Human Rights Essay

Human rights and the concepts concerning the treatment of man have received much publicity since 1948 during the formulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Protection of human rights goes way back to the early society of humans and continues to evolve with time as a leading factor in revolution and politics of any given government (Symonides 2003 p. 15). Power limitation for most governors based on the concept of human rights, which provided the foundation for judgment of the rulers’ leadership standards. United States also adopted this concept in their Bill of Rights that later developed, and through stress put on the need for international rights for human beings, the Universal Declaration got formulated too( Maddex 2000 p. 60). Currently, the human rights concept closely relates to the political organization of a society and the relationship between the government and its people. This entails the right of the citizens’ participation in politics, freedom that people should be entitled to, responsibility of the government to the people and the preservation of the people’s human rights in the process of practicing contemporary politics. Governments and states owe the people their prime dedication to maintaining and protecting the human rights; which involves their participation, recognition and expansion of the basic rights of people without necessarily infringing on meeting their basic needs. In order for a state to ascertain success in practicing contemporary politics, they need to strategize on the importance of maintaining the human rights of the people in the process of legitimizing their power and command for obedience. This paper aims to analyze the depth of concern that maintenance of human rights should receive in relation to practicing contemporary politics. The international body’s concern on rights issues dwells entirely on the policies that countries develop, their politics and the respect they maintain in regards to the rights of human beings. For instance during the end of antagonism in the East-West the United Nations strengthened their policies and stand on protecting human rights (Eade & Williams 1995 p. 3). In their view of politics, in the contemporary world, they formulated ways to protect such rights; such as offering humanitarian assistance to governing bodies, team inspections in relation to weapon destruction and an effort to fight for the internally displaced citizens. The four duty levels of a state in politics require that they respect the rights regime by protecting, respecting and meeting the rights of the people. Therefore in order to achieve this fundamental objective and obligation to the people, the state needs to resist in interfering with the people’s rights, respect them, allow the freedom of sharing resources, taking part in political action and participating in political autonomy, as well. In respect to the rights of the people, the view on socio-economic rights comes into play because for the political government to be able to dispose the resources equally and satisfy the peoples needs; they face an obligation to respect the people’s rights to free utilization of resources. Regarding a collective group, let’s say the family, an association the governing bodies and the contemporary political leaders need to respect the resources belonging to these groups in relation to their rights to the use of basic resources to satisfy their needs; this is what strengthens the human relations arm of politics in any governing state (Eade & Williams 1995 p. 42). Additionally, in an effort to increase and enhance machinery for rights actualization the state has to ensure they meet their obligation in committing to protect the rights of the people. In contemporary politics, the state has to make sure they put measures in place to protect the rights of the people against political, social or economical interference to avoid cases of political wrangles and conflict between the citizens and the arm of the government. This tertiary duty practicality involves establishing and maintaining a legal framework; by effectively implementing laws and regulations that would give the common man avenues to realize and enjoy their freedom and rights. On the hand, human rights form the pivot of moral doctrine that gives political order to the contemporary practice of politics. Hence the observation of human rights in reference to the international bill of rights determine the direction, scope and content usable in contemporary politics in relation to the moral norms of the people. Maintaining this moral doctrine of the rights of human beings in contemporary politics requires the application of convention measures issued in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to rights of the people to quality health care and fair, legal attention; with the aim of improving lives. While the safest way to secure favourable conditions necessary for people to live exemplary lives still stands out as human rights activism; the public authorities remain best suited to secure those conditions for the people (Carey, Gibney & Poe 2010 p. 32). Therefore, the much needed importance placed on maintaining the doctrine of human rights by most national institutions and international politics; in an effort to primarily avoiding interfering with the interests of the people. Moreover, the human rights doctrine in contemporary politics contributes to the ideological and geo-political order with a clear framework defining the basis of social, political and economic conditions required to lead better lives. Thus, the importance of practically monitoring and maintaining human rights through legal recognition and validation of the doctrine. Additionally, the human rights moral justification defines the sovereignty considerations made by a nation. Since human rights direct the legitimate criteria to be followed by individual nations, any appeals made by through politics should not by any means otherwise deter the nation-states from committing fully to maintaining the basic human rights. Thus, the human rights doctrine should be highly maintained because this determines the effective way of evaluating the contemporary legitimacy of the national and international political authorities (Shawki & Cox 2009 p. 36). Another subject to consider in justifying the importance of maintaining human rights in contemporary politics cuts across the identity role it plays in a community of people. Human rights define the political identity of people living in a certain community; therefore any the political authorities need to be more careful in handling matters bearing the interest of the rights of a people because, in turn this reflects on their moral jurisdiction and legitimacy of order over a sovereign state (Shawki & Cox 2009 p. 0). The morality of logic and justification of the individual rights and the community as a whole adds more weight to the extent of attention paid in maintaining human rights. Authorities in the contemporary politics