Evolution of Human Rights - Essay Example

Evolution of Human Rights Insert Name Insert Institution Introduction There is so much information about human rights from different sources making it difficult to make a concise description of what human rights are. Sources are contradictory, confusing, legalistic and confusing making it complex to understand what Human Rights are and how they can be practised. Sources of information on human rights range from government and law courts to the media and voluntary organizations. To discuss and conceptualize issues of human rights is not easy but how they can be implemented and their workability is even harder. It is important to note that human rights are not new things in our daily lives but they have been there over the years since the early centuries. United Nations was developed to ensure the protection of rights of the world population. After the formation of the United Nations, various instruments were then developed to help in its operations and running to meet the needs and demands of its statutes (International, 2008). The United Nations has numerous instruments for its operations and running in different parts of the world and in relation to different world human rights issues. The Human Rights instruments include the bill of rights, which encompasses the UN Declaration on Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, social and Cultural Rights, Core Human Rights and addressing of specific rights of everyone. In addition, there are other conventions, which address specific groups, which may not have been addressed in the above treaties, and conventions and factoring historical injustices. The conventions play the purpose of developing international law, facilitation of economic development, protection of human rights and achieving of world peace. Ife (2009) has a direct perception and alludes to human rights as a representation of the most powerful ideas in contemporary discourse. He further explains that the present world is filled with needs of economic gains and greed with globalization and individualism seen as the chore of livelihoods. Therefore, his perceptions and directions seek to reaffirm the need and value of humanity. The three generations concepts by Ife include the first generation, second generation and third generation. The first generation rights had a major focus on the rights of individuals on issues like freedom to speech, movement, voting, religion, citizenship, religion and freedom from discrimination. The second-generation human rights shifted to economic, social and cultural rights of people. It covered issues to deal with employment, education, housing, health, social security, recreation and social democracy. The second generation was more positive to nature requiring policy measures and a lot of advocacy. The third generation human rights were majorly collective moving away from the individualistic to collective mechanisms and encompassing the general society as a whole (Ife, 2008). It now looked into and factors in issues to do with environmental health and safety, rights to harmonious society and economic well-being. The third generation human right has its major rooting upon the struggle from colonialism in the 20th century. The convention related to status of refugees in 1951 is the major legal document with the definition of who is a refugee, his rights and the legal obligation of the participating states. The convention passed that no refugee or displaced person without his consent shall be forced to return to the mother country. The convention came because of the effects of the Second World War and there were massive human displacements. The major requirement of the convention is that everyone has the right to seek asylum and flee from persecution in any other country and has a right to be protected (Nations, 1950). It provides alternatives to detention, protection of the refugees and protecting them from refugee discrimination. Australia’s bill of rights dealing with refugees and asylum seekers should become more individualistic and practical to help the refugees at personal best rather than to compound issues. The authorities need to enhance enforcement and allocate additional resources to enforcers to improve on efficiency. The famous human rights charter known today was drafted in 1948. A group of famous and prominent men and women originating and represented many countries of the world met and drafted the human rights charter known today. The charter came to be known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and had its basing on a single but outstanding idea. The idea was that all of us are human beings therefore entitled to basic rights and freedom. This was developed in relation to the horrors and atrocities witnessed in the Second World War. The declaration set values and regulations that would prevent future oppressions and atrocities hence setting values for human equal worth and dignity (Ife, 2009). The declaration was developed after drawing from all the precepts of major world religions and cultures. The main aim was for the promotion of mutual respect and responsibility. Equally, it meant to contain and manage arbitrary sate power over individuals’ .due to this declaration it has lead and inspired numerous comprehensive right treaties and charters, which have followed it. Presently Human Rights Acts have been drafted and developed into the constitutions and legislations of countries for the sole purpose of protecting the rights of individuals. The major aim of this acts are to develop and nurture other. Legally human rights act bring into effect rights from 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Human