INTRODUCTION: AN UNDERSTANDING OF RIGHTS DISCOURSE AND THE NECESSARY SHIFT
Rights have numerous advantages: they accurately express issues, they attempt to address injustices gradually through politico-legal means, and add precision in the identification of inequality in various context. The purpose of individual rights in the broader rights narratives is to shift social consciousness, develop accessibility for popular issues, empower and drive self-determination for marginalised persons and communities. Rights contain social value, and are means for marginalised people to respond to violations of their rights as included assertive individuals, assigned their portion of the power dynamic in the broader political system. This essay posits that the equality that individual rights purport to promote is largely illusory and fail to provide real means to redress injustices under Western liberal democracies. I will argue that rights assigned through construction of the liberal social order are a false representations of the needs of the marginalized, failing to promote substantive equality in society. I concede that rights have value as social phenomena that can energize and inspire movements for equality. This, however, is insufficient to dictate the function of individual rights, as more accurately the alienating effect, the non-objective assignment of, and asymmetry of rights discourse do little to further equality and more to engage justiciability in courts.
II. A BRIEF
One of the most misinterpreted aspects of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the freedom of expression. Group organizations have misused this much too often. In the past, many extremist groups have misused this right to protect themselves. A great example is the Westboro Baptist Church. This church is one of the many groups across North America that uses the Charter to protect themselves. The Charter protects them even though their actions and messages are harmful and not beneficial to society. If the Charter was to recognize these groups as dangerous, they wouldn’t have the chance to misuse these freedoms. Also, the fact that if a Canadian citizen were to use the excuse of the freedom of expression to defend their actions, they wouldn’t
Throughout years and years of developing our rights in law and off law we have created a system that gives everyone equality. Human rights can be explained in multiple ways. Rights could start from personal rights to rights as a citizen. Without rights our lives would be demanding and complicated. In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot the author explains many violations of human rights as a citizen leading to social economic abuse.
I intend to discuss these issues while also discussing why it is important for these issues to be highlighted in this document. Firstly, the issues of personal rights are acknowledged at the beginning of the document. “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good” . At this time, to be equal meant the end of legal differences.
The essence of this essay reveals the definition of human rights and the politics of its victimhood incorporating those that made a difference. Human Rights can be seen as having natural rights, a fixed basis in reality confirming its importance with a variety of roles; the role illuminated will be racial discrimination against African Americans.
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often times bitter 1787–1788 battle over ratification of the Constitution, and crafted to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add certain safeguards of democracy—specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights; clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings; and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people—to the Constitution. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in several earlier documents, including the Virginia
The Bill of Rights was created for every citizen to have their rights of life, liberty, and property to be protected from the government. It makes people feel like they are not being controlled and that they have individuality and freedoms. This is very important in our country that was founded by people looking for freedom.
"As a nation under the United States Constitution, we succeed only for as long as we can maintain a healthy balance in power between our general population and our government. Like a scale, if one side has too much weight on it, then the whole system will eventually collapse. Though the government claims responsibility over our national safety and should use the necessary means to maintain our security, they should likewise exercise restraint when applied to information that could never be perceived as a threat to our safety. It lies upon the people to remind them of such; otherwise, they may take their duty to protect out of hand to unmanageable levels or use the technology meant to protect the people for their own benefit.
There are few amendments in the Bill of Rights that are as heavily debated today as the second one. “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” When the fledgling U.S. government ratified the Bill of rights in 1789, they were trying to outline the core values of the constitution and Declaration of independence and word them in such a way as to have them apply to all current and future issues.
It is a painful day indeed, when you realize that you have been lied to since birth. Surely, you can recall sitting on your fathers lap and being told just how lucky you were to live in the greatest country in the world and to be able to enjoy the freedom that so many others don’t have. In fact, almost everywhere you looked in your youth would be more confirmation that you were so very lucky. When your mother said” Finish your plate,their are children starving in Africa”, your beliefs that this was the greatest country were further solidified. Whenever you complained about how unfair a situation was, there were even more reinforcements built up in your mind that you were truly lucky to be part of the great free nation. The conversation usually
Every human being deserves to have Individual rights and they are a very important part of the justice system. Without individual rights things would be chaotic therefore, public order is brought into the system so that everyone’s individual rights are in place for each individual to use as a backbone for guidelines of what is acceptable and what is not. Although, there are disadvantages and advantages of both individual rights and public order they are still very essential to maintain order.
In the peer-reviewed journal, “Indigenous Peoples and Multicultural Citizenship: Bridging Collective and Individual Rights,” Cindy L. Holder and Jeff J. Corntassel discuss the revaluation, problems, and restrictions of existing human rights instruments while examining the liberal-individualist and corporatist perspectives. This journal was written in response to the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was “ …. a milestone for universal legal protection of individuals” (Holder and Corntassel 126). When the existing human right means were reexamined due to the anniversary, there were several problems that arose. First, there is the absence of promoting universal acceptance of group rights when compared to
One of the main reasons why human rights have been put in place is to protect the public life and public space of every individual being. One fundamental characteristic of human rights is that they are equal rights; they are aimed at providing protection to every person in an equal way. These rights have been entrenched through laws that are passed by states and international conventions. Human rights laws have evolved over time, and have been shaped by several factors, including philosophical theories in the past. This paper looks at the theories of two philosophers, Emmanuel Kant and John Stuart Mills, and how their teachings can be used to explain the sources of human rights. Kant’s moral philosophy is very direct in its
The doctrine of human rights were created to protect every single human regardless of race, gender, sex, nationality, sexual orientation and other differences. It is based on human dignity and the belief that no one has the right to take this away from another human being. The doctrine states that every ‘man’ has inalienable rights of equality, but is this true? Are human rights universal? Whether human rights are universal has been debated for decades. There have been individuals and even countries that oppose the idea that human rights are for everybody. This argument shall be investigated in this essay, by: exploring definitions and history on human rights, debating on whether it is universal while providing examples and background
Across all nations and cultures, the enduring pursuit of equality in life seems global and timeless. Some would believe that their own country has achieved a true democracy with no residual inequalities of which to speak, while others know they are at the other end of the spectrum, enduring unjust laws that should not be bestowed on any human. Through the course of history many countries have fought for that democracy and all the equality that it implies. While some believe they have reached that goal, others continue to fight for the most basic human rights, even in this time of enlightenment. The journey each country takes on its road to that place may vary by origination, length, severity and outcome, but the goal seems to be the
Every single human being on this planet has rights. These rights are given to us through birth, and the day I was asked, what my human rights were, I found myself speechless. I did not know how to answer the question, which at the time sounded so easy. I forgot about the question that had me so puzzled, and just brushed it off, ironically six month later I get an assignment on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After reading this historic document, I realized how important human rights are. I believe most people take human rights for granted, we know they exist, but we don’t even know what they are