...count (excluding bibliography): 4913 2. (a) Could poverty be a violation of human rights? Introduction In this essay I argue that poverty could be, and sometimes is, a violation of human rights. But what counts as a ‘violation’? After sorting out terminology (section 1), I distinguish three ways in which impoverishment could be a human rights violation (section 2). When an agent deliberately acts to impoverish someone, the resulting impoverishment, indisputably, is a violation of human rights. In contrast, when an agent merely omits to aid someone who is impoverished, it is deeply implausible that the impoverishment constitutes a violation of human rights. But there is a third, controversial class of cases, at the border of the acts/omissions distinction: where an agent, such as a state, negligently allows people to fall into or remain in poverty. Whether this counts as a violation of human rights is the principal subject of this essay, and requires for its resolution a discussion of the major philosophical conceptions of human rights. I consider the ‘standard’ account (section 3) and the ‘pragmatic’ account (section 4) of human rights. The former interprets human rights as fundamental moral rights; the latter interprets human rights in light of the function of actual human rights practice. I argue that both fail as philosophical accounts of human rights, and thereby fail to justify the human right to freedom from poverty (henceforth ‘HRP’): the standard account...
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...Many also object to specific rights which they say reflect Western cultural bias: the right, for instance, to political pluralism, the right to paid vacations (always good for a laugh in the sweatshops of the developing world) and, most troublesome of all, the rights of women. How can women's rights be universal in the face of widespread divergences of cultural practice, when in some societies marriage is seen not as a contract between two individuals but as an alliance between lineages, and when the permissible behaviour of womenfolk is central to the society's perception of its honour? In addition, some religious leaders argue that human rights can only be acceptable if they are founded on transcendent values of their faith, sanctioned by God. The Universal Declaration claims no such heritage - a draft reference to the Creator was consciously left out of the final text. There is a built-in conflict between the universality of human rights and the particularity of religious perspectives. How can one respond to these objections? Concepts of justice and law, the legitimacy of government, the dignity of the individual, protection from oppressive or arbitrary rule and participation in the affairs of the community are found in every society on the face of this earth. The challenge of human rights is to identify the common denominators rather than to throw up one's hands at the impossibility of universalism. The objections also reflect a false opposition between the primacy of the...
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...uneducated one of them all. From cultural traditions to religious beliefs, we plan and arrange the Wedding Event with the hope of a lifetime of successes. In everyday life we attend social gatherings with friends, family, and colleagues, humoring each other and making statements, “Let’s arrange the marriage now!” We find it humorous as we share innuendos of our perceptions and opinions. We quietly desire the perfect love story for our children wishing the selfish desire to play cupid and arrange the picture perfect union of our sons and daughters. As a society we think we know what is best for our children. Lucky, for the American culture of kids and young adults we are simple and a lot more liberal in the marrying arena. Children and young adults in America are not subjected to the traditions and religious beliefs tied to marriage decisions that such families and youth are victims to in foreign countries. India is a big partaker of both arranged marriages and forced marriages backed by cultural tradition and religious beliefs. Should foreign Cultures be allowed to arrange and force marriage because of cultural and religious beliefs? Is Culture and Tradition enough to pre-arrange marriages, and force under aged girls to marry based on family and cultural tradition? Should the government provide civil protection and intervene in the personal choices made my intimate family decisions based on culture and tradition? Over time the traditions and...
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...Human Rights should ensure that an individual is guaranteed certain rights and freedoms. Among the most important are civil and political rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the order to provide safety and equality to every individual. A major development towards Human Rights took place by the United Rights took place by the United Nations in 1948. A thirty page outline was adapted to declare a Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Injustices and violations occur everywhere but not as severe in Western civilizations. Third World Countries like India and in Asian cultures such as China believe in abiding by much stricter rules and regulations. The Problems and violations occurred early on in both of the regions, but still exist and effect many people's lives. In India the untouchables evolved from the caste system developed by an early Aryan custom. Such activities as talking and looking at other classes, drinking out of certain wells or even visiting some temples were forbidden. It now exists in rural parts of India including Bihar and in Southern Tamil Nadu, shunning about 160 million people in rank. The deaths and torture which have occurred in Tibet as a result of the Chinese invasion is staggering too. It started in 1949 and up to date has killed over 1.2 million Tibetans. After the mass invasion, Tibet represented a prison camp or labor camp for most people. Society, government, and religion are examples of reasons that started racism and bias opinions against...
