The Importance of Upholding the Rights of Every Individual - Essay Example

? Human Rights Law Human Rights Law Human rights can be described as fundamental rights, which every human being is entitled to. The rights can be either natural or legal with regard to national as well as international perspective. The aim of human rights is to promote the dignity of every human being regardless of their status within the society, ethnicity, gender or origin. Deprivation of human rights is a serious injustice and as such, it is punishable by international laws. Human rights are classified into two categories. These are; civil and political rights; and economic, social and cultural rights. With regard to civil and political rights, every human being is protected from abuse of power by politicians who are known to pursue their own interests and thereby overlooking the common interests of the public. These rights include, right to life, right to vote and freedom of association1. Concerning the economic, social and cultural rights, every human being has a right to live a decent life. In addition to this, every person is entitled to the essential needs necessary for the sake of survival of every human being. These rights include, right to work as well as right to proper health. With reference to the discussion question given, this paper will discuss how the margin of appreciation operates with regards to human rights and whether the supervision provided by the court was adequate. This paper will also demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the main concepts, principles and rules of human rights law. It will also analyze how human rights protect the rights of every single human being in the society regardless of their gender, ethnicity and status. The term ‘margin of appreciation’ is a concept that has been adopted by the European Court of Human Rights when it comes to considering whether a member state of the European Convention on Human Rights has infringe the convention in one way or the other. This margin of appreciation allows courts to take into consequence the idea that the Convention will be deduced differently in the different member states. This is the cases when it comes to article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights which states that every person has a freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This includes the right to change religion alone or as a community and he/she can either do it privately or publicly. It also continues to say that the freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject to such limitations as are prescribed by the law in the interest of public safety. In the case of Open Door and Dublin Well Woman vs. Ireland (1992) 15 EHRR, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the Ireland Supreme Court’s injunction that restrained counseling agents from providing information facilities abroad to pregnant women because it violated Article 10 of the Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The injunction specifically interfered with two non profit organizations, Open Door Counseling Ltd. and Dublin Well Woman Centre Ltd that provided pregnancy related information to pregnant women. None of the two organizations upheld or encouraged abortion in any way. In addition to that the court further upheld Ireland’s restriction that interfered with the freedom of the women to access information. The injunction had a unbalanced impact in that in prohibited counseling regardless of age, health or circumstances of the pregnant women, this was because Ireland has a legitimate interest in protecting the life of the unborn. It was also noted by the court, that terminating of these pregnancies at later stages without adequate counseling posed a health risk to these women. The margin of appreciation doctrine in the jurisprudence of articles 8 to 11 involves qualified rights which are not absolute and have associated limitations that are expressed within the right itself. The first paragraph of each article states the right, while the second allows the State to breach its negative obligation of non-interference in individual liberty under a set of conditions established. The nature of the right involved is an important factor for the margin of appreciation to be justified widely or narrowly. Definitely, the more important the rights scheme of the Convention are, the more convincing the reason required to justify a restriction in them will be. Some states have been allowed a wide margin of appreciation when it comes to protection and respect of morals in that their notion varies between member states. To the contrary, the court on its part did not agree on the judgment presented above in the case of Open Door and Dublin Well Woman case. The court noted that the national authorities enjoyed a wide margin of appreciation in matters of moral, particularly in an area such as the Open Door and Dublin Well Woman Case which touched on matters of belief concerning the nature of human life. When Cognitive skills are used to promote human rights, an individual is able to understand that he/she is supposed to promote the human rights and as such it makes the promotion these rights easier. The conscience of deeds is also entailed in cognitive skills. These includes: paying attention, having a very sharp and accurate memory, understanding and production of different languages, solving of problems facing the community and decision making. The use of these skills ensures that every individual is able to understand that human rights are fundamental in regard to the life of the human being. In addition to this, it ensures that the human rights are upheld by every individual. It is important to impose these skills on human beings in an effort towards promotion of human rights protection, fulfillment and respect by every individual laid on them2. These skills can be imposed on human beings through seminars. In any country, seminars are usually held in different places with a specific aim of encouraging individuals to develop or acquire these needs and as such, one acquires the capabilities of making informed decisions regarding human ethics and thus making the process of promotion of human rights easy. Adopting the cognitive skills in an individual’s day to day life, enables one understand the need for promotion of human right regardless of the skin color, gender, ethical background, nationality or even religion. It is an essential skill and as such, it should be imposed on students who will in turn create a very conducive environment once they finish school and move out into the society. Once a civilian, they will promote the use of Cognitive skills and help in the promotion of human rights. Research has shown that, by use of these Cognitive skills in communities around the world in 2006, the rate of human rights violations went down by 12.8% meaning that when these skills are entailed, people are able to understand that it is essential that every human should have his/her human rights protected and respected. Individuals will also be involved in the process of decisions making to make sure that human rights have been upheld to the maximum. By involving individuals in the process of decision making, the government ensures that they understand the need to promote and uphold the human rights of every individual. Further they will also be involved in the making of laws, which are important in the process of human rights protection. In addition to this, the government, by encouraging the citizens to participate, it ensures that proper measures with regard to punishments are established for those who do not uphold human rights and in the implementation of these laws3. Individuals will also be involved the process of solving problems encountered in the local communities. By use of these skills individuals will be able to have