GOV 060 International Relations 

In the course of international relations, I took the concept of the course as though it was a very intricate and interconnected topic, especially after I learned how to extensively compare and contrast political systems in the previous class with Professor Uday Chandra. We looked a lot into indigenous people and transnational religious movements, in addition to how that may affect local and international relations between states and their inner regions and cities, like the difference between North and South Korea for example in their extent of media flexibility, and Iran as another example which has embedded a lot of religious tension between its people and the ruling theocracy by Ali Khameini. One theme that intrigued me the most is human rights and the question of why internationally-recognized human rights are implemented through national action, with addition to the drawbacks and attractions of such a system.

Human rights had initially formally been recognized post-Second World War, after seeing historical discrimination and mass killings of people of different sexualities, ethnicities, race and background. But the Universal declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) had failed to declare these human rights at times. There are evidently perspectives in power and authority in these declarations which tend to cater more support, attention and advocation of human rights to certain groups of people than others. This is unfortunately occurring even in the 21st century. I can connect this with my media law class, in which we discuss the rights of journalists and to what extent they can perform their duty as a journalist. But then again this does not apply to all countries the same, in fact in Qatar for example, there are strict privacy rules to do with journalist exposure of certain topics in the community. The human right of freedom of expression for journalists especially is conflicting with different laws and political situations depending on the state. 

Works Cited:

AFP Published: 11 January, & Afp. (2023, January 11). At least 30 Iran journalists still detained over protests: Association. Al Arabiya English. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/01/11/At-least-30-Iran-journalists-still-detained-over-protests-Association

Salah, H. (2015, November 16). War on the media. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/02/09/war-media/journalists-under-attack-libya