10-Feb-2011, 09:34 PM
Recently, I happened to read the [url=http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
]Universal Declaration of Human Rights [/url]and watch this tutorial video from Amnesty International and this aptly animated version (which coincidentally was posted on Facebook too).
One would assume that after 21st-century high-school education, these rights must be known cold, but we all know all too well about the gaps in Civics education. Let us use this forum to become students of Human Rights. Here are some questions we can address:
1. What is the philosophical basis and historical origin of each of these human rights?
(eg. The idea that all human beings deserve rights because they are endowed with 'autonomy and reason', was perhaps first explicitly stated by Kant.)
2. What are the circumscriptions, exceptions and priorities that apply when one or more human rights conflict with each other?
(eg. When can a State impose penalties upon someone claiming to exercise her right to nationhood and self-determination by demanding a new state?)
3. Since the declaration of the Universal Human Rights, how much have things changed for the better and is the incidence of violations decreasing?
(Perhaps updates and news feeds from human rights watch committees in India should be part of our regular reading.)
4. The declaration was drafted way back in 1948. If we were to draft another declaration today, what rights would we add?
(We must remember that the Civil Rights Movement in the US happened much after many of the rights demanded therein were already explicitly stated in the UN Declaration. Now that consciousness has risen about other injustices which may have been treated as fait accompli in 1948, perhaps the document needs to be updated.)
]Universal Declaration of Human Rights [/url]and watch this tutorial video from Amnesty International and this aptly animated version (which coincidentally was posted on Facebook too).
One would assume that after 21st-century high-school education, these rights must be known cold, but we all know all too well about the gaps in Civics education. Let us use this forum to become students of Human Rights. Here are some questions we can address:
1. What is the philosophical basis and historical origin of each of these human rights?
(eg. The idea that all human beings deserve rights because they are endowed with 'autonomy and reason', was perhaps first explicitly stated by Kant.)
2. What are the circumscriptions, exceptions and priorities that apply when one or more human rights conflict with each other?
(eg. When can a State impose penalties upon someone claiming to exercise her right to nationhood and self-determination by demanding a new state?)
3. Since the declaration of the Universal Human Rights, how much have things changed for the better and is the incidence of violations decreasing?
(Perhaps updates and news feeds from human rights watch committees in India should be part of our regular reading.)
4. The declaration was drafted way back in 1948. If we were to draft another declaration today, what rights would we add?
(We must remember that the Civil Rights Movement in the US happened much after many of the rights demanded therein were already explicitly stated in the UN Declaration. Now that consciousness has risen about other injustices which may have been treated as fait accompli in 1948, perhaps the document needs to be updated.)