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...Since 1940, there have been many violations of human rights. A lot of them have to deal with Article 5. Article 5 states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). This has been violated repeatedly, including twelve instances that I have read about. These twelve instances are big events that have caused millions of people to suffer. People of North Korea, the southern parts of Africa, Egypt, and even in the United States. You would think that these violations would have at least stopped by the mid-1900s, but they keep happening even through the present day. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been violated through sexual...
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...Globalization and Human Rights When faced with the need to balance justice against the world's many cultures, the world seems to be torn. Do we crush injustice wherever we find it throughout the world, no matter what traditions we have to topple in order to do so? More than that, do we have an obligation to do it? Some would say of course we do, that human rights are inalienable and it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak. But can we make that call objectively, to tell someone else that our culture is right and their's is wrong? It is without a doubt a complex issue where each case is deserving of intense debate. There is, however, most certainly a middle ground that can be reached, balancing justice and cultural beliefs. To begin with, it is important to define the concept of justice. There has been much debate throughout history, but one aspect that is oft agreed upon is legal egalitarianism, or equality before the law. All people's are subject to the same law with same basic rights, and shall be treated fairly by the courts. Working with such a definition, a problem becomes clear immediately. All are treated equally and fairly by the law, but what happens when the law itself is not fair? Sharia law, for example, contains many rulings that a westerner would consider unjust. Having your hand cut off because you stole a trinket from a shop would be judged as a cruel and unnecessarily harsh punishment by western standards. Here it is apparent...
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...responsibilities of directors, officers and employees of Adolf Hitler. It has been also recognized as a crime against humanity by the Rome Statute in the Explanatory Memorandum. This practice, also known as compulsory sterilization, has been usual during 20th century in several countries like Germany, USA, Japan, Russia, China, South Africa, India… But it is also happening in the 21th century, specifically in Uzbekistan. The Republic of Orosia became a member of the Council of Europe and ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1995. To be a valid procedure, it had to be carried out according to art.59 of ECHR. Firstly we have to notice that in this case there is a complaint from an individual against a state. This is possible because it is referred to in art.34 ECHR: “The Court may receive applications from any person, non-governmental organisation or group of individuals claiming to be the victim of a violation by one of the High Contracting Parties of the rights set forth in the Convention or the protocols thereto.” However, it is also necessary to look at art.35, because it contains some prohibitions for cases content in mentioned art.34: “The Court shall not deal with any application submitted under Article 34 that...
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...1 JUSTICE, EQUALITY, AND RIGHTS by John Tasioulas For R. Crisp (ed), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Ethics 1. The Nature of Justice Philosophers have advocated many divergent views as to the content of the correct principles of justice. In contemporary philosophy, for example, the live options range from the austere libertarian thesis that the claims of justice are limited to a small class of rights that protect us from coercive interference by others to more radically egalitarian doctrines that mandate the large-scale redistribution of wealth and other goods. But there is a prior, conceptual question: is there an illuminating sense in which these disagreements are aptly described as concerned with justice? Alternatively put, is there a concept of justice of which these rival accounts can be interpreted as offering different conceptions? (Rawls 1971/1999: 5-6). If not, the dispiriting conclusion looms that these disputes are „verbal‟ rather than genuine, like a debate about the nature of „banks‟ in which one party has in mind financial institutions and the other party the sloping bits of land at the sides of rivers. One answer is that the concept of justice marks out the entire domain of moral evaluation, or at least the whole of inter-personal morality, excluding only moral concerns relating purely to oneself or to non-persons, such as animals. This expansive reading of justice – as (inter-personal) moral rightness or virtue – has a venerable pedigree. The Greek...
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...comparison to their own. According to the Study Guide, Smillie and Kenny state that major contribution to the study of the concept of cultural relativism can be attributed to Boas and his students, who challenged a wide-spread idea that societies are staged along a line from the most undeveloped to most “civilized.” Rather, they suggested that each individual culture should be understood in terms of its unique beliefs and ideals. That is, in order to observe and understand how people live and operate in a particular culture, it is important to consider the way other view the world within the framework of their culture. A great example of this idea is depicted by Laura Bohannan in her work “Shakespeare in the bush.” With an argument in mind, that human nature is more or less universal, she travels to Africa and discusses a famous Shakespeare’s tragic play with native people of a tribe Tiv, expecting only slight variations in its interpretation accounted for discrepancies in culture. To her surprise, Bohannan finds out that customs, beliefs, translations and culture have an enormous role in the perception and interpretation of Shakespeare’s play and that its meaning is not as universal as she previously thought. She realizes that many concepts that are well-known and taken for granted in western society are so remote to the elders of the tribe, that they become convinced that Bohannan got the story wrong. For instance, Hamlet’s uncle’s succession to the throne being as a motive to kill Hamlet’s...
