The Correlation Between Human Rights Violations and the Rise of Terrorism - Essay Example

Human Rights Concern: The Relationship between Violation of Human Rights and Terrorism Introduction Human rights are defined as privileges that are entitled to every man by the virtue of being human. They include right to life, right to knowledge, freedom of expression, freedom of belief, and many more. It is the duty of every state to ensure equality in human rights. Violation of human rights is a universal crime. This is what Charter of Human Rights suggests. However, the reality is quite different. Just imagine only 10 percent of the global population has the leverage of consuming meal twice a day. Majority of world’s population is still uneducated, and most of the women are still dealt as secondary objects. In a world that has advanced so rapidly in the field of science and technology, there is a dire need for the evolution of human society. If one takes a bird eye view of the international affair, one would find the torch bearers of human rights exploiting human. Thus in this regard the practice and observance of human rights have definitely one of the major concerns for humanity. Every object in this universe has a limit of tolerance; once that limit is exceeded there are chances for it to break down or to react in opposition. Society of today has exceeded these limits. There is massive poverty, zero tolerance, injustice and inequality. As a result of all these anomalies, one can find resistance and reaction on the rise. Poor policy making, unstable politics and corruption are perhaps the basic reasons behind social disintegration. When the state institutions fail to deliver justice, it gives birth to outlaws. Outlaws initially stand up for their rights, but sometimes they go astray, and use their energies for committing illegal debauchery. Terrorism is a phenomenon that is associated with fear; it is the act of spreading terror. Until this date there is no fix definition for terrorism. Terrorizing people, making them scared are the two defining features of this phenomenon (Paust 41). 1 Every now and then media is raising the issue of extremism and offering solutions for curbing it. However, one does not see any efforts on practical grounds for removing this anomaly. Extremism is a reaction that is induced into the minds of the people by circumstances around them. Thus rationalization of irrational extremism is usually carried out by offering arguments from religious scriptures, traditions, and from regional legacies. If one closely analyzes the problem of extremism, one would find its roots in the violation of basic human rights and deprivation of the masses from their needs. One must accept the fact that nurture is dominant than nature, since it has the capacity to turn man into a beast. Just imagine if an individual has the access to the basic necessities of life; he/ she enjoys all the human rights, then what are the possibilities that he/ she would to stand up against the system, and take arms. On the other hand most of the people who sell their souls, morality and humanity to the terrorist squads are those who have nothing to lose, because they have never received anything from the system. The sense of deprivation and inferiority complex are enough to trigger vengeance in a person. Inequality and Social Injustice Inequality roots from injustice; and injustice is a jester of fraudulence. Equality refers to unbiasedness, where rich and poor, male and female, master and slave and all others are treated alike. It is about establishing balance, acceptance and tolerance. The statement “all men are equal” suggests that as a human every individual is entitled to some basic rights, and depriving someone of his/her rights due to some reason is considered as violation or a crime. Inequality is the product of stratified social order. The classes or the strata found prevalent in a society are product of economic and political activity of a community or a region. Social order is maintained with help of various tools like religion, caste system, color and race. Social order is about devising hierarchal pyramid, economic strength and political influence are the key determinants for allocating ranks within a hierarchal system. People with minimum wage and almost zero political influence constitute the greater part of social order’s pyramid. The top echelon is dominated by few with maximum wealth, and immense political force; while the middle class hangs between the two extremes. People at the bottom want to uplift their standards, while people on the top push them back. The tussle of various classes within a society brings several social pillars into play. For instance the elite class funds religious clerics to exploit the poor in the name of religion, by offering sermons on Life after Death, or on salvation. Similarly, the influential ones have the power to limit job opportunities or to dominate the market (Khan, Petrasek and Annan 30).2 Poverty and Terrorism Poverty is a product of unequal distribution of wealth. It refrain the masses from active participation in the nation’s development. Therefore, elimination of poverty is always rated as one of the main objective of almost every government in every country; however, these efforts for the elimination of poverty remain a paperwork formality. If one considers the hierarchy of needs, one finds that individual belonging to the lowest stratum of society find it hard to fulfill their basic needs, and their energies go wasted in gratification of basic needs (Braveman and Gruskin 544)3. When survival becomes name of fulfilling physiological needs, people ignore their intellectual development, and due to this reason illiteracy is found in abundance within the lower stratum. When people are illiterate, they do not have