Crime and Human Rights Violation - Essay Example

ID No. Crime and Human Rights Violation Atrocities were committed by man against humanity since time immemorial. Historical accounts are replete with mass killing of people, some of them done by organized military or militia groups and others initiated by rulers and leaders themselves. There are times that the leaders can do such heinous acts against people with impunity. Since killing was done within the jurisdiction of a territory, the killing can be justified by the perpetrator according to one’s political agenda. During the Roman times, slaves and prisoners would be forced to engage in gladiatorial fights in arenas to be watched by the audience as they kill one another. Although some of them would enter such competition voluntarily for the prize money or prestige, majority of them could not refuse for being slaves or prisoners stripped of rights granted to other human beings. Albert Camus, the mid-20th century philosopher, discoursed in “The Rebel” (Camus 6) the illogical defense of violation of human rights by the holder of power. No one can question the atrocities and genocide committed before the start of the Common Era. But it would seem absurd that such acts were committed by people in power in modern times when people are expected to act and behave with civility. Camus might had been exasperated and disappointed with the turn of events in modern society since the powerless majority are subjected under the control of the authority expected to protect the people but nevertheless becomes the oppressor and tyrant. The discourses and politico-philosophical essays of Camus might be rooted to his family and childhood experiences (Albert Camus pars. 4-6). He grew up in a poor family and in an impoverished environment. He also experienced a hard life during the war. He was a socialist all throughout his life but an anti-communist. The Algerian Communist Party was at odds with the Le Parti du Peuple Algerien, which he considered as more people oriented and to which he was a member. His views and discourses surely reflected his own experiences. Barbaric and inhumane treatment of people in the distant past were common as part of conquest areas and territories. Even the common people would gleefully watch criminals or war prisoners being tortured or whipped to death in public places. Gladiators killing each other in the arena serve as an entertainment for the rulers and the people. It can be deduced that inhumane treatment of slaves or criminals is part of the culture of the people then. The values and social perspective of the people in a particular society were reflected even to the entertainment and recreational aspect of their lives. Many of the prisoners and slaves were taken as captives from other tribes or communities. Invasion of one territory is made for the purpose of controlling the people of that place and make them subject of the invader. The invader would also want to control the territory and all its resources, food, minerals, livestock, etc. to serve the needs of the people of the invading group. Thus, in the olden times, the conquered people were treated as inferior in society with lesser rights or no rights at all. As a resulted, there are groups in society which were not treated as an equal or as a human being. Or worst, they were viewed as mere animals that can be mutilated at the pleasure of the authorities. Severe punishments were already influenced by the perspective of the ruling elite of the time. In the pre-Common Era China, for instance, punishments given by the leaders were severe on the notion that people were naturally evil and must be punished severely (Lambert, Legalism par. 2). At around 2000 BCE, humans were sacrificed and buried beneath the foundations of buildings (Lambert, A More Advanced par. 3). Invading nations in the past think of themselves as superior than the rest of the nations. They think that they had more advanced civilization, knowledge and systems. These nations may have had advanced military capability that enabled them to subjugate other nations. During those historical periods, the legal tenets, moral and ethical philosophies, or political systems were still undergoing transformation toward more humane treatment of human beings. In the roman times, slaves were given rights to own properties and even become a free man later. However, it might have been a burden to the mind of Camus that in modern times, massacres and killing of millions of people still happened in the name of people, the revolution or change. Mao Zedong, for instance, is the father of communism in China that united the nation into one. His huge portrait hangs at the entrance of the Forbidden City while his image was inscribed in the Chinese currency (York par. 4). While reverence for Mao dominates the Chinese psyche, documentation recounted in the book (authored by Jung Chang and her husband Jon Halliday) “Mao: The Unknown Story” portrayed him as the “bloodiest mass murderer in history, a sadistic thug who enjoyed torture and was willing to sacrifice half of China's population for his dream of global domination” (par. 4). He finds leisure in killing people and had allowed millions of peasants to go hungry while food was exported to support the development of