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115 | Mond.Idéalisation
James Wellstead | Universal Human Rights
A predominant agent in the dissemination of reports, analyses and
images on issues such as human rights abuses have been civil society
institutions. These sometimes insignificant, sometimes powerful groups
operate with the interest of the welfare of the individual human being in
pursuit of the ‘law of humanity’ and not ‘inter-state law.’ 55 Richard Falk
argues that because these actors are not elected to act on the behalf of a
nation-state, civil society is empowered to provide an autonomous voice
toward the institutions and states which deprive individuals of their universal
human rights, occupying the position no state can. 56 Thus, these information
streams allow organizations like Amnesty International or Human Rights
Watch to provide timely information reducing the ability of governments to
hide their activities from public scrutiny. 57
This information rich
environment makes it increasingly difficult for abuses to take place when
exposed to the collective interpretation of those with access to these media
sources.
However, information is far from equally distributed, nor equally
interpreted by a neutral audience. As for news agencies, the dominant power
of CNN is lauded in its ability to inform the world and insight action in the
58
face of human rights abuses. However, in 1997 with a staff of only 50
overseas journalists in 23 foreign bureaus, the extent to which these abuses
are researched and understood is often questionable, especially to be
55 Falk, Richard. 163-4.
56 Ibid. 165.
57 McCorquodale and Fairbrother 759.
58 Sandholtz, Wayne. “Humanitarian Intervention: Global Enforcement of Human Rights?”
Globalization and Human Rights. Ed. Alison Brysk. Los Angeles: University of California Press.