Effectiveness of Top-Down vs. Bottom-up

There was an interesting article in the Economist magazine dated April 24, 2008 which talked about the Human Rights Council which I thought would be very interesting to highlight regarding the above topic.Two years ago the UN Commission on Human Rights was disbanded and its successor, the Human Rights Council started up a few months later. Kofi Annan’s reason for disbanding the UN Commission on Human Rights was that the world’s worst abusers had used the agency "to protect themselves against criticism or to criticize others".

The article explains that human rights are one of the three pillars on which the UN is supposed to rest with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights seen as a great achievement. But apparently there is "huge disagreement about which rights matter most". "The rich world says priority should be given to civil and political rights; poorer countries say economic, social and cultural rights matter more. The counsel has apparently been focusing most of its attention on Israel which prompted Ban I-moon, UN Secretary General, to comment as follows: "I would also appreciate it if the council will be looking with the same level of attention and urgency at all other matters around the world".

The thought of the Human Rights Council being obsessed with Israel is very distressing as our class discussions have touched on so many human rights issues which demand attention and wherein the Human Rights Council plays a vital role. In regard to Child Labor, many Conventions and Declarations have already been instituted, however, what remains most problematic is public awareness of child labor, enforcement and addressing the root causes of child labor. The continued implementation of both approaches remains critical and is summed up best in the words of Nelson Mandela "A crucial step is to make the time-bound eradication of the worst forms of child labor and exploitation a cause for all of us, not in words but in action, not in speeches, but in policies and resources".