International Human Rights Assignment Sample

• Type Assignment
• Downloads990
• Pages12

Introduction

Get free samples written by our Top-Notch subject experts for taking assignment help uk from Rapid Assignment Help.

1. Discussion of the Main critiques of the universality of human rights related to specific community groups

Human rights can be considered to be all the distinct rights that are inherent to individuals. These rights are regardless of nationality, ethnicity, race, caste, creed, language, sex, religion along with other statuses. Human rights are inclusive of the “right to life and liberty” as well as the derivation of freedom from torture and slavery. This further involves the freedom in the expression of feelings and opinions along with the specification of the rights in working situations and education fields. The universality of human rights, therefore, specifies the principles concerned to be the cornerstones of the international laws regarding human rights (Cambridge, 2019). The statement means that all individuals have an equal entitlement to human rights. Such human rights are repeated within the conventions concerning “international human rights” that are reflective in resolutions and declarations.

Based on the principles projected by the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” UDHR, the providence of both guidance in the current actions as well as the set of ideas evolving for future implementations (repository, 2018). The embodiment of the principles set by UDHR mentions what states are doing and serving regarding the foundation for the “International Bill of Rights” along with other agreements on critical human rights. The backdrop of this discussion has distinctively identified various criticisms underlying the universality of human rights thriving in the international context (sciendo, 2019). Along with this, a brief discussion of such criticisms relating to the specific groups within the community has elaborated on the situation of the advent of critical formation as well. 

1.1 Identification of the main critiques concerning human rights

The universality of the human rights prevailing in today’s world has been set with an objective to protect the interests of all the communities and the individuals living within the same. In Article 1 of the declaration, it is mentioned that human beings from different backgrounds must show brotherhood and conscience towards each other. In the 2^nd article, it is clearly mentioned that the declaration is free of discrimination of any kind including the political status of countries. in article 4 it is mentioned that any form of slavery is not acceptable.

However, there is also evidence of a few criticisms occurring as critical drawbacks of the principle set by the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)”. The identification and discussion of the critiques offer critical analysis in several forms concerning scepticism towards the conceptual form of the universality of human rights. In article 7, protection from discrimination is mentioned, and the right to acknowledge violation in the rights is prescribed (sciendo , 2019). In article 27 out of 30 articles, the freedom for the individual to participate in their community freely is discussed. Human rights can be determined as a “multidimensional value system” including levels like political, moral and legal terms. Therefore, no justification can be granted as human rights are interpreted to be primarily legal nor conventionally political. Therefore, as a “critique of conventional norms” universality of human rights involves anessential ethical feature. Critiques have identified significant loopholes in the universality of human rights based on the principles formed as a declaration by “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)”.

It has been identified that the Declaration of human rights presented depicts a Western-based document that has critically failed in accounting for the cultural norms (edu, 2020). The values of diverse communities existing all over the globe have been ignored with an increasing attempt at the imposition of Western values on the rest of the world. Identification of the challenges projected from the universality of human rights has grounded significant arguments in relation to economic development, security along with socio-cultural values. Further problems identified from the principles set by UDHR include that there is no clear identification of the “mechanisms of implementation”. As per the UN declarations, the principles of UDHR are termed inspirational, however, this does not provide concrete frameworks for the actual achievement of the forms. Although the UDHR has claimed human rights to be applicable in universal terms the arguments justify that the principles have ignored and underdetermined the diverse cultural difference. In article 29, the full development of an individual’s personality in his or her community is assured. Based on distinct arguments a reasonable point of the critique concerning universalism of human rights depicts a new format of universalism. This perspective can be proposed as “critical universalism” where normative universalism is determined as a challenge to relativism.

The existence of the various societies and communities of the world raises issues that how can a single document claim to be representative of all the individuals in the globe when each individual experiences differently? With a significant emphasis on the “rights to individuals,” the declaration made attempted to transcend cultural bias in a manner which became relevant to all individuals. Moreover, some authors have confronted such criticisms and have claimed that the compatibility with human rights is consistent with cultural diversity. All cultures pursue their respective vision of maintaining a good life. As long as the cultural rights do not impinge on the rights of the individuals who re existing within the culture. Human rights uphold the application of equal rights to all individuals projecting distinct challenges with the universality factors. Cultural relativism maintains the cultural hegemony and neo-imperialistic forms of universal human rights.