nuclear weapons. During peacetime, he caused the death of 70 million people (par. 6). In 1929, he purged the Red Army with torture and killing of thousands of soldiers (par. 10). When he gained power in 1949, 3 million “counter-revolutionaries” were executed in public view with the aim of scaring the Chinese population (par. 12). During the late 1950s, peasants were treated as slave laborers and given less food that caused 38 million to die of hunger (par. 13). Three million had died violently during the Cultural Revolution and according to accounts, Mao had tremendously enjoyed seeing films of the enemies suffering torture and humiliation (par. 14). Germany, on the other hand, believed that it is the Aryan race, superior and above the rest of humanity. It wanted to have perfect men and women; with perfect genetic composition. While the genocide during Adolf Hitler’s time focused on the Jews and people of Jewish descent, many other ethnic groups perished along with the Jews. According to accounts, the Nazis began to remove the elements in society they determined to be “harmful” after they gained control over the government (Yahya par. 2). The campaign started to target the disabled and persons with genetic disorders. This move is motivated by the “eugenics” theory advocated by Ernst Haeckel (a German biologist). The disabled and disabled persons were viewed as “parasites harmful to the gene structure of the German society” (par. 2). They were treated brutally, first by subjecting them to sterilization at the sterilization camps, and later killed by Hitler’s secret order. Other groups though also received oppression from the Hitler regime. They included the leftist and the liberals. Priests and clergymen were not exempted from oppression if they harbored positions contrary to the regime. These people were compelled to work at Dachau Camp (near Munich) until they fell dead (par. 2). Majority of the Nazi victims belong to the Jewish group. The ideology promoted by Hitler and Rosenberg ascribed the Jews as “the source of all evil on earth” and “parasites that harmed the German blood” (par. 4). The ideology fostered hatred by the German people toward the Jews, while the rights of the latter were curtailed. Later, all the Jews in Germany and Austria, and then in German occupied territories were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. Together with the Jews, gypsies, Slavs, Russian captives, and other ethnic and religious groups were taken to various concentration camps to work as slave laborer in German industries. In the more recent events, there were around 800,000 members of the Tutsi tribe killed by the Hutu tribe. This was sparked by the shooting on April 6, 1994 of the airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana (of Hutu tribe) over the Kigali airport (Rwanda par. 4). The blame was pointed to the Tutsi rebel group or the Hutu extremist (par. 5). But the result of this was the death of thousands of Tutsi people perpetrated by the Hutus. The presidential guard initiated the campaign for revenge that raged like wildfire. Political opposition leaders, members of the Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus immediately started (Rwanda, Mass Murder par. 4). Even soldiers and policemen enjoined the civilians to participate in the killings (par. 5). It was three months later that the killing had subsided. The ethnic unrest between the Hutus and Tutsis had grown during the colonial period when the Belgian colonizers (1916) grouped them apart and favored the taller Tutsis with better jobs (Rwanda, History of Violence par. 4). The Belgian colonizers regarded the Tutsis as more superior than the Hutus (par. 6). The animosity of the latter grew until the 1959 riots wherein more than 20,000 Tutsis were killed (par. 7). There are still occasional commission of atrocities and killings in modern times. Some of them were merely condemned by word without the perpetrators being brought to trial. A leader may be providing help at one time, but in another time, he or she is the perpetrator of mass killing. Ultimately, the driver of such atrocious acts is human nature with its greed for power and money, jealousy, hatred, etc. While the legal and philosophical perspective towards humane treatment and human rights may advance to the highest level, if the inner thoughts and emotions of humans will not change, killing and brutality toward another person may still persist. Works Cited Albert Camus: Documenting the Absurdities of War and Peace. 2011. Existential Primer. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. . Camus, Albert. L'homme revolte. Trans. Anthony Bower. N.p.: First Vintage International Edition, 1991. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. . Lambert, Tim. Ancient China. 2010 Web. 5 Dec. 2011. . Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened. BBC News. December 18, 2008. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. . Yahya, Harun. The Truth About The Holocaust. n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. . York, Geoffrey. Mao Zedong – Sacred Symbol and Bloodiest Mass Killer: New Biography Portrays Him as a Sociopath. Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. 2005. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. . Read More