Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental

What Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental covers

Covers international law and environmental governance: the courts that enforce human rights, the record of humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect, the climate agreements from Rio to Paris, and the civil society that pushes both along.

The 7 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• International law and human rights institutionsRecall questions on the ICC, special tribunals and the European Court of Human Rights, the Universal Declaration, and the tension with state sovereignty.Open →
• Humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to ProtectRecall questions on the interventions of the 1990s, selective interventionism, the three pillars of R2P, and the charge of Western double standards.Open →
• Environmental governance: the UNFCCC and the IPCCRecall questions on the UNFCCC and common but differentiated responsibilities, and on the IPCC, its assessment reports and its three working groups.Open →
• The effectiveness of international law and international courtsRecall questions on how international law addresses conflict, poverty, rights and the environment, and on sovereignty, enforcement and selective prosecution.Open →
• Deep and shallow green ecology and the tragedy of the commonsRecall questions on shallow and deep green ecology, sustainable development, and how the tragedy of the commons explains environmental failure.Open →
• International environmental agreements from Rio to ParisRecall questions on Rio, Kyoto, Copenhagen and Paris, what each achieved, and why enforcement, ambition and the developed-developing split hold them back.Open →
• Global civil society and NGOsRecall questions on what global civil society is, how NGOs raise awareness, lobby and deliver aid, and the limits on their accountability and power.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental further

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Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Human rights vs Civil rights

  Human rights: entitlements claimed by people because they are human. Civil rights: entitlements attached to equal citizenship.

• Universalism vs Cultural relativism

  Universalism: rights apply equally across cultures. Cultural relativism: rights are interpreted through cultural context.

• Mitigation vs Adaptation

  Mitigation: action reducing causes of environmental change. Adaptation: action reducing vulnerability to environmental effects.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What limits the International Court of Justice's ability to enforce international law?

   Model answer

   Its contentious jurisdiction depends on states accepting it, and several major powers have not. It hears disputes between states rather than cases against individuals, and it has no means of enforcing a judgment against a state that ignores it.

2. 2

   Which types of crimes does the International Criminal Court (ICC) have jurisdiction to prosecute?

   Model answer

   The ICC prosecutes individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

3. 3

   What principle does the ICC establish regarding accountability under international law?

   Model answer

   The ICC establishes individual criminal responsibility under international law, meaning individuals (not just states) can be held personally accountable for the most serious international crimes.

4. 4

   What are special UN tribunals and why are they described as temporary?

   Model answer

   Special UN tribunals are temporary courts established to prosecute serious violations of international humanitarian law in specific conflicts. They are temporary because they are created for particular situations rather than as permanent institutions.

5. 5

   Name two examples of special UN tribunals.

   Model answer

   The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

6. 6

   What is the European Court of Human Rights and what types of applications does it hear?

   Model answer

   The ECHR is a supranational court that rules on individual or state applications alleging violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental revision questions

What does Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental cover in Edexcel A-Level Politics?

7 subtopics: international law and human rights institutions, humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect, environmental governance: the unfccc and the ipcc, the effectiveness of international law and international courts, deep and shallow green ecology and the tragedy of the commons, international environmental agreements from rio to paris and global civil society and ngos. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental organised?

By the Edexcel 9PL0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.