have an understanding that human rights imposes positively to their control of power and effectiveness in law implementation; hence most of the leaders should formulate legislative laws that grant the people the freedom and the right to universal vision and contr ibution in political issues. Also, in an effort to legitimize authority in current politics, the state will have to stand up and defend the universality and morals of human rights; indicating that their political concern is not entirely based on position and power, but emanates from their primary concern to retain the dignity and rights of the human beings. Considering the legislative role that humanity assumes in politics, the authorities should embrace the concept of human rights doctrine and pursue to promote high maintenance of human rights; to present the people with better living conditions. This is because human rights initiate the orientation and demand certain goods that lack political justification hence guiding the actions undertaken in contemporary politics. Furthermore in the past, human rights took the leading role in revolution activism; the same case applies to contemporary politics whereby the positive the authorities influence put on maintaining human rights the faster they will be able to expand their democratic control and command audience of the people. Therefore, since democracy in politics and human rights directly relate, democratizing the lives of the people and establishing lasting protective measures would go into creating political order and eliminating the ambiguity that politics has on the identity of humans (Neocleous 2006 p. 135). Alternatively, obligation to establishing and maintaining human rights should be emphasized, not just as for upholding the values of the society and mankind but leaders in the contemporary political world need to view human rights as political so that they will continue to defend and formulate new ones in favour of the people they govern. Satisfaction of the people through human rights- oriented politics involves the authorities appreciating the diversity of the peoples culture, understand people’s views, realize the other value of an individual apart from political persuasion and commit to the democracy of the community; allowing them to contribute to the overall contest for political power(Nash 2010 p. 53). The best response and support showed by the people to their political leaders emerges from their willingness to evaluate their own values, their role in the community, listen to the plight of the people, exclude favouritism and exploitation in their political hierarchy and utilize their personal privileges’ in power to improve the lives of the people. This practically justifies how deep the importance of human rights relates to contemporary politics; and so the need to deduce stringent policies that govern the authorities in dispersing their duties in the political setting. The Human Rights council and the International Criminal Court fall under the few international bodies established to direct and penalize the actions of contemporary political leaders; in an effort to maintain the rights of humans. Abuse of human rights results to tension between the authorities and the people; further disrupting the already acknowledge international rights and laws governing the same hence political instability (Baehr 1994 p. 60). Consequently the probing of the ICC, leads to positive change in the doctrine of human rights as the government and political body abusing the rights of man face tough penalties. Despite these changes emanating from negative political conduct, many ascertain their success and relevance in ensuring that people’s protection from greedy and selfish governance; thus ICC has gone further to increase the penalties tied to the practice of politics in the contemporary setting to reduce the political crime against humanity and the common cases of genocide. Despite the cry, for better leadership authorities through contemporary politics continue to violate the rights of humans; leaving humanity the remedy to seal the gap between the political reality and the democracy of a secure future for the people. Addressing the depth of this issue reflecting back to the controversies in United States of the Abu Ghraib Prison and The Guantanamo Bay prisoners (Johari 1991 p. 26); there’s need to address the relevant problems surrounding the fight for human rights and public display of political awareness through varied avenues like websites. Moreover, the common man can initiate the activism to retain the rights of humans through the family unit and the community which ultimately give rise to the leaders in the contemporary world. Direct campaigns on equality and importance of human rights need more boost in creating educative awareness and affirmative action; guiding the conduct of authorities in the modern world politics in relation to protecting the interests of the common helpless man. Since poor humanity directly reflects on global change, there’s need to cultivate the spirit of togetherness between the community and the political structures present in order to improve the living conditions of people and the growing generation(Symonides 2003 p. 8). Other motivating factors that push for the maintenance of human rights arise from the fear of denial from existence. The denial of human rights supports brutality in the regime of contemporary politics, therefore, to counteract this fear from becoming reality there should be incorporation of human rights policies in political debates; in the contemporary politics paired with their respective penalties in case of violation (Baehr 1994 p. 6). Political lea ders in contemporary politics continue to source out dubious avenues to evade observing such rights hence the need for the United Nations Program on human rights to effect change in contemporary politics through legitimate arguments and conferences with the relevant political bodies, humanitarian representatives and authorities. Conclusively, without pressure on appeals made to effect and maintain human rights, authorities, in the democratic political world, would continue to argue and ignore the desirable quality of human existence. Subsequently freedom and equality in terms of speech and sharing of resources respectively, would become less meaningful in comparison to the benefits that human rights induces in politics; hence instead of politics contributing to nation building the result would only push for the eradication of human existence. Therefore, despite the efforts made by international bodies to promote and maintain human rights, the common man also needs to start human rights activism from the grass root level to merge the two(the family or community with the political unit). This will go into fostering a positive political weather and educative awareness of self protection against abuse (Steiner & Alston 2000 p. 55); that ultimately sums up to the minimum efforts towards maintaining human rights to sustain humanity.