns are deliberately not pre-printed - your judgement is the work.

Strong institutions = does this body or regime have real institutional machinery? Binding enforcement = can it enforce its rules against an unwilling state? States comply = do states actually follow it in practice? Measurable progress = has the underlying problem actually improved? Serves the weakest = does it protect or serve the least powerful? Great-power backing = do the most powerful states support it? Well dealt with = your overall verdict: has this been dealt with well?

Human rights against peace and security - which regime works better? +   -

Empty version. Print and fill in.
Body / regime+   - Strong institutions Binding enforcement States comply Measurable progress Serves the weakest Great-power backing Well dealt with
ECtHR
ICC
UDHR +
treaty system
UN Security
Council
UN
peacekeeping
R2P:
Libya + Syria
How to use the grid in an essay. The top three rows are the human rights regime (courts and treaties); the bottom three are the peace and security regime (the Council, peacekeeping, R2P). Read each column down both halves: the same sovereignty problem blocks both, but in different places - rights law fails at enforcement, security fails at the veto.

Human rights against peace and security - which regime works better? +   -

Filled version. Use this to check your own grid - and tap any cell for the full detail behind the judgement.
Body / regime+   - Strong institutions Binding enforcement States comply Measurable progress Serves the weakest Great-power backing Well dealt with
ECtHR +The most active human rights court in the world - thousands of judgments a year. +Individual petition and binding judgments - unique at this scale. -Mostly followed - but Hirst v UK showed a determined state can stall for a decade. +A working regional rights order for 46 states. +Any individual can bring their state to court. -Regional by design - the great powers outside Europe are untouched. +The strongest enforcement in the rights system - regionally.
ICC +A permanent international criminal court - the regime's institutional summit. -No police force; arrests depend on state cooperation. -Indictees travel; member states have declined to arrest. -Convictions are few and slow. -A docket of weaker states - the selectivity charge. -The US, China and Russia never joined. -A court the powerful opted out of.
UDHR +
treaty system		 +Universal standards, treaty bodies and reporting cycles. -Reporting and review - no enforcement mechanism at all. -Signature is cheap; practice varies wildly. +The normative victory is real - every state now argues in rights language. +The standards exist precisely for those with no other protection. -Signed by all, applied selectively by the strongest. -Standards without sanctions.
UN Security
Council		 +The one body that can lawfully authorise force. +Chapter VII powers are the hardest tool in the system - when used. -Resolutions bind in law and are defied in practice. -Syria: vetoes while chemical weapons were used on civilians. -Civilian protection depends on P5 politics. -The veto IS great-power control, by design. -Strongest powers, most predictable paralysis.
UN
peacekeeping		 +A standing system of missions across continents. -Borrowed troops, restrictive mandates. +Parties mostly tolerate the blue helmets they invited. +Ceasefires held that would otherwise have collapsed. +Exists for the people the war is happening to. -Funded and mandated at the Council's pleasure. +Modest tools, genuine record - the security half's quiet success.
R2P:
Libya + Syria		 -A doctrine, not a body - it borrows the Council's machinery. +Libya 1973: all necessary measures, actually used. -One invocation, then the door closed. -Libya's aftermath discredited the tool Syria then needed. -The civilians it was written for went unprotected in Syria. -Lives and dies by P5 consent. -Used once, burned once - the cautionary tale of humanitarian force.
What the filled grid shows. Read the two halves against each other. The rights half scores on institutions - the ECtHR alone delivers thousands of judgments a year, more enforcement than the rest of the system combined - but only regionally; the ICC cannot arrest without state cooperation. The security half holds the stronger formal powers and the weaker record: the P5 veto paralysed Syria while chemical weapons were used, and Libya 2011 - R2P's high-water mark - undermined the doctrine it invoked. The judgement line: both regimes work exactly as far as great-power consent reaches; rights protection is strongest where it is regional and voluntary, security weakest where it is global and vetoed.
See also
David Clayton Tutoring | davidjclayton@proton.me