a better sense of judgment towards certain compromising situations and are able to make informed decisions when handling situations and solving problems. It is therefore important to note that by use of Cognitive skills one is able to uphold the human rights and is able to make informed choices about the matters in hand. On the other hand, it is also worth noting that that the governments across the world in a continuous effort towards encouraging people to use Cognitive skills in their day to day lives so as to ensure that everyone recognizes that human rights are fundamental and are important to every human being. Human rights law protects the rights of individuals in the community in various ways. Through these human rights law individuals are able to know how to protect their human rights and how to deal with people who do not uphold their human rights. The human rights law is made up of treaties whereby the governments around the world are supposed to sign and establish follow up efforts in ensuring that the human rights are protected. The human rights law makes sure that the fundamental rights of every human being are address and well protected by the right bodies. The human rights law makes sure that there are stipulated penalties for offenders who do not uphold these fundamental human rights accordingly4. This human rights law also safeguards the rights of children who are most vulnerable in the society. We have heard of cases where the rights of children and minors have been abused by their parents, guardians or some members of the community. Imposition of human right law protects them from such kind of treatment. This human rights law also establishes punishments for people who do not uphold the rights of these children or minors in the society. Such punishments include life imprisonment for those found guilty among other punishments. It is also very important to ensure that these children are taken care of because, considering their age; it will be very difficult for them to take care of themselves. By protecting and upholding the rights of these children or minors in the society, you are respecting their right to freedom and life, which are the most essential for a human being5. Professionals in the field of human rights protection must entail specific skills so as to handle cases of human rights violation. He/she must have oral communication skills so as to be able to communicate effectively with both the victims of human rights violations and the violators of these rights. He/she must also posses these skills in order for them to be able to explain the human rights to people whose rights have been violated in one way or the other. He/she must be able to have writing skills. These kinds of skills are essential as they assists one to interpret and write the complex legal documents in a simple way for the victims of human rights violations to understand. They are also essential as they assist an individual to write notes during an interview with these victims of human rights violation and also put down short notes during court proceedings6. He/she must possess the skill of professionalism. This skill entails the confidentiality of interviews with victims of human rights violation. This is the most important skill in the legal aspect because; clients must be protected from stigmatization in the society by putting their case files private and confidential unless the client advises otherwise. By upholding this skill, the clients will be able to be open and honest with what happened during their encounters with the human rights violators. Human right law is categorized into two distinct categorizes. It includes the first generation rights which are the civil and political rights. These rights date back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and were put in place to cater for the political concerns. They were put in place after it was found out that some of the powerful governments were violating the rights if their citizens politically. They are based on two major ideas which are; personal freedom and protection from human rights violations by the governments. They are then categorized into three aspects, that is; civil rights, which include, among other, the right to equality and freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, right to life as well as the right not be tortured7. The second category is the right to legal representation. This entails, among others, protection from arbitrary arrest, protection from detention, right to presumed innocence until found guilty in a court of law as well as the right to appeal a case in a court of law. The other category is the political rights, which include, among others, the right to vote, right to join any political party, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom to access of information. Most of the human rights fall under more than one of the three categories as mentioned. Then there came the second generation of rights that included the social, economic and cultural rights. These rights are based on the idea of equality and access to important social and economical good, services and opportunities. They are also categorized into three categories. These are; a. Social rights, which include the right to health care, right to privacy and freedom from any kind of discrimination. b. Economic rights, which include, the right to work, right to good standard of living, right to housing and right to pension of one is old or disabled. c. Cultural rights, which include, among others, the right to freely participate in the culture of any community and the right to education. The human rights law was adopted in 1993 by the General Assembly of the United Nations and thereafter, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights was established. In 1996 the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights was abolished to pave way for the establishment of the United Nations Human Rights Council which was tasked with the enforcement of international human rights law among the member states. This commission was mandated to ensure that the member states put in place policies that enhanced and protected the human rights law8. It was also mandated with the responsibility of ensuring that the member states put in place laws that respect protect and fulfill the rights of everyone especially the rights of people with special needs. This human rights law has been enforced by the United Nations envoys in countries that show the need of protection of human rights and how these rights can be protected and upheld. From this analysis, it is clear that there is an importance in upholding the rights of the every individual in the society considering that we are all human being who need the fundamental human rights for our survival. It is also important to uphold the rights of the people with special needs in the society including the people with disabilities who deserve the love and care of the whole society for their own survival. It is also important to understand our own rights so as to know and understand what we are supposed to do when it comes to human rights law protection. References Abouharb, R Human Rights and Structural Adjustment. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 2007 Alfredsson, G ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: a common standard of achievement’. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 2(1), 1999, pp.225-218. Alston, P ‘Ships Passing in the Night:’ The Current State of the Human Rights and Development Debate seen through the Lens of the Millennium Development Goals. 27(2), 2005, pp.755-829. Bales, K ‘Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy.’ University of California Press. 2(4), 1999, pp.89-106. Bales, K Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. 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