All these documents strive to improve the world, prevent wrongs, empower people, and yet they all give me a strong sense of what I shouldn't do, or can't do, not necessarily a sense of hope. In fact, and Jon you may be right, what is the point of all of these documents. What power do they have, and what power do the institutions that back them have? Many of these documents were drafted, ratified and signed in response to and following major global abuses of rights and freedoms. However, major global abuses of rights and freedoms followed the creation of many of these documents. So what good to they do. Women still continue to receive clitorectomies, children are still trafficked like chattel, apartheid in South Africa existed until 1994, the worlds largest democracy still maintains and accepts a caste system, and here in Canada girls as young as 14 and 16 can be married to a man five or six times their age. What good at all are these rights and freedoms if abuses like those mentioned above are allowed to continue and seem almost acceptable to many governing bodies? Don't get me wrong I love the United Nations, the ideals we espouse in our charters, declarations and bills, but I am losing faith and hope in them. I don't really have a better alternative yet, and that doesn't help anything. But like Sara said last class. So many things are missing from these documents, and I think steps to have them be more inclusive, less exclusive and static would make them more effective. Giving power to remove rights to the government makes me fearful...Especially since we don't have the right to bear arms to protect ourselves from the very government that is meant to represent us...So much to digest. We need more superheroes in the world to make it a better place. That's the only thing I can suggest. Anybody have any better ideas?
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Woah...holy rights and fundamental freedoms, Batman!!?
Reading all of these rights, freedoms, conventions, amendments, declarations, charters etcetera made me think of a laminated poster I have, titled: How to Build Global Community. This poster has little quips that encourage us to think differently about the world in which we live. Things like, "Think of no one as 'us' nor 'them'," and "Question nationalism," and "Remember, there are three Americas; North, South and Central." I've always liked this poster because it made me rethink my place in the world, and the ways in which I engage. And I suppose that reading all these various charters and whatnot has done the same. But the difference here is that I came away feeling that despite this attempt to explain that there are intrinsic and basic human rights, some people can and will be denied these rights depending on where they are, when, and where they're from. For example. the European Union's Convention. Article 16: Nothing in Articles 10, 11 and 14 shall be regarded as preventing the High Contracting Parties from imposing restrictions on the political activity of aliens. So I read this as limited rights and freedoms, not fundamental, nor intrinsic nor basic. Sure these "aliens" are entitled to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and the right not to be discriminated against, but aside from that, the powers that be can still prevent them from political activities. Maybe I am misunderstanding...I think the term "alien" rubs me the wrong way.
All these documents strive to improve the world, prevent wrongs, empower people, and yet they all give me a strong sense of what I shouldn't do, or can't do, not necessarily a sense of hope. In fact, and Jon you may be right, what is the point of all of these documents. What power do they have, and what power do the institutions that back them have? Many of these documents were drafted, ratified and signed in response to and following major global abuses of rights and freedoms. However, major global abuses of rights and freedoms followed the creation of many of these documents. So what good to they do. Women still continue to receive clitorectomies, children are still trafficked like chattel, apartheid in South Africa existed until 1994, the worlds largest democracy still maintains and accepts a caste system, and here in Canada girls as young as 14 and 16 can be married to a man five or six times their age. What good at all are these rights and freedoms if abuses like those mentioned above are allowed to continue and seem almost acceptable to many governing bodies? Don't get me wrong I love the United Nations, the ideals we espouse in our charters, declarations and bills, but I am losing faith and hope in them. I don't really have a better alternative yet, and that doesn't help anything. But like Sara said last class. So many things are missing from these documents, and I think steps to have them be more inclusive, less exclusive and static would make them more effective. Giving power to remove rights to the government makes me fearful...Especially since we don't have the right to bear arms to protect ourselves from the very government that is meant to represent us...So much to digest. We need more superheroes in the world to make it a better place. That's the only thing I can suggest. Anybody have any better ideas?
All these documents strive to improve the world, prevent wrongs, empower people, and yet they all give me a strong sense of what I shouldn't do, or can't do, not necessarily a sense of hope. In fact, and Jon you may be right, what is the point of all of these documents. What power do they have, and what power do the institutions that back them have? Many of these documents were drafted, ratified and signed in response to and following major global abuses of rights and freedoms. However, major global abuses of rights and freedoms followed the creation of many of these documents. So what good to they do. Women still continue to receive clitorectomies, children are still trafficked like chattel, apartheid in South Africa existed until 1994, the worlds largest democracy still maintains and accepts a caste system, and here in Canada girls as young as 14 and 16 can be married to a man five or six times their age. What good at all are these rights and freedoms if abuses like those mentioned above are allowed to continue and seem almost acceptable to many governing bodies? Don't get me wrong I love the United Nations, the ideals we espouse in our charters, declarations and bills, but I am losing faith and hope in them. I don't really have a better alternative yet, and that doesn't help anything. But like Sara said last class. So many things are missing from these documents, and I think steps to have them be more inclusive, less exclusive and static would make them more effective. Giving power to remove rights to the government makes me fearful...Especially since we don't have the right to bear arms to protect ourselves from the very government that is meant to represent us...So much to digest. We need more superheroes in the world to make it a better place. That's the only thing I can suggest. Anybody have any better ideas?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you that sometimes it seems futile to compile these big long lists of supposed human rights and freedoms, since we have no supranational governing body that has the capability or power to enforce all of these rights globally. And you're absolutely right that MAJOR human rights violations occur everyday and far too frequently. I only hope that you don't lose too much faith in the UN because I believe (and I may be completely wrong) that it is the one chance we have, as a global community, to combat these violations. I believe it has done a good job bringing the issue of human rights violations into the spotlight of the world stage (compare to the first half of the 20th century--we've made leaps and bounds). Sure the UN is far from perfect and it has its obvious bureaucratic failings and obstinacies, but hopefully it will continue on its warpath to fighting human right abuses until they are eradicated (it's a BIG dream, I'll be the first to admit).
ReplyDelete