rights are nothing new to the world or to Australia. Cases backdating as early as 1215 were recorded in Britain referred to as the Magna Carta and with the first bill in 1618. The conventions thereafter drew from the English common law and later updated them for the twentieth century. These have been done to factor in the values required, dignity and respect associated with human rights. In some sectors of the society, human rights are perceived as common sense and in others, they are seen as good manners. However, human rights are based on the grounds of five major principles. The major principles rotate around fairness, dignity, autonomy, respect and equality. Therefore, the creation of human rights was based on these principles so as to have a common ground and value for our common humanity. The most basic principle and value for human rights is how we treat each other. Hence, human rights have massive effect to the weak, people with less power in the society, children, the poor, and people with learning difficulties, people with inability and generally the vulnerable people in our societies. Main Body Australia has a policy and obligation to protect asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in the country provided they have proper reason. The country has that obligation whether the individual arrives with or without a visa. The country is a party to the UN convention on refugees hence has agreed that people are not to be sent back to countries where their lives and freedom are endangered. The policy of not returning people to countries where their rights would be violated apply equally to non-refugee’s .The government has also ensured that asylum seekers and refugees within the country have their rights protected by the law. The country has some recognized refugees and asylum seekers held in its prisons. This is as a result of the immigration act of 1958 which states that anyone who arrives in Australia mainland without a valid visa will be detained until he gets a visa or until he is deported or moved out of the country. The policy of Australia equally applies to asylum seekers who arrive by offshore boats in the islands. They have to undergo detention until the valid visas are processed or until they move pout of Australia. Reporting of human rights and their violation may sometimes vary and depict different types and classes of information. However, regardless of the reporting of cases of human rights, they apply to everyone in an equal measure. Their application and role is almost in an equal measure whether at home or abroad. The application of human rights can be by carrying out the following; making leaders to be accountable for their actions and decisions. Therefore, initiatives of human rights should be able to protect the vulnerable people in the society against atrocities of politicians, government institutions, and councils and even in certain cases hospitals, which directly and indiscriminately violate the rights of people. This should be through consistent weighing up of issues and finding solutions through a fair method of tackling important social issues and obtaining the best possible solution. The human rights are also enabling the protection of individual rights and rights of the community in a balanced way and manner. Human rights vary greatly. Some have to consider the balancing of individual rights and those of an entire community or in some cases the rights of an entire country or maybe issues of national security. The human rights have to put measures to protect the country and its citizens from individuals who would rather abuse the rights and freedoms of individual in the pretext of their fundamental rights. It is important to use your rights and freedom to issues like speech and interaction very but they should never endanger the lives of others in the society as a whole. Right to expression like inciting someone to endanger another person is wrong or using public euphoria to lead to genocide or massacre is wrong and is a violation of the very human freedom attributes. Some human rights are very absolute. Never is it justifiable to torture or enslave a individual however in cases dealing with extraction of information dealing to lives of many individual or in relation to national security, the question and circumstances related to torture leave a lot to be desired. Human rights should be straightforward and practical. Hence, they need to bring common sense into an ongoing situation where bureaucratic procedures fail to meet the demands and very needs and rights of people. In real situations it is not only necessary to take legal actions so as to be able to handle human right issues but the very fact of knowing your human rights should be enough to protect you from the violations and abuse of your human rights. The very fact of an individual knowing his human right helps in protecting yourself. The acts of human rights have been developed to encourage people to go to courts and seek for their rights. It equally helps the authorities and legal systems to handle issues professionally and with good and competent legal binding and backing. Human rights have broad and wide applications and contexts. Sometimes it helps in situations you have the least expectation of its help. It aids you to choose the kind of life you want to lead and understand others despite their religious or cultural background. This knowledge will assist you in understanding and letting them do whatever they are doing without harming or interfering with their actions or goings. The human right acts make authorities to put into consideration the rights of people and not make