Global Civil Society

This post is in response to an assignment by my professor.
Describe and assess how international law has addressed matters of trade, human rights, and the environment. How have these efforts contributed to developing or retarding the construction of global civil society? Why? Construct a one-two paragraph posting in which you respond thoroughly, supporting your answer with references.
Global Civil Society

Our international society has become one defined by the agreements and treaties that each country enters. Economically, the World Trade Organization (WTO), formerly General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and others are the treaties and the organizations based on the treaties we have signed. These regulate the tariffs, practices, and regulations that we share with our international trading partners. They have been evolving and developing since the largest threat to free trade was pirates.

In the areas of Human Rights, agreements are relatively new, and this type of diplomacy is in its infancy. Before the Holocaust in Germany, countries tended to respect sovereignty and custom and most had policies of non-interference. Since that time, we have been exposed to governments which participate in slavery, starvation, genocide, and other human rights atrocities. We have graduated to a place where we will interfere when the situation reaches a point of offending our now shared norms and when doing something is possible given the set of circumstances. The United Nations is our main peacekeeping (rules and agreement based) organization, they are the world's watchdog on human rights' issues. (The U.N. Web page, http:/un.org)

Internationally, our agreements with other countries in order to protect the environment are few. The ones that are signed, like the Kyoto Protocols, are virtually unenforceable. (World Public Opinion.org, http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/envAgreemnts.cfm) While public opinion is strong on wanting the United States to be a leader in environmental issues, allowing policing of our businesses by foreign countries has little support.

A global civil society is well defined in a paper supporting such a situation written in 2002 by David Korten, Nicanor Perlas, and Vandana Shiva as, "Humanity has entered into the final stage of an epic struggle between the forces of imperial rule (empire) - presently represented by the institutions of elite globalization - and the forces of democratic rule (community) - presently represented by the Global Civil Society. It does seem plausible, yet unlikely that we will ever form the type of empire or the type of community envisioned by the writers of this document (and book, published later). Regardless of how many treaties we enter into, without the bite of enforceable law, they remain about as strong as a gentleman's handshake.

Thank you,
Janet Johnson