International relations paper due tomorrow... help with ideas to lengthen it up?

Question

Okay, I procrastinated A LOT and my paper as of now is really lacking quite a bit in length.

The topic: Asses the importance of international law in advancing the cause of "universal human rights"

Any ideas for a little BS i could throw into it... anything?

Answer 1

Here are some facts that will impress your teacher.

The Geneva Convention does not apply to Israel's actions in the territories, in the view of eminent international lawyers. However, Israel voluntarily applies its provisions.

In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was set up by Egypt with the express object of recapturing the whole of Palestine for the Arabs. (This was of course before the "West Bank" came under Israeli control.) See the Palestinian National Covenant (not yet amended.)

Meeting in Cairo from June 1-9,1974, the Palestinian National Council adopted its "Phased Plan," under which any territories captured or won by negotiation from Israel would be taken possession of and used as a base for further operations, until the goal of "recovery" of the whole of Palestine was achieved. It is not clear if this is still in force, though statements by Palestinian leaders such as the late Feisal Husseini suggest that it is.

The obligation of the PLO to cease from violence and incitement did not begin with the Tenet and Mitchell agreements but with the Oslo agreements themselves in 1993. See the full text. Arafat clarified this obligation in an attached letter to Prime Minister Rabin: ."....upon the signing of the Declaration of Principles, the PLO encourages and calls upon the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to take part in the steps leading to the normalization of life, rejecting violence and terrorism, contributing to peace and stability..."

It was Gamal Abdel Nasser, via the Arab League, who invented the idea of Palestinian Arab Unity nearly two decades after all Muslim Arabs turned down the opportunity to have an independent Arab Palestine state. This new idea putrefied into something called the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Arab Palestinian Nationalism and the PLO never existed before then; it was virtually unheard of. Arabs living in or around Palestine didn't consider themselves Palestinians. They were Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, or just Arabs. Consider these revealing quotes:

"There is no such country as Palestine. Palestine is a term the Zionists invented. . . . Our country was for centuries part of Syria. Palestine is alien to us..." (Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937)

"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not." (Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian to Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1946)

"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria." (Delegate of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Security Council, 1956)

Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel...(Zuheir Muhsin, late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977)

Ironically, until the UN mandated Jewish Palestinian state declared its intention to rename itself Israel (Eretz Yisroel), it was the Jews living in Palestine who were called Palestinians.  Palestinian Arabs were called, and referred to themselves as Arabs.

An Egyptian PLO recruit born in 1929 in Cairo, Muhammad Abdel Rahman al Qudwa al-Husseini, changed his name to Yasser Arafat and became leader of a faction within the PLO known as Fatah. Among many other nefarious misdeeds, Arafat was responsible for the killing of the eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, and for the kidnapping and murder of U.S. diplomats Cleo Noel and George C. Moore in 1973.

When the ill-fated Oslo Peace Accords in 1993 released Arafat from near-exile in Tunisia, this monster of a man was allowed to resume terrorizing the world and the people he presumably represented. Although some important men-of-history may have originally utilized questionable tactics to make their cause known and accepted, their personalities and objectives were forged by the instinctive and compassionate need to help their people right a wrong. In many instances, when they were true to legitimate causes, they ultimately became respected and admired on the world stage as courageous leaders. Perhaps because Arab Palestinian Nationalism was simply a fabricated issue, the man who became known as Yasser Arafat never benefited from the shaping forces of a righteous struggle.

He was a murderous, communism-brainwashed thug who remained unchanged due to a lack of authentic motivation or empathy. Arafat signed on to the PLO in the 1960s to wreak havoc and confusion, and he continues to do so to this very day. He was never a politician, or a diplomat, or an ambassador seeking peace and redress. He was a criminal and he is still a criminal.

Interestingly, several reports have surfaced over the last week indicating Arafat's' intention to preemptively step down from his position as Palestinian President sometime in the very near future. It seemed as though George Bush's strong words and suggestions of abdication finally reached Arafat's ears. Arafat subsequently rebuked any such notion and defiantly declared that only he will decide when he will step down. Over the last two days fresh reports have revealed that Arafat has just diverted millions of dollars meant to help the West Bank Arabs, to his wife's bank account in Paris. This is not the first time that he has stolen money meant for his Arab constituency. Maybe his defiant declaration was just a delaying tactic until he can steal some more. It would certainly be consistent with his disdain for the Palestinian movement and his fellow Muslims.

Towards the end of World War II, the Italians finally gave the man that they had once cherished as Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, his just desserts: they shot him and his mistress and hung their bodies on a lamppost in Milan. I wonder how many West Bank Arabs it takes to hang an autocratic dictator from a lamppost?

I think there's a joke there, somewhere. I just need a good punch line.

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Answer 2

I have a degree in International Relations and History. Throw in the ICJ and it's ability to prosecute matters of international law which affect human rights, but it' downfalls as well. Nicaraga v United States a good example. The UN as a force for world peace, but again its (many) downfalls. International Organisations such as the Red Cross and the work it does. But also comment on Human Rights might never come to some places as the task is rediculously hard. Also some states willl never accept the jurisdiction of International Law. States such as China and North Korea are examples. Comment on how it's a relatively exlusice westphalian phenomenon and Islamic and communistic states will always reject it. There we go....throw some authors in and I've done the essay for you. To the above answer - She needs analytical information, not facts of Wikipedia.

Answer 3

Try including some current events like the recent bill to open trade with Columbia.