Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental | Edexcel A-Level Politics (9PL0)

Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental

100 questions
7 subtopics
Component 3 Route A: global politics, one route of two
Component 3

Covers international law and environmental governance: the courts that enforce human rights, the record of humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect, the climate agreements from Rio to Paris, and the civil society that pushes both along..

It covers international law and human rights institutions, humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect, environmental governance: the UNFCCC and the IPCC, the effectiveness of international law and international courts, deep and shallow green ecology and the tragedy of the commons, international environmental agreements from Rio to Paris and global civil society and NGOs.

Sample questions from Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

International law and human rights institutions

What are special UN tribunals and why are they described as temporary?

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Special UN tribunals are temporary courts established to prosecute serious violations of international humanitarian law in specific conflicts. They are temporary because they are created for particular situations rather than as permanent institutions.
International law and human rights institutions

What is the significance of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights in international law?

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The UDHR is a foundational source of authority for international human rights law, setting out fundamental rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled.
Humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect

How do the national interests of intervening powers contribute to selective interventionism?

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States are more likely to intervene when their own strategic, political, or security interests are at stake, and less likely when no direct national interest is involved.
Humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect

When does the third pillar of R2P come into effect?

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The international community has a responsibility to take collective action when a state manifestly fails to protect its population from mass atrocity crimes.
Environmental governance: the UNFCCC and the IPCC

Why might developing nations argue that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities should shape climate agreements?

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Because developed nations bear greater historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions and have greater capacity to fund mitigation, so they should lead efforts while developing nations have different obligations.
Environmental governance: the UNFCCC and the IPCC

What would happen to international climate negotiations without the IPCC's Assessment Reports?

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Policymakers would lack an authoritative, consensus-based scientific evidence base, making it harder to legitimise and inform international policy action through UNFCCC negotiations.
The effectiveness of international law and international courts

How does the degree of acceptance by states affect international law's effectiveness?

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International law's effectiveness depends heavily on whether states voluntarily accept and incorporate legal obligations, as states can refuse to ratify treaties or ignore provisions they oppose.
The effectiveness of international law and international courts

What aspects of international courts' performance generate controversy?

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Controversies surround their jurisdiction (which cases they can hear), legitimacy (whether they have genuine authority), and effectiveness (whether their rulings produce meaningful outcomes).

The 7 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
International law and human rights institutions	Recall questions on the ICC, special tribunals and the European Court of Human Rights, the Universal Declaration, and the tension with state sovereignty.	10
Humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect	Recall questions on the interventions of the 1990s, selective interventionism, the three pillars of R2P, and the charge of Western double standards.	20
Environmental governance: the UNFCCC and the IPCC	Recall questions on the UNFCCC and common but differentiated responsibilities, and on the IPCC, its assessment reports and its three working groups.	18
The effectiveness of international law and international courts	Recall questions on how international law addresses conflict, poverty, rights and the environment, and on sovereignty, enforcement and selective prosecution.	15
Deep and shallow green ecology and the tragedy of the commons	Recall questions on shallow and deep green ecology, sustainable development, and how the tragedy of the commons explains environmental failure.	8
International environmental agreements from Rio to Paris	Recall questions on Rio, Kyoto, Copenhagen and Paris, what each achieved, and why enforcement, ambition and the developed-developing split hold them back.	16
Global civil society and NGOs	Recall questions on what global civil society is, how NGOs raise awareness, lobby and deliver aid, and the limits on their accountability and power.	13

Global Governance: Human Rights and Environmental is 100 of the 2,101 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.