The Rights Of Human Rights

A great speech has the power to define the times, to inspire, and to motivate. Certain speeches from great people have made huge impacts, but “The Struggle for Human Rights” from Eleanor Roosevelt persuades the entire globe on humans’ rights, freedom, respect and peace. I read her text and saw a video on YouTube giving her speech even though it was long it gathered a lot my attention. It took me time to understand her speech after reading it three times. It’s good that someone like Eleanor Roosevelt existed and wanted to provide some peace to the world. I’m glad she touched many hearts in that time. War may still exist and can be caused but we should all take a glance to this speech and acknowledge what Eleanor was trying to do. She fought for social and civil rights, helped found the United Nations, and effectively ran the United Stated when her husband was ill. As shown above, all those awful situations led Eleanor Roosevelt to do such a speech as “The Struggle for Human Rights”.

The definition of the term human rights is described as the essential universal entitlements afforded to all humans. These rights are the underpinning of certain principles including that of liberty, fairness and respect of human dignity. Human rights must be acknowledged and protected by government agencies to ensure that these rights are taken into account in law, the process of legislation, public policy and politics.1 However many groups within society remain marginalised and vulnerable to human rights violations. The focus issue that will be discussed in this essay is the right to liberty- to not be apprehended in arbitrary custody, which interferes with the inherent human right to liberty, and the chosen vulnerable group is asylum seekers. Due to circumstances outside of their control the persons in this group flee their homelands in an effort to escape crisis and persecution, such as religious and political persecution.2 Every human has the right of asylum, as stated in article 14 of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, however asylum seekers are vulnerable due to violations of their human rights. Governments around the globe including Australia have not fulfilled their legal obligations toward asylum seekers and have in fact violated human rights and specific rights of asylum seekers which have been outlined in the 1951 UN Convention in relation to status of refugees.3

Every single human being on this planet has rights (What Are Human Rights, n.d). 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 and what they entail. This made me think

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, no matter our nationality, where we live, gender, ethnic or national origin, race, religion, language, or any kind of status. We are all equally permitted to our human rights without prejudice. These rights are all unified, interdependent and undividable. Human rights are often conveyed and certified by law, in the manner of treaties, conventional international law, general principles and other basis of international law. Human rights laws place obligations of Governments to take action in certain ways or to avoid doing particular acts, in order to endorse and protect human rights and essential freedoms of individuals or groups. Human rights however come with responsibly.

Human rights are the rights that belong to each and every single person internationally. These rights have been around since the first civilization in Ancient Greece and has evolved into the rights we have currently. Each group of people has had to fight for these rights that each person supposedly has. Throughout history, group after group is discriminated against even though people fight for equality. Though there are many different categories of human rights, the three types of human rights are the right to equality, marriage, and expression based on the social rights.

These actions and behaviors oriented toward the common basic good are not limited to a particular population, but extend especially to the poor and vulnerable. Divisions between rich and poor grow daily, but the needs of the poor and vulnerable must be met first ("Catholic Social Teaching"). Optimum health is an ideal that should not discriminate, but supports health for all people. Because all human life is equally significant and should be equally respected, health is a state that all people should be able to pursue if they choose to do so. This ensures that all people have the option of being fully contributing members of society, not limited by illness or burdened by the expense of healthcare. Patients can be included in the category of ‘vulnerable’, as they are often uneducated about medicine and unable to help themselves. This claim is grounded in the principle that all human beings are united with one another. The human society is one community that must pursue justice and peace for all of its members ("Catholic Social Teaching"). Catholic Social Thought says that we are all in solidarity with one another and as a result should promote the mutual basic goods of both ourselves and others. We may do so by conceding that healthcare is indeed a human right.

In the spring and summer of 1994, Rwanda experienced a genocide that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. After seeing the tragedies that took place in Nazi Germany, one would expect the international community to respond quickly and effectively in the case of the Rwandan genocide. However, the killings were largely pushed aside or ignored by the rest of the world, begging the question of when states have the right or duty to betray another state’s sovereignty. There are different methods of intervening to protect human rights, but they are much debated and there have been many times that intervention has made a situation worse. However, there is a moral obligation that we all have to protect others when we can, whether they are part of our nation or not. If human rights are being abused in a state, other states have the duty to take multilateral actions to stop killings and provide aid.