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... CONSEQUENTIAL ETHICS In Consequential Ethics, the outcomes determine the morality of the act. What make the act wrong are the consequences. It says, it will be legitimate to lie in order to get out of a serious problem, such as to save a persons life. In other words a white lie is fine. So the essence of morality is determined by the result or outcome of the act. NON – CONSEQUENTIAL ETHICS In non-Consequential Ethics, the source of morality comes from something else: law, God’s law, moral law, sense of duty, and your definition of what is the virtuous thing to do. All those considerations are built into the act itself before you could think of consequences, before it makes it right or wrong. One classic example is this system is lying. Lying could be wrong because in one system, it’s a violation of the nature of speech. It’s wrong to use a lie to achieve a good end. Simply put, a lie is a lie, is a lie. Egoism – Utilitarianism – Pragmatism Egoism - Means, act in your own self-interest. Utilitarianism - Do that which is moral only if the act produces the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. There are two brands of Utilitarianism: 1. Act Utilitarianism- Do the act. No consideration of before or after. Do what is called for now, and consider what action will produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. 2. Follow the Rule- Means you can’t think of actions as isolated instances. We make decisions based on trial and error, on...
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...Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy — Proverbs 31:8-9 (Bible,2015)." There is no doubt that the injustices poverty and the rights of the poor were often talked about in the Old Testament, but it is also a constant topic that is seen throughout the New Testament as well. In Jesus' time there were many different views on the existence of poverty and what it meant in relation to God (Bible Explained, 2015). Some people believed that it was God's wrath as a result of a person's sinfulness and some thought that it was simply a product of failing human society. However, Jesus' views were very different to those of others. From the Gospels, it can be read that Jesus fully embraced poverty. In fact, it was one of the core messages of the Gospels. Jesus often spoke of the rights of the poor and vulnerable and the importance of justice being upheld. In John 3:17 , he explains that justice of the poor is important because it fulfils Gods wishes and allows his love to abide in you (USCCB.org, 2013). "But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in...
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...swelling of the penis and bruising to the scrotum. The child was then transferred to a pediatric centre, where his bladder was diagnosed, doctors said that it was even or eight times its normal size. “If the Plastic Bell had been taken off five hours after he got there, he would be alive,” said Doctors. The child’s death was attributed to septic shock — “an overwhelming infection, leading to multi-organ failure.” The case was brought to Cairns’ attention because the circumstances of every death of an Ontario child under five years of age must be reviewed by the provincial coroner’s office. When the parents were asked about the reason of circumcision they said the following: “It’s our religious practice and we can’t ignore it. We have our rights to follow our own religious practices.” When the case was brought to the court, it involved a doctor accused of...
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... | | | | | | | | | |“The New Poor Class of USA: Hispanics” | |A new way of life and traditions… | | | | | | | |...
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...Although the scope of inalienable human rights is not entirely agreed upon, the concept has restructured political landscapes and is one of the few commonly recognized moral visions throughout the globe. This widely accepted notion provides a useful framework to support transnational activism to challenge injustices encompassed in civil, political, economic, and social spheres that affect lives worldwide. Using this backdrop, the global movement for women rights strives to enhance the human rights discourse by redressing gender vulnerabilities. Even though there are still continuing political struggles in making central the concerns of gender abuse, it has achieved considerable rethinking of the human rights doctrine as formerly understood....
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...Critically evaluate the proposition that all human beings possess equal and inalienable rights, and that they are entitled to such rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that each individual human being is entitled to. Human rights assert that humans are given certain entitlements simply for being a human. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscious and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 2010). They were developed in a democratic and universal manner. Throughout the world, human rights are acknowledged in various ways, such as shared norms of human moralities, justified moral norms, natural rights, or legal rights which are enforced at either a national level or within international law. However, the concept of human rights has been a heated topic of debate, as there is no consensus as to what should or should not be considered a human right. Human rights are relatively modern, only being in force for just over 50years, however the foundation of this concept is seen in the history of philosophy and concepts of natural law, rights and liberties in classical Greece and the development of Roman Law. Human rights concepts have existed for a lot of human history; however these liberties that...
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