Wei Li

World Civ Final DBQ Outline

I.

II.

III.

Introduction
What dictates the rules in peoples lives? Why do people live the lives they live? On
December 10th, 1948, a document that would factor into peoples daily aspect of life
was signed the Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration states that all human
beings are born with equal and inalienable rights including life, liberty, and security.
As such, members of the United Nations have a duty to uphold and protect the human
rights of every individual. Yet, though such a Declaration was signed, does that mean
all portions of the Declaration are followed? Every Article read to the last word? As
shown in incidents in almost every country, this is not the case. The Declaration of
human Rights is always being broken despite best efforts to adhere to it. Specific
events in Congo, the United States, and China attest to the fact that human rights as
listed in the Declaration are always being both broken and followed.
Congo
A. Rebel group M23 November 2012 (Violation of Article 5 no one should be
subjected to torture or cruel, inhumane treatment. Article 12 no arbitrary
interference of privacy)
1. They were looking for a prominent civil society leader in a village outside
Goma, a provincial capital in eastern Congo. When the rebels didn't find him,
they shot his colleague, killing him.
2. Fighters who had integrated into the Congolese army in 2009 but mutinied
earlier this year took control of Goma
a. The rebels targeted perceived opponents, including activists, government
officials and their family members. Many of those people went into hiding
after receiving personal threats.
3. M23 fighters shot a 4-year-old girl in the head after she asked why they were
taking her father away. An 18-year-old woman was beaten by M23 fighters
when they demanded money and cellphones.
a. He proceeded to rape her while her 1-year-old daughter lay next to her.
B. Bosco Ntaganda criminal warlord turned himself in to US Embassy March. 18,
2013. Faces trial at International Criminal Court (Partial follow/violate Articles 7,
10, and 11 full equality in court, innocent until proven guilty)
1. Ida Sawyer, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. The United States has
long been a strong voice for Ntagandas arrest. Now it can ensure that he
finally faces justice, as the victims of these abuses have waited far too long.
(Bias)
2. Ntaganda for the war crimes of recruiting and enlisting children under 15 as
soldiers and using them in hostilities when he commanded military operations
for the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), another rebel group, in the Ituri
district of northeastern Congo in 2002-2003. (Innocent until proven guilty)
The United States
A. The United States continues to detain individuals for indefinite periods without
charge or trial at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan
in violation of its obligations under international human rights law. Of the 779

IV.

prisoners once detained at Guantanamo, 166 remain. Of those, the US designated

86 in 2010 as eligible for transfer to their home or third countries. (Violation
Article 13 everyone has right to freedom of movement)
1. The US immigration enforcement system has grown exponentially since the
last major legalization program under President Ronald Reagan. Deportations
have increased dramatically, from 30,039 in 1990 to over 400,000 in 2012,
totaling over 4 million since 1990. As recently reported by the Migration
Policy Institute, expenditures on immigration enforcement exceed spending
by all other criminal federal law enforcement agencies combined.
B. Recent revelations about the scope of US national security surveillance highlight
how dramatic increases in private digital communications and government
computing power are fueling surveillance practices that impinge on privacy in
ways unimaginable just a few years ago. There is an urgent need for the US
Congress to reevaluate and rewrite surveillance laws in light of those
technological developments and put in place better safeguards against security
agency overreach. The information sought is metadata, which includes the
numbers of both parties to a call, their locations, the time and duration of the calls,
and other identifying information. The contents of conversations are not covered,
but the government has an ever increasing capacity to analyze metadata to show
the callers likely identity, social networks, and other patterns or behavior the
government may want to target. (Violation Article 12 privacy)
China
A. The Chinese governments further tightening of internet controls and mandating
real name registration threaten security and privacy of internet users.On
December 28, 2012, the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress,
Chinas legislative body, passed the Decision to Strengthen the Protection of
Online Information. The Decision contains troubling provisions that require
internet access and telecommunications providers to collect personal information
about users when they sign up for internet access, landline, or mobile phone
service. Paragraph 6 of the Decision also applies to service providers that allow
users to publish online, who must be able to connect pseudonyms to real
identities when citizens post information. In the days following the decision,
several well-known online activists found that their weibo micro-blogging
accounts had been shut down.Not the first time. In 2010, two US companies
stopped registering internet domain names in China because of expanded
registration rules that the companies deemed too intrusive of their customers
privacy. (Violation Article 19 freedom to hold opinions without interference and
to seek and imark info through any media)
B. On February 25, the Chinese government announced amendments to the 1994
Regulations of Education of Persons with Disabilities in China (the 1994
Regulations) which failed to make adequate progress on mainstreaming children
with disabilities into regular schools as required by international law. On March
25, 2013, Human Rights Watch made a submission to the Legislative Affairs
Office of the State Council with recommendations for improvement on the
amendments. The amendments to the disability regulations have some positive
elements, such as requiring mainstream schools to develop individualized

educational plans for students with disabilities, said Brad Adams, Asia director.
However, the revisions continue to reinforce a parallel system of segregated
special education schools and do not remove the obstacles to regular schools for
children with disabilities. The amendments fail to clearly stipulate that local
governments and schools must provide reasonable accommodations to help
students overcome barriers related to their disabilities in mainstream schools. The
amendments reinforce the current situation in which only students with physical
or mild disabilities are allowed to study in mainstream schools, where few or no
accommodations are provided to students with disabilities. Other students are
effectively denied access to the mainstream education system, as children with
disabilities are entitled to access to mainstream education only if they are able to
adapt themselves to study in ordinary classes, meaning it is the students with
disabilities who have to adapt to the education system, not the reverse. (Violation
26: right to education, directed to full development of human personality)
C. Since its founding in 1997, Chinas Urban Management Law Enforcement (
), or chengguan, a para-police agency tasked with enforcing non-criminal
urban administrative regulations, has earned a reputation for excessive force and
impunity. The chengguan have become associated in popular opinion with
arbitrary and thuggish behavior, including assaults on suspected administrative
law violators (some of which lead to serious injury or death), illegal detention,
and abuses accompanying forceful confiscation of property. (Violation of 5 and
17)