Alfassam, Hiyam. Developed countries' voting patterns among some human rights resolutions at the United Nations (1992-2019). Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-82dw-9j14
DescriptionThis dissertation aims to answer the question: Why did developed countries tend to vote against some human rights resolutions at the Third Committee of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, while developing countries tended to support some human rights resolutions more often than developed ones? A proposed qualitative study, designed to tackle new patterns that systematically influence the voting position of developed countries and built on scholars’ arguments and findings, is the main stream of my dissertation.
The methodology differs from using data collection of some human rights resolutions, categorized under specific issues and agenda items and recorded since just after the Cold War until the 74th Session of 2019 at the UN. In addition, an intensive self-observation of informal negotiation sessions (2014-2018) to draft resolutions was held at the UN before voting took place; self-observations of official voting sessions (2014-2018); interviews with experts and specialists at UN agencies and states missions; interviews of outsider professionals from policy-oriented research centers affiliated with and specializing in UN studies, and academics. These observations were made in tandem with theoretical frameworks based on hypotheses and postulates that were developed in other disciplinary settings.
Numerous UN bodies are tackling human rights matters from different angles. This dissertation focuses mainly on the Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural, at the General Assembly of the United Nations, the committee directly related to human rights resolutions in New York and on some Human Rights Council-related reports in Geneva. My selection of the Third Committee’s resolutions is categorized and grouped as the following: human rights selective resolutions, freedom of religion, children’s rights and women’s advancement, and electoral self-determination.