The “Human Rights Council” has been identified to play a significant role in the mediation of the global discussion involving the universality projected within human rights. This further holds the highest form of standards within the promotional aspects that impact the protection of human rights for all individuals. As noted in many studies, the identification of discussion the human rights within the “human rights council” plays a significant role as part of advancement in providing universal protection. This is a document or declaration by the department ofhuman rights depicting universal problem regarding human rights. This document is the draft presented by various representatives having varied legal as well as cultural background. These representatives belong from different region of the world. This declaration was presented in the general assembly of the United Nations in Paris (kevinhong, 2018). It can be illustrated here that with the development and strengthening of the recognition for equality in human rights for specific groups like minorities and indigenous people. As a significant challenge projected for the universality in human rights has undermined the protection provided by the human rights universality guarantee. The particularistic has distinctly recognised that advancement towards detrimental ion of the human rights for the women of the society, migrants, LGBTI and justify the non-compliance with rights in specific conditions.

1.2 Discussion of the rights related to the specified groups

The universality of human rights has projected sheer drawbacks that mention the critiques to mention the loopholes of the principles framed by UDHR concerning the rights related to the specific groups. The specific groups consist of women and girls, indigenous individuals or minorities, LGBTIQ and other people including the specially-abled (journals , 2019). For this reason, the various critiques projected for the human rights for the specified groups are discussed as the following:

Rights for women

Based on the concept of feminism there are disclosures of new perspectives sorting to critique the distinct liberalism based on equality projected from laws as per “international human rights”. The main critiques noted for this factor mention the “androcentric construction of human rights” along with the “perpetuation of the false dichotomy between the public and private spheres”. The relationship existing between the human rights of women and liberalism constitutes a significant where the feminists realise the “sameness” with men of the society. The sameness principle is rejected as it had brought forward the gender-specific abuse within the mainstreaming of theories for human rights as well as practices (who , 2019). An argument can be critically projected that the concerns of human rights die not to take into consideration the lives of women and the daily experiences faced by the same. Constantly the human rights of women conflicts with each other concerning religious practices.

The extension of the critique within the androcentrism mentions the private dichotomy for the study of gender inequalities along with the economic globalisation becoming an important component that is systematically based on structural indivisibility. The broadening of the human rights universality for women has made the societies realise the civil-political liberties along with the socio-economic rights which are inextricable. However, there is a presence of disagreements over the actual nature projected by the above-mentioned relationship.

Rights for children

As children are completely dependent on the adults within society as they are born helpless there are laws for the protection of the same offering opportunities and allowing them in making decisions. Although children around the globe face critical violations that are ongoing with the human rights project. This includes poverty, discrimination and violence. Furthermore, the violations involve child poverty, the occurrence of violence against a child in all forms, discrimination within the society against girls, and children who are differently abled and require special help (researchgate, 2020). This further includes children being born out of wedlock, migrants, seeking asylum assistance, refugee’s children and the stateless. The existence of the problem remains prevalent on the international level because there is no authority in the power for sanctioning the states with regard to respect for the human rights of children. There are many organisations and associations that have denounced the violations, however, being unable in improving the situation deprived of the power for imposing legal judgements and sanctions. 

The human rights presented for the children can be criticised based on these grounds in being extremely unrealistic as they are not inclusive of accounting for the aspects like “economic, social and political” differences that are existing between the major of the world. The human rights of children face immense difficulty when the application of similar rights takes place for all the children of the world. As all children do not involve in living in the same economic, political or social conditions their rights do not justify the protection of all the children concerned. Despite the obligatory nature projected by international law, there are many states that do not consider the human rights of children as moral principles. The human rights for children can be effective whenever the states project strategies that condemning of any person who is guilty of the act of violation of rights. Therefore, it is not possible for the imposition of the legal decisions made for the facts of children’s rights as they are not able to be enforced and the abuses become unpunished as well.

Rights for indigenous people

The indigenous people face issues with systematic racism as they are frequently seen to raise concerns concerning systematic discrimination as well as the out righting of racism from various states and authorities. It can be mentioned in this case that, indigenous peoples critically suffer from “higher rates of poverty” along with malnutrition and homelessness (unja, 2019). Along with this, the community has lower levels of education and the least access to various health services which has critically contributed to the poverty situation. Based on the UN rights projected for the indigenous people mention that they have freedom involving equality for all individuals and becoming free from all sorts of racism.

The “right to self-determination” for the indigenous people can be exercised on their identity and origin. However, the rights of indigenous people have been critiqued to be violated as they are being genocides and tortured along with facing arbitrary arrest. Evidence has projected that the rights are being violated leading to an alarming increase in outbreaks of violence have been projected. Along with this an increase in the interactions with the alignment to criminal justice has initiated the problems like accusing the indigenous community to be victims of criminal acts.

