Human rights are the basic human rights and freedoms which are entitled to the human beings. They are the entitlements on to a person from the actual fact of being a human being and are accorded to them regardless of their affiliations, background, race, occupation, religion, age and any other personal factors. They are acquired upon birth of an individual and are for the purpose of maintaining human dignity and integrity without any distinction. Human rights have an agreed international standard though a country can increase them depending on its political, social and economic status. Human rights are supported by several international conventions and treaties such as the United Nations. The most famous United Nation convention was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 (Freeman, 2002).
In my opinion all people should have equal dignity and rights, people should relate to one another in the spirit of brotherhood and equality. All people are entitled to all the rights and freedoms without any regard to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or any other orientation like nationality, social origin, property ownership, birth place or any other distinguishing factor. No further discrimination shall be made on the basis of ones political, jurisdiction or policy of the country of origin, regardless of the nature of its independence.
All people are entitled to right to life, liberty and entitlement to security. Liberty is the freedom of being in the public, or freedom from unlawful detention or tyrannical rule. The government should provide security and safety to all its citizens through maintenance of law and order. The right to live means that ones life cannot be taken without any legal direction or conviction. All people have the right not to be held in slavery or servitude. All forms and types of slavery or slave trade are forbidden in all degrees.
All people are entitled to be treated fairly without any form of cruelty or torture. All people should be protected against any inhuman and degrading punishment. All people have the right to be recognized as a person as defined by the law. All people according to the law are equal and are entitled to equal protection by the law without any form of discrimination. All people are entitled to a fair remedy form a tribunal that looks at violation of any fundamental human rights that are entitled to a person.
All people have the right not to be illegally arrested, detained or exiled without any concrete reason. Everyone is entitled to a fair and independent trial incase of committing an offense. No persons shall be arrested for offences that at the time of commitment were not illegal or is imposed on punitive measures other than those stipulated by law. All people shall be taken as not guilty until they are convicted in a court of law. All people have the right to privacy of ones property and should be protected against any form of interference.
All people have the fundamental right to freedom of movement within territories on ones country. All people have the right to move freely from any country of his choice but must return to their country. Every one has the right to seek asylum in foreign country while at the same time is freeing due to political reasons but not for any other criminal act. Everybody is entitled to a nationality and is free to change from one country to another. Everyone is entitled to education, more so basic education. Every one is entitled to the formation of the government of his country through election of representatives. There are other human rights including to one having his or her own family at own consent among others.
Contemporary feminism has altered the debate on human rights by looking at human rights issues concerning women. Contemporary feminism is for the ideas that women should be afforded equal opportunities; it recognizes that women are exploited by the fact that they are women and perceived a weaker sex. Feminist movements are geared towards establishing economic, social and women cultural rights and enhancing their protection. Contemporary feminism has taken the issue of human rights a notch higher because it addresses issues that had some loopholes in the fundamental human rights. Contemporary feminism has promoted a gender agenda in the human rights fundamentals (Freeman, 2002).
United States should be active in ensuring all nations respects the human rights of their citizens. Their involvements will reduction of international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. During international crime s numerous human rights are violated and a state of impunity prevails of the international community does not respond. United States should therefore in collaboration with other countries and the international community plays an active role in ensuring the fundamental human rights are adhered to in all parts of the world.
Prejudice can be defined as preconceived opinion or feeling that is either favorable or unfavorable made to many people or individuals based of their orientation. The opinions and attitudes derived are formed beforehand without thought, knowledge or reason based on race, social class, religion, gender, and other personal characteristics. There are different forms of prejudice. Cognitive prejudice refers what many people take as the truth. Affective prejudice refers to what attitude people develop through liking and disliking. Conative prejudice refers to the general predisposition of people’s behavior.
Discrimination is a social term that is used to refer to the treatment and making distinction in favor or against a person or group of persons based on their personal attributes or orientation. The consideration taken is based on a certain category rather than individual merit. There are many forms of discriminations; race discrimination, age discrimination, gender discrimination, employment discrimination, foreigners’ discrimination, disability discrimination and language discrimination among others.
Racism can be defined as the belief that certain race is superior to another or others. Racism takes ones social and moral traits are determined by their natural biological characteristics. Racism is a belief that inherent racial differences determine cultural, moral and individual achievements and capabilities. Racism can take its roots to a government system due to hatred and disregard of the other race thereby fostering discrimination and prejudice to prevail as the social order.
Events surrounding the death of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman brought different views between the Africans Americans and the whites. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered outside Nicole’s condominium. Initially, a criminal trial found O. J. Simpson not guilty of the murder of the two. However, the families of the slain victims filed a civil case against O. J. Simpson. The jury later found him liable and awarded the plaintiffs $8.5 million as compensatory damages (Sports, 1997).
The outcome of the civil trial attracted a lot of racial differences between the white and the African American. There were questions surrounding the past regarding Los Angeles police department officer’s failure to arrest O. J. Simpson in 1989 after calls for domestic abuses and their subsequent failure to quickly arrest him. O.J. Simpson defense lawyers argued that the evidence was framed on him and there was fraud and corruption while handling the evidence. It was also claimed that at the criminal trial there were more Africa American jurist thus O. J. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges. During the civil trial where O. J. Simpson was found liable to pay damages there were more white jurist thus the verdict of the case was strongly linked to racial bias. This brought about different views based on the above reasons (Sports, 1997).
Based on the social imagination, these different views arise from the various factors surrounding African Americans and whites. The whites placed much emphasis on the apparent evidence of character. They tend to think that for such a case, the character of the black mattered. While on the other hand blacks, do not relate character to the murder. They take things like unemployment, poverty and lack of education to be the determining factors to such murder cases. African Americans are doubtful of the police sincerely. They tended to believe that the police were prone to manipulation, being biased and could not escape to lie given that there have been abuses. They also believe that fact finding process is unequal, they lack competent lead counsel and the jury is biased since it has many white jurists than African American. They are also more concerned to the dangers of stereotyping.
Reference list
Freeman Michael (2002). Human rights: an interdisciplinary approach Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.
Sports (1997). Civil trial decides Simpson must pay $33.5 million in compensation and punitive damages for deaths of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Jet. 91(14); 56-57.