Human rights are universal rights that we are entitled to. It is a freedom that is guaranteed based on the principle of respect for an individual. As mentioned in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights are a “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all member of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world” (Kent, page 80). When asked what our rights are, we tend to get different answers and meanings. Some people recite the rights that they know; but let’s face it, not everyone knows all of the rights that they truly have. The rights we have consist of many things such as the right of having an adequate food supply. The right to

The fight for human rights has always been marched since the World War II from women rights to certain ethnicity rights. Everyone wants to be treated equally because everyone shares the same emotions and has dreams and ambitions. It is important to empower individuals through values of tolerance, equality and respect for a good society to function. Then why is it different with animals as they also have emotions and purposes? Devaluing animal rights because humans are higher in the hierarchy or the food chain is pompous as animals have emotions and the feeling of pain and pleasure just as humans do. Each year in the Unites States, an estimated number of seventy million innocent animals undergo hurtful and deadly suffering in the name of science by scientific centers, cosmetic companies, household products, and educational institutions. Animal testing is wrong. This is because the action is unethical, ineffective, and unnecessary.

Human rights have been difficult to uphold in conflict situations. This is reflected in part by the fact that the power politics in the permanent members of the Security Council usually prevent the United Nation from taking a clear stance on such matters (Heywood 2014, p.322). Due to this, the world has often been seen to stand by as such horrific violations of human rights have taken place (Heywood 2014, p.322). This happened tragically in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis were killed, and in 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which about 8000 Bosnian men and boys were killed (Heywood 2014, p.322, Lenarz et al 2013, section 2). In these instances the United Nations were absent from taking forcible action, which led to a humanitarian

The gay community has been thriving over the last several years especially within the law, state after state bans fell and proposals passed. The movement is finally being recognized and basic rights are being promised to them in several courts around the country. In states like Idaho one could be fired or be denied housing for being gay, and that being the sole reason. When the bill, to add sexual orientation to the human rights act, was simply eligible to be put up to a vote the people who proposed it were overjoyed. They know the road is long and still work towards it, the smallest accomplishments feel like strides. Why is this attitude still

The United Nations is widely regarded and respected as the most powerful institution that promotes international cooperation and human rights action. In theory, actions implemented by and within the United Nations are based on the mutual global goal of protecting international human rights and preventing human sufferings. These actions are constituted through three main mechanisms: the Treaty-based system, the Human Rights Council, and Security Council and Humanitarian Interventions, with the level of confrontation and seriousness in each mechanism increases respectively. While aimed to serve the mutual goal of protecting human rights over the world and have shown some successes, in a world of sovereignty, actions when implemented are in fact grounded by the national interests of each state, including embracing its national sovereignty, concreting its strategic relationships with other states, and enhancing its reputation in the international community. This paper will analyze the successes and failures of each of the three mechanisms of the United Nations regime, through which it aims to prove that when it comes to actions, states focus more on their national, and in some cases, regional interests than on the mutual goal of strengthening human rights throughout the world, thus diminishing the legitimacy of the whole United Nations system.

Can contractarianism recognise animal rights? There has often been discussion about the nature of justice concerning nonhuman animals, which I will now refer to as animals. The discussion often considers whether humans owe animals justice rather than mere morality, or if humans only owe animals compassion and humanity. This discussion from the contractarian position can be examined through John Rawls’ ‘Justice as Fairness’, his theory of justice to establish the principles by which primary goods should be distributed. In this essay, I will consider the question of whether contractarianism can recognise animal rights by considering the following: Rawls’ theory of justice; the attempted extension to incorporate animal rights by Mark Rowlands in his article “Contractarianism and Animal Rights”; and Martha Nussbaum’s “Frontiers of Justice”. I will then consider whether contractarianism can recognise animal rights.

War affects a population in so many ways, especially It is true that some countries work very hard to provide security for their citizens; nevertheless, governments are obligated to provide their populations freedom of violence. Because millions of people die every year from war conflicts, religious persecution, and other violent related crimes, is necessary to implement human rights standards that would protect the personal integrity of every citizen, because every person deserves the right to live in peace. As stated in Rachel Diprose (2017), violence prevents communities from human freedom, and as a result, people are unable to live safely and securely. The World Report on Violence and Health (WHO, 2002) states that self-inflicted, interpersonal or collective violence kills more than 1.6 million people every year (Diprose, 2007). Governments are failing at assuring its people the right to live a dignified life; however, it is possible to accomplish human security for all with the empowerment of social, political, and economic systems.

Glendon, Mary Ann (2002). A world made new: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Random House. ISBN