Human rights
This topic speaks about human rights, what it is, how human rights are related to us and how to protect them
What are human rights?
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” John F. Kennedy
We all have certainly heard about human rights. This term is widely used in political discourse as well as in media. But do we really know what they are? Do we not know just these two words without their real meaning? And do we truly understand that they are very closely related to each of us?
We all have human rights, they are inherent to all of us. We say they are universal, whatever is our nationality, place of residence, gender,ethnicity, colour, religion, language, or any other status. This universality principle is embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In other words, human rights are rights that do not depend on anyone, they are innate to all of us simply because we are human beings.
As we have seen above, several human rights of the Kazakh journalist in Slovakia, (her rights of free speech and of association) were violated. Moreover, there can be found plenty other similar cases. People work in gruesome conditions, others cannot often get their case to the a real and just court for a very long time. The most common violation of human rights is insufficient protection of the rights of women and girls.
To describe the concept of human rights in detail we can use a more straightforward example – the right to life. It says that nobody can deprive you of your life – otherwise s/he violates your human right. Do not worry - it does not mean that a guilty person does not deserve punishment if s/he committed a crime. Not at all. It just means that s/he simply cannot be sentenced to death due to the fact s/he is a human, and that there is nothing bad enough to overshadow it.
In spite of the fact that human rights are guaranteed by governments, they do not have international borders. There are international bodies which can, to a certain extent, enforce human rights. Balli Marzecova decided not to bring her case to court, but there are lots of EU citizens approaching these international institutions when they feel that national ones do not treat them properly.
Questions to reflect on
- How would you feel if you were in the place of Balli Marzecová and your rights were violated?
- What other human rights do you know?