Accessibility of political rights through citizenship

Abstract

One of the most prevalent discussions within international law is enforceability – with no fool proof mechanisms ensuring compliance, not only international law acquires a symbolic, not practical value, but additionally sectors such as human rights law, where incompliance bears devastating consequences, are left up for broad interpretation by state governments. Governments are predominately interested in protection of their own citizens and their established political structures, which results in broad interpretation of universally accepted ideas. Such phenomena are most widely seen within the criminal justice system, seeing as people who have committed criminal acts historically have been the most vulnerable to infringement of their human rights. Nowadays, sector of rights which are most broadly interpreted are political rights, as many states allow themselves much room to decide who is awarded protection of such rights, while international courts and legislative bodies allow for such conduct stating state autonomy as a reason.