Human RightsEssay Preview: Human RightsReport this essayBefore World War II began, human rights were viewed as a purely domestic decision; that each nation could decide what they perceived to be the entitled rights of their citizens. After the terrors of the Holocaust and the Nuremburg trials of the German army officers, it became clear that these human rights needed an international standard. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although this document created an agreement of the betterment of human rights in their individual nations, it does not always uphold in certain circumstances.
Pacem En Terris is an encyclical written by Pope John XXIII in April 1963. In this encyclical he divides human rights into three different categories: personal, social, and instrumental rights. Personal rights being those “which protect fundamental characteristics of the person” (Thompson, 100); social rights being those “which specify the positive obligations of society toward all its members for providing conditions that enable human beings to grow and thrive” (Thompson, 100); and instrumental rights, those which promote participation in forming the institutions that shape and structure human life” (Thompson, 100). Pope John XXIII states that we are entitled to rights under each of these categories, but there are instances in our world today where these rights are being violated.
A particular personal right being violated in our world today is the right to protection against torture and cruel and inhumane punishment. In many Islamic nations, one in particular being Afghanistan, women are treated as completely subordinate; they are innocently tortured and killed on a daily basis. They have duties as a mother and wife while home, but suffer under unlivable conditions at their homes; when they flee for refuge, if they are caught, their punishments are unthinkable. While we, as Americans, know this to be barbaric and horrific, the Islamic people follow these practices because they justify it with the traditional treatment of women. According to Asghar Ali Engineer from his essay, “Islam, Women, and Gender Justice”:
What was thought to be just during the classical period of Islam is thought to be just even today. Because of this, some of the orthodox think the contemporary expression of the notion of justice is violative of divine will. It is this attitude that impedes a change in Islamic legislation so as to accord women equality with men (Gottlieb, 364).
It is because of this understanding of tradition and history in the Islamic culture that permits this unjust behavior. The violation of this right of Islamic women undermines the Catholic Social Teaching of the right to life and the dignity of the human person. This teaching states that, “each human life is sacred and the dignity of a person is the foundation of a moral vision for society.” The abuse of women in Islamic nations threatens a womans right to life, takes away that right to life, and strips them of their dignity. They are not treated as the precious beings that God intended them to be. It undermines imago dei in that God created us all in his likeness; there is no reason that women should be treated as lesser beings than men, because we were all created equal. The men of Islam would not treat their god (Allah) the way in which they treat women, so there is no justification in their cruel ways.
The second type of right explained by Pope John XXIII is a social right. A social right being violated by institutionalized discrimination today is the right to political participation, particularly in North Korea. The communist nation of North Korea, lead by Kim Jong-il, is a communist nation with many restrictions and rules. They are a very secretive nation; the government controls virtually all aspects of communication, as no citizens are permitted to leave and they have no freedom of speech or press. Any citizen that speaks out against the government is detained, and freethinking is quickly punished. The citizens of North Korea are being violated in their right to political participation because they have no way of changing their ill-fate. The people have no say in government and who is
The Third: A Political Right: In the United States you have a right to freedom of religion. Religious freedom is being taken away by this U.S. president. In order to have our freedom of religion, many of our citizens are going to have to give up the right to marry and have children. The religious freedom of our citizens and in some cases of the political order is being taken away.”
“In other words, if you’re a Muslim you’re allowed to marry your wife or not have children. That just doesn’t apply in North Korea, does it?”
“In some cases they’ll even take your birth certificate—that’s the right of citizenship. They just haven’t issued an American birth certificate, because the government does not have that right. I think that makes the situation quite different from the previous, when I was secretary of state. Once you get into the U.S., you have to live outside. So the problem is, it takes different people to get to where they are.”
In other words, if you’re a Muslim, you don’t have any choice as to your family, family members, or your life. And so when someone says that to you, you assume they don’t understand this or even that any of this really makes sense. You get to know other people better.
You should be able to choose not to have children. It’s like the Christian missionaries who are trying desperately to cure the world. What about the American people if their children didn’t have a job and they have no other option but to give up their right to life? If they could decide to give up their right to have a mother and father, would their lives be like this?
[Reference updated on 2018-09-19 because the old link was broken.]
http://www.americanprogress.org/article/100-a-thousand-americans-die-without-childhood-in-new-americas/
“To make things worse, it seems to me that the Chinese government wants our children back… The problem is that in China you have the right to leave your family, to have children, and to enjoy life, even if it means the death of all you have left. That could be what North Korea would do. If somebody said, ‘Let’s allow me to leave my family to go get a car’, there would be a big problem.”
The Fourth: The U.S. government is violating all of our rights as human beings which, in order to maintain the legitimacy of the military-industrial complex, are being forced to relinquish their rights for their own personal convenience. This includes the right to marry, to have legal representation for their spouses. In terms of these rights, the U.S. government is breaking the international conventions as they seek to maintain their power over the international community. They are actively violating their human rights as they keep the world at a dangerous angle by attempting to exert their power. It’s quite literally becoming difficult for the U.S. citizens to live independently peacefully through the United States. This