the access to information. The right to information is snatched from the masses by these leaders on the top, because the greatest threat to their sovereignty is awareness and the demands of basic rights by the poor (Poe and Tate 861)4. Poverty in itself is not a crime, but it has the potential to give birth to lots of crimes. When a person will not get his share of bread, he will steal it. If stealing is not an option he might go out and kill for it. Apart from gaining his share, there is the pressure of providing it to his/her family, and in this case a person may sell his or her life to feed his parents, children and siblings. Women go out and sell their flesh and become sex workers, while for males there are quiet lots of options. They can become murders, they can get themselves recruited in the army of terrorists, or simply they can blow themselves in a suicide bomb explosion. Over the past decade suicide bombing has been a routine in the Middle East and in South Asia. Children belonging to the age group of 8-15 years are bought, kidnapped or hired by these terrorist groups, and then they are trained to carry out these heinous acts. No one gives in on purpose rather it is because of the circumstances that force them to act in desperation (Yaman 49)5. Migration and Violation of Human Rights The extent of desperation varies, the extreme of which is becoming a suicide bomber, while a relatively gentle mode of managing desperation is to leave your home, and find a new place to settle down. Migration refers to the act of leaving one’s native land and moving to another place. This movement is caused by several factors (Pogge 5). Usually these factors are divided into pull and push factors. A place that is economically stable, and has openings for employment always attracts people from places that are under developed. In this regard job opportunities, better life style and security become pull factors for emigration to that place. On the other hand the features of an under developed region becomes its push factors i.e. forcing native to immigration. Just to understand this scenario, one can find examples from the daily life; for instance compare shopping malls from two different countries, let country “A” be USA, and country “B” be Philippines. In the shopping mall of country “A” one will find several Philippines nationals, but if one observes a shopping mall in country “B”, it will get really hard to find an American. The answer is pretty simple people from Philippines move to America for better job opportunities and better lifestyle but Americans on the other hand hardly visit Philippines because they don’t anything attractive or appalling (Pogge)6. Migration is the right of every one provided he/she follows the legal channel and does not become illegal migrants. However, people when move to other countries they have to face another set of problems. At first they treated as strangers, they are not entertained the same way as natives are, moreover they have to face discrimination on the basis of their color, accent, religious beliefs, and culture. They are aliens in the new country, as a result of which they are derived of some their basic rights. They might have to compromise their qualifications or skills for relatively lower wages, they might not get the right to express themselves openly, and they are often under scrutiny. Even today if considers the case of Afro-Americans who have migrated several centuries ago, they have to face inequality. The white skin Americans still rate themselves above the black people. Therefore, the majority of Afro-Americans are occupied by low grade jobs, their residential areas are deserted, and their children do not have the access to quality education, and last but not the least these people are often troubled by the police for commission of crime. Another example associated with migration and deprivation of human rights comes from the post 9/11 displacement of Afghanis. When USA and other NATO troops entered Afghanistan a large number of Afghanis were forced to leave their homes, and they were made to migrate to Pakistan. Afghans had to face a lot of problems in their new home, moreover, there anti-Pakistan sentiment present among these migrants. As a result of which some of these people stood up to develop militias to carry out terrorist attacks within Pakistan and across borders against American army. At present no one knows the total number of Afghan migrants; however, one can definitely sense their hatred for Pakistan and America (Braveman and Gruskin 543)3. Conclusion Hunger, poverty and war are the defining features of the first fourteen years of the twenty first century. The trends of history are not changing, and if human race does not act today, it will be too late to undo it tomorrow. The future of upcoming generations resides with the present generation. The need of the hour is to act, rather than signing papers or reserving holidays for celebrating human rights. References Braveman, P. and S. Gruskin. "Poverty, equity, human rights and health." Bulletin of the World Health organization (2003): 539-545. Khan, Irene, David Petrasek and Kofi Atta Annan. The unheard truth: Poverty and human rights. New York & London: WW Norton & Company, 2009. Paust, Jordan J. "The Link between Human Rights and Terrorism and Its Implications for the Law of State Responsibility." Hastings Intl & Comp. L. Rev. (1987): 41. Poe, S. C. and C. N. Tate. " Repression of human rights to personal integrity in the 1980s: a global analysis." American Political Science Review (1994): 853-872. Pogge, Thomas W. World poverty and human rights. Polity, 2008. Yaman, Derya. ""Human Rights and Terrorism." Legal Aspects of Combating Terrorism, NATO Science for Peace and Security Series E: Human and Societal Dynamics (2008): 49-50. Read More