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    Comprehending Human Rights

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    Jonathan Acuña
    The document discusses different perspectives on human rights - whether they are legal, political, moral, or natural. It notes that while the UN upholds that all humans have these rights, in reality some people enjoy more rights than others depending on their country's legal and political systems. For example, North Koreans do not truly have freedom of speech due to their government's framework. The document also argues that human rights are fundamental moral rights that should be upheld everywhere, even if some countries do not respect them legally or politically based on their systems. In the end, it states human rights can be viewed as natural rights that predate civilizations and should be respected regardless of what laws or governments say.

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    Comprehending Human Rights

    Uploaded by

    Jonathan Acuña
    5K views3 pages
    The document discusses different perspectives on human rights - whether they are legal, political, moral, or natural. It notes that while the UN upholds that all humans have these rights, in reality some people enjoy more rights than others depending on their country's legal and political systems. For example, North Koreans do not truly have freedom of speech due to their government's framework. The document also argues that human rights are fundamental moral rights that should be upheld everywhere, even if some countries do not respect them legally or politically based on their systems. In the end, it states human rights can be viewed as natural rights that predate civilizations and should be respected regardless of what laws or governments say.

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    What exactly are human rights

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    The document discusses different perspectives on human rights - whether they are legal, political, moral, or natural. It notes that while the UN upholds that all humans have these rights, in reality some people enjoy more rights than others depending on their country's legal and political systems. For example, North Koreans do not truly have freedom of speech due to their government's framework. The document also argues that human rights are fundamental moral rights that should be upheld everywhere, even if some countries do not respect them legally or politically based on their systems. In the end, it states human rights can be viewed as natural rights that predate civilizations and should be respected regardless of what laws or governments say.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    5K views3 pages

    Comprehending Human Rights

    Uploaded by

    Jonathan Acuña
    The document discusses different perspectives on human rights - whether they are legal, political, moral, or natural. It notes that while the UN upholds that all humans have these rights, in reality some people enjoy more rights than others depending on their country's legal and political systems. For example, North Koreans do not truly have freedom of speech due to their government's framework. The document also argues that human rights are fundamental moral rights that should be upheld everywhere, even if some countries do not respect them legally or politically based on their systems. In the end, it states human rights can be viewed as natural rights that predate civilizations and should be respected regardless of what laws or governments say.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Mediterranean Sea, Sidi Bousaid - Tunisia

    Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

    Comprehending Human Rights


    Are they legal, political, moral, or natural?

    “All human beings have the rights that are enshrined in the Universal
    Declaration of Human Rights” (The Open University, 2020a), but are all individuals
    enjoying what each one of these rights entail? The fact is that even though the
    UN is upholding the fact that all humans have these rights, some people enjoy
    them plentifully, but others look like they have despised some of their rights
    because they only enjoy a handful of them.

    Why is it that some people have all or just a portion of them? The
    explanation can be simple if we focus on a nation’s legal or political structures that
    support them. As pointed out by The Open University (2020b), this “depends on
    certain legal or political frameworks respecting and upholding them.” The absence
    of this type of enforcement means that citizens do not have those rights legally or
    constitutionally extoled in their magna cartas. “Governments enshrine certain
    rights by passing laws and police forces and courts enforce them” (The Open
    University, 2020b). North Korea’s political framework, e.g., does not support the
    freedom of speech enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the legal
    upshot of this is that the North Koreans have the very same right as a calabash to
    publicly disagree with governmental decisions. Yet all individuals living in
    repressive regimes are entitled with this speech right but in their own countries.
    This sounds rather contradictory, but it is the reality they have to live. This is like
    a working horse being held from its hind legs when plowing the land.

    Human rights are moral rather than legal. The question then lingers: Are
    human rights for all individuals? Sure; this is a resounding yes! However, it needs
    to be understood that “human rights are fundamental moral rights that any and
    every human being has and which we should seek to uphold, establish and defend
    everywhere, at all times” (The Open University, 2020b). In the eyes of politicians,
    -for instance-, moral rights do not and should not interfere with a nation’s legal
    system. Take the case of the United States in 2017 when “Amnesty accused the
    U.S. government of setting the tone for a year of ‘hate-filled rhetoric’ that fueled
    bigotry and persecution across the world” (Meredith, 2018) when six Muslim-
    majority countries’ citizens were banned to travel to the United States. Based on
    this example, no human being should be discriminated because of its creed or
    religious beliefs. Morally speaking this can be labelled as an unethical decision yet
    legal.

    To end up, human rights should also be considered “natural rights.” A


    natural right “supposedly transcends any political or historical situation and does
    not depend on being established by any legal or political institutions” (The Open
    University, 2020c). Human rights predate the foundation of civilizations; “natural
    rights are thus rights that morally ought to be respected, even if in practice, they
    sometimes are not legally or politically respected” (The Open University, 2020c).
    Human rights are natural, moral fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal
    Declaration of Human Rights, but that are unfortunately not backed up by legal or
    political structures in all countries around the globe.

    References
    Meredith, S. (2018, February 23). 10 Global Hotspots for Major Human Rights Violations in 2017.
    Retrieved November 9, 2020, from CNBC.Com: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/amnesty-ten-
    global-hotspots-for-major-human-rights-violations-in-2017.html

    The Open University. (2020a). Global Ethics and Human Rights. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from
    FutureLearn.Com.

    The Open University. (2020b). What are Human Rights? Retrieved November 7, 2020, from
    FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905606

    The Open University. (2020c). Natural Rights. Retrieved November 8, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com:
    https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905607

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