Using several reputable datasets this thesis measures variables of democracy and freedom, human rights practice, and conflict for Israel, South Africa and Iran during the period 2015-2019. The thesis argues that the 2006 reform replacing the UN Commission on Human Rights with the Human Rights Council can be understood as an attempt to restructure a body marked by selectivity and reshape it based on the liberal ideal of a sincere institution. Drawing on liberal IR theory, hypotheses are formulated about the expected relationship between the aforementioned variables and UNHRC country-specific targeting. In comparing Israel to Iran and South Africa in two separate comparative designs the analysis reveals that variables emphasized by liberal IR do not appear to have a significant effect on UNHRC targeting concerning Israel. Conversely, the analysis finds that even though Iran is not considered a free democracy and assessed as violating human rights to a greater extent, it is targeted significantly less than Israel. The thesis concludes that Israel constitutes a “blind spot” of liberal IR theory as it fails to provide a satisfactory explanation for why the UNHRC is targeting the state to a far greater extent than others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-43808 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Rosengarten, Josef |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för globala politiska studier (GPS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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