UGC-NET (NTA) Human Rights and Duties, JUNE-2025

The United Nations Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which deals with "Action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression.
" ICTY was created through Resolution 827, declaring that the atrocities committed during the Yugoslav conflicts constituted a threat to international peace and security.
Chapter VII empowered the Council to take legally binding enforcement actions, including establishing tribunals. ICTY became the first international war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg and Tokyo trials.

The American Convention on Human Rights (1969) is also known as the Pact of San Jose, named after San José, Costa Rica, where the convention was adopted on 22 November 1969. It is the principal regional human rights treaty for the Americas under the Organisation of American States (OAS).
The Convention protects civil and political rights, establishes the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and lays down procedures for the protection of rights across member states. The name "Pact of San Jose" is widely used in international human rights literature.

Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal (DGSM), based in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, was closely associated with the Chipko Movement. DGSM, founded by Chandi Prasad Bhatt, was originally a rural cooperative promoting local employment and forest-based livelihood. The Mandal played a crucial role in mobilising villagers against commercial logging in the early 1970s.
Its efforts, along with Gaura Devi and other activists, led to the famous "treehugging" protests to protect Himalayan forests. Chipko became a landmark environmental movement influencing forest policy and sustainable development in India.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) was established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1985. Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) came into force in 1976, initially states submitted reports directly to ECOSOС.
To improve monitoring and ensure expert review, ECOSOC formed CESCR in 1985 as a body of independent experts. CESCR evaluates implementation of ESCR rights-such as the right to work, health, education, food, and social security-through periodic state reports and general comments.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), headquartered in Geneva, is governed under Swiss Law, as it is a private, impartial humanitarian organisation established in Switzerland in 1863.
ICRC's legal status is unique: although it is not a UN body or an intergovernmental organisation, it is recognised internationally for its role in protecting victims of armed conflict under the Geneva Conventions.
Its operations, structure, and legal identity are regulated by Swiss domestic law, which grants it privileges and immunities necessary for humanitarian neutrality and independence.

North-South trade refers to trade between advanced industrialised nations of the "Global North" and less-developed economies of the "Global South."
The concept emerged in the 1970s during debates on global inequality, where the North consists of highly industrialised, high-income nations (like the US, Western Europe, Japan), and the South includes low-income, developing or underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
This trade structure often reflects dependency, unequal terms of exchange, and structural constraints faced by developing economies.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) came into existence after the completion of the Uruguay Round (1986-1994) of negotiations under GATT. The Marrakesh Agreement of April 1994 formally established the WTO, which began functioning on 1 January 1995.
The Uruguay Round was the most comprehensive trade negotiation in history, covering goods, services (GATS), intellectual property (TRIPS), agriculture, textiles, and dispute settlement.
It transformed the global trading system from GATT into a permanent organisation-WTO-responsible for enforcing trade rules.

Under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), Mode 3 mandates "Commercial Presence."
This mode allows a foreign service supplier to establish business operations-such as branches, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or representative offices-within another country. Examples include foreign banks opening branches, foreign telecom companies setting up subsidiaries, or foreign hospitals operating in another state.
Mode 3 is crucial for attracting foreign investment in services like banking, insurance, telecom, health, and education.

The book "Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited: The Era of Trump" (2017) was authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist.
This revised edition expands on his earlier work (2002), analysing the failures of globalisation, rising inequality, and economic discontent, especially after the 2008 crisis and the rise of nationalist politics like the Trump administration.
Stiglitz critiques institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, arguing that their policies often harm developing nations and increase instability.

The 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development identifies development as a comprehensive process encompassing economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions.
The Declaration does not separately categorize environmental development as one of the covered processes. However, environmental concerns were later integrated into international human rights and development discourse, especially through instruments like the Rio Declaration (1992).
Under the 1986 Declaration, the four central pillars remain economic, social, cultural, and political development-making "environmental" the correct exclusion.