unnecessary assumptions that may endanger the lives of people generally. There is a very fragile factor and argument in relation to whether human rights are wrong at certain instances. In real applications, human rights receive a large amount and barrage of criticism from various sectors. Some people think that human rights apply only to law-abiding people and citizens of the country only. A certain group of people think that human rights are issues affecting foreign dictators only and are never an issue of the Australian community. Some complaints from certain sectors perceive human rights as impediments that negate national security by putting numerous impediments on the way of enactments of law and regulations (Commission H. R., 2007). Generally, there are numerous viewpoints to the issue of human rights; however, we need to start from a basic if not similar point of view in relation to the handling of issues of human rights. For the any system to understand issues of human rights and to factor them in appropriately there is need to ensure that all the complaints of violations of the human rights are studied and understood so that the way forward maybe right and appropriate. The perception that human rights only favour criminals and lawyers should be analyzed in depth. Most reporting on human rights are always not true and leave excessively much for consideration and factoring in. The most important factor to deal with human rights is that they are universal and everyone is entitled to the human rights. Their intention is not for awarding good behaviour but for the running and operations of a just society. Regardless of backgrounds, whether you are disabled, asylum seekers, violators of the law, criminals etc., human rights protect our humanity and provide democracy for our very existence as humans. They acknowledge that we are all humans and should balance our activities in relation to one another and for the benefit of the society as a whole (Commission, 2009). The country’s policy of arresting and detaining refugees and asylum seekers who arrive in the country without genuine visa is in contravention to the international conventions of which it is a signatory. Human rights bodies have raised issues to do with this but little has been done to amend the policy. There is a sighting of protection of the national security but that is not enough to warrant treating of the refugees and asylum seekers inhumanly. The Australian Human Rights have been contravened majorly because the country has a policy that agrees to uphold human rights as mentioned in international treaties and declarations. Therefore the federal opposition, human rights bodies and the Greens have raised issues to oppose the policy of discrimination of people especially refugees and genuine asylum seekers into Australia. The country should develop more friendly policies for the protection of genuine refugees and asylum seekers without taking them through the troubles of detention and even deportation to countries where their lives maybe adversely threatened. Conclusion Human rights apply to everybody globally despite your location or nationality. The major document is the Universal Declaration on Human Rights since it stipulates out the factors and conditions to be considered in relation to protection of human rights globally. States have a mandate to ratify the convention requirements in relation to human rights and develop acts and policies, which comprehensively and effectively protect rights of the disadvantaged in the society effectively. The different approaches to human rights may have varying legal and policy basing but the most important factor is that they have to factor in respect, dignity, liberty, security, freedom from discrimination and freedom from torture (Commission A. H., 2008). Asylum seekers are facing a lot of problems and impediments in Australia hence there is a need for friendly and accommodative policy measures to protect their rights. Although the policies that guard against their infiltration into the country to some extent are for purposes of national security but since the country is a member of the United Nations and has signed Universal Declaration on Human Rights it should also protect the rights of these groups. There is a need to develop policies and measures that protect the rights of rightful refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. The policy must factor in prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping of these groups offering them support and protecting their very rights effectively. The government and political class should also have political good will for enactment of policies and strengthening of Australia Human Rights Commission to perform efficiently. References Commission, A. H. (2008). Immigration Detention Report:Summary of Observation Following visit to Australias Immigration Detention Facilities(2008). Human Rights Commission and Immigration. Commission, E. A. (2009). Ours to Own; Understanding Human Rights. Equality and Human Rights Journal , 3-30. Commission, H. R. (2007). Summary of Observation following Visit to Mainland Immigration Detention Facilities(2007). Perth City: Human Rights and Immigration Department. Ife, J. (2008). Human Rights and Social Work:Towards Rights based Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ife, J. (2009). Human Rights from Below:Achieving Rights Through Community Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. International, A. (2008). Human Rights:Information for Students. 4-39. Nations, U. (1950). Refugee Protection; A Guide to International Refugee Law. Universal declaration of Human Rights ,Article 14 , 3-140. Read More