Politics Panther · Paper 3 Global Politics · Human Rights

Global Human Rights · Overview

The international human rights regime, its institutions, and the effectiveness debate.

1. Spec sections this topic covers

Topic on the spec3 · sourced from Edexcel A-Level Politics 9PL0

Origins and development of international law and institutions (International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, special UN tribunals and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)) in creating the concept of global politics.
Sources of authority, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

impact on state sovereignty
rise of humanitarian interventions and growth in 1990s, with examples of successful and unsuccessful intervention
reasons for selective interventionism, development of responsibility to protect and conflict with state sovereignty
examples of alleged Western double standards/hypocrisy.

debate about the effectiveness and implications for state sovereignty and the extent to which international law is accepted and enforced
performance of the international courts, including controversies.

Foundational documents: UDHR (1948), Genocide Convention (1948), ECHR (1950), ICCPR + ICESCR (1966), CAT (1984), Rome Statute / ICC (1998).
Institutions: UN (Human Rights Council, OHCHR, treaty bodies), regional courts (ECtHR Strasbourg, IACtHR), International Criminal Court (ICC), International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Recent named examples: ICC arrest warrant for Putin (March 2023), ICJ South Africa v Israel (provisional measures 2024), Rwanda case (UK Supreme Court 2023, ECtHR Strasbourg 2022), KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland (ECtHR 2024), Uyghurs / China, US 2025 withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council.
Debates: universalism vs cultural relativism; sovereignty vs international law; effectiveness vs symbolism; Western dominance vs Global South representation.
Key tensions: P5 veto blocks UN action, ICC has no enforcement arm, US/Russia/China/India non-parties to ICC, Trump 2025 sanctions on ICC officials.

Q3 on Paper 3B (Global) usually has at least one HR-related option each year.
The exam rewards CONTEMPORARY examples (post-2020). The list above is current to April 2026.
AO3 framing: positive law vs natural law; state sovereignty vs international law; effective vs aspirational.

Drawn from the Panther question bank. The Notes page in this pack covers the content needed to answer these.

Year	QID	Question
2025	P3G-2025-Q3B	Evaluate the view that international law and international human rights institutions have a significant impact on state sovereignty.
2024	P3G-2024-Q3C	Evaluate the view that global governance has been more united than divided in dealing with human rights.
2023 Mock	P3G-2023M-Q3B	Evaluate the view that state sovereignty is weakened by human rights institutions.
2022	P3G-2022-Q3A	Evaluate the view that a trend away from globalisation and regionalism would place greater emphasis on state sovereignty and thus hinder the promotion of human rights.
2019	P3G-2019-Q3B	Evaluate the extent to which human rights are more effectively protected by humanitarian intervention than by international courts and tribunals.