Rights for LGBTIQ

The human rights present for the LGBT mention the integral aspects like “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” which must not lead to any sort of abuse and discriminatory act. Human rights protect the LGBTIQ community against all sorts of acts of violence and inequalities that involve torture and execution. The documentation of the exposure to the abuses faced by the mentioned community is based on “gender identity” and “sexual orientation”. This further involves arrests made under the injustice of laws, unequal treatments medical abuse, health wise discrimination, and censorship. A significant critique of the concepts concerning gender identity and sexual orientation has been employed in the contest for global human rights (journals , 2019). This has discoursed with the prevailing of international “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)” along with activists of human rights. In relation to this, the queer theory and social theory have presented key concepts concerning the shaping of debates for human rights.

The critical factors have analysed the theories based on the discourse of human rights that can be critically interpreted as an installation of distinctive gender discrimination and sexual matrix. An argument can be presented in this manner that the LGBT community have systematically contested the concepts for the dominant meaning.

Rights for specially-abled and migrants’ people

The rights that have been introduced to protect the specially challenged person from discrimination have been identified as the specially-abled rights. The rights have been introduced to avoid the restrictions faced by disabled persons in daily life. Disability rights have been introduced to increase the participation of disabled persons in every sphere of life. However, these rights have failed to encourage the participation of disabled persons due to the availability of corruption and inequality in the social environment of the world (ijrar, 2018). As a consequence of this assurance of a disabled person on human rights has reduced. The special rights introduced by the legal authority of the countries to provide special facilities to the disabled person in the context of job opportunities and medical facilities. On the contrary, of this, the reserved seats for disabled people have been used by wealthy persons and the probability of taking jobs by disabled persons has been minimised. 

The discrimination of the disabled person has created feasibility of the rights created by the legal authority in the real world. The participation of disabled people has been restricted by the corrupted people in the dynamic environment. It has been identified that despite special educational rights provided to disabled persons they have been denied to get educational priority and job opportunities due to their improper physique. The disabled person has considered the victim of social torture. It has been identified that normal people violated the rights of the special-abled people and avoid their participation in society’s events. 

The migrants face critical issues within the realms of economic challenges concerning the theft of their wages, cases of retrenchment, lack the social security, and accountability from the employer’s side. Furthermore, there are cases arising concerning mobility issues along with social discrimination apart from the problems with food, shelter, health and anxiety or fear. Mentioning the situation of violations occurring with the human rights against the migrants involves the distinct denials of rights projected for political and civil rights. Such denials of the rights involve torture, arbitrary detentions and a “lack of due process”. Furthermore, the mentioning of cultural, social and economic rights relating to education, housing and health are significantly violated and projected as serious critiques against the rights of migrants. Such violations of human rights project a negative impact on the global communities and highlight the “loss of confidence” within the structures and systems in legal terms for the communities.

References

Cambridge, 2019. International human rights available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/1D6D0A456B36BA7512A6AFF17F16E9B6/S0020589319000046a.pdf/international_human_rights_law_as_a_framework_for_algorithmic_accountability.pdf(accessed on 26th July 2022)

edu, 2020. Critique of conventional norms. available at:https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/163799/josi12413_am.pdf?sequence=1(accessed on 26th July 2022)

ijrar, 2018. Rights for specially-abled and migrants’ people. available at:https://www.ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR19K1265.pdf (accessed on 26th July 2022)

journals, 2019. Rights related to LGBTIQ community. available at:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1037969X20986658(accessed on 26th July 2022)

kevinhong, 2018. multidimensional value system. Available at:http://kevinhong.me/paper-pdf/MS_MD_Systems_2018.pdf (accessed on 26th July 2022)

repository, 2018. Universal Declaration of Human Rightsavailable at:https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/19206/Beyond_Asylum_Claims_Accepted_Version.pdf?sequence=1(accessed on 26th July 2022)

researchgate, 2020 Rights for children available at:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frances-Sheahan/publication/338637934_Ensuring_the_rights_of_children_with_neurodevelopmental_disabilities_within_child_justice_systems/links/5f5359c4299bf13a31a0b7ea/Ensuring-the-rights-of-children-with-neurodevelopmental-disabilities-within-child-justice-systems.pdf(accessed on 26th July 2022)

sciendo, 2019. International Bill of Rights. available at: https://sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/kbo/24/2/article-p231.xml(accessed on 26th July 2022)

unja, 2019. Rights for indigenous people. available at:https://jlj.unja.ac.id/index.php/home/article/download/9/9(accessed on 26th July 2022)

who, 2019. Rights for women. available at:https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/325776/9789241515627-eng.pdf(accessed on 26th July 2022)