HUMAN RIGHTS ACTORS AND ACTIVITIES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTORS AND ACTIVITIES - Essay Example These rights, which can be found in full on the website UN.org, were as follows: 1. Personal rights: Personal rights include the right to live, to have a nationality, to be recognized before law as a person, to have protection against inhumane treatment, punishment, or torture, and for protection against various racial, ethnic, sexual and religious discrimination. 2. Legal rights: These include provisions for addressing the crimes in cases where basic rights have been violated. Articles 8 through 12 have provisions for ensuring that fair and impartial public trials take place, that families of the arrested are protected, and that there is no interference by the legal system with anyone’s family, home and reputation. 3. Civil liberties: These include the right to freedom of speech, thought, conscience and religion. Everyone has the right to hold an opinion, express their point of view even in published works, movement, residence, peaceful assembly and association. Also included in civil liberties is the right to seek safety from persecution by leaving the country. 4. Subsistence rights: These include provisions for having the right to a certain standard of living. ... 6. Social and cultural rights: These include the right to have a social life, to participate in community activities, to marry only by choice, and to have children. Additionally, the declaration makes provisions for the right to obtain a free primary education. 7. Political rights: These include the right to vote, to take part in government activities, to periodic and general elections with universal and equal suffrage. This list was the basis for the later declaration, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was submitted on 16 December 1966 and entered into force on 23 March 1976 (United Nations, 1976). Human rights declarations have been passed by the United Nations covering topics such as genocide, political rights of women, racial discrimination and torture. These rights have been further extended and explained upon from the Universal Declaration document, and thus we can safely say that the norms of the regime are consistent and coherent (Office of the U nited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2007). It is generally agreed that these rights are interdependent and in complete synergy. They form a cohesive whole from which any nation or individual can pick. However, the existence of these treaties does not guarantee the rights will be given. They are binding international standards for the signatories of the treaties, but their implementation is not compulsory. It is up to the lawmakers of each nation to decide if the treaty is to be followed within that country. This is stated in Article 2, Section 7 of the UN Charter, which states that â€Å"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or