The human right system as defined by the United Nation Human Rights System is a system whereby, the fundamental rights of humans are observed as well as character and worth of all the persons. Included in this system is the application of equal rights and system to all persons.
The United Nations have set a preamble on the rights that should be assigned to humans. The preamble preaches of application of human rights to all people with maximum fairness and campaigns against discrimination, whether on the age of the person or sexual orientation.
Many rights are discussed in the universal declaration of human rights proposal in regard to the rights of individuals in a given country. The thirty articles contained in this declaration all aim at ensuring that the people rights are observed at all means.
The rights speak of a general importance of the people having the equal rights to others and living together in the spirit of brotherhood. The purpose of human rights is to be able to protect human agency and to protect humans against abuse and oppression.
Negative freedom is fought against through the underlined rights. According to Ignatieff, the rights subsistence is also important as the right of agency, since both of them fight against torture (Gutman, 2001). Though the subsistence right is not, negative freedom is equally as bad because it causes cruelty and punishment to the people.
The importance of human right is to protect human agency, which is not always inclusive of the negative freedom only. However, just because human rights are enforced does not mean that the people will live a wonderful life. The sole purpose of these rights is to ensure that individuals do not face any kind of abuse and torture.
Proliferation of right is however discouraged, as setting out rights that are not necessarily needed to protect agency may weaken even the power of the enforcers. Achievement of the international human rights may be a problem due to proliferation of rights since it is hard to achieve an intercultural assent to rights. Human right also faces a problem of nationalism.
By nationalism it means the right of self- determining. The problem with nationalism is that if it has to be practiced, the majority have their way while minority have just their say. Some people will benefit while others lose.
Ultimately, nationalism means that some rights will be observed and others violated; this is however not what human rights stands for since it seeks to make sure that the right of all individuals are observed and equality is the main driving force (Gutman, 2001).
The United Nation has a dream of creating a global community, which observes human rights. Anthropology plays a great role in this by carrying out a research on the different culture, and also monitoring the observance of rights and when need arises in fighting against incidences of violation of rights. Anthropology is a big advocator of the human rights through collectively fighting of human rights and for individuals.
Anthropologists have also shown great commitment in the political area, involving themselves in activities that fight away oppression in the society. Anthropology seeks to put back human back to their rights. Anthropologist can be of great help on the understanding of human rights through showing conceptions of rights, and how they function in different cultures.
For example, in Latin America traditionally citizenship excluded the locals and were subject to rights violations. Through the years anthropologists have studied the international law and tried to reform it to such a way that they revive legal pluralism. It is through this time that legal anthropology rose up that aimed at ensuring the right of individuals internationally.
A culture of transnational culture has been created where some countries like Hawaii have followed the international human rights law. Anthropology therefore embraces the need to have law in the society that guides the people (Wilson 2006).
Having the law will ensure that equality among the individuals is observed and the people in the society will have knowledge of the same. Incidences of violation of the rights are therefore minimal.
In Adams book on the suffering of winds of Lhasa, universal rights people are well advocated as compared to individualist rights of people. Vincanne is keen to note that the Tibetan refugees would endure lesser pain if the rights of all the individuals were considered. The data collected in this book reveal that the international rights were not followed.
The way they were fighting against the denial of the rights took them so long to get the independence, and it is only when they sort the rights universally that their views were heard (Adams, 2002). Culture is brought out as barrier to the rights of individually in the society, the fact that their culture embraced torture made them take long in fighting for their rights.
Sometimes, incidences of violence and suffering are important in adding the dimension of experience to the language of rights. Suffering brings understanding to the people of the accepted human suffering right to the people. The same is expressed in the anthropology theory where we are deemed to imagine ourselves living the lives of other people and enjoy the treatment they enjoy.
Instances of having political violence and atrocity are some of the ways the human rights of people can be denied. According to Humphrey (2002), violence does not only to cause injury, but also destroy the human life. In such a setting where the political violence is in existence, the rights of people are usually not practiced and oppression is high.
After the end of the violence, the only way to ensure that such violation does not occur again is ensuring that there is closure among the affected parties. Achieving closure means that the victims’ rights are observed and those in the violation of the rights are subjected to the justice of the later or international justice (Humphrey, 2002). S
ometimes the rights of the victim are seen as an obstacle to political change. Such a notion should not exist since for justice to be there, it is necessary to have people’s rights being observed.
Observance of the rights laid down is not usually followed especially in scenarios involving politics. Internationally, there have been various incidences of violence and this time through violation and lack of awareness to the general public. Application of rights right down by the United Nation is not always followed.
The right against oppression, which is highlighted in their declaration of human rights is not followed in some countries; Argentina is one of the countries that has faced this problem. Military dictatorship around the1970s denied the people their rights by subjecting them to oppression, torture, and imprisonment.
Through this time, the constitution was not followed and rights against the people were denied. Pressure amounted from the international community that led to formation of human right groups that fought impunity. It is through the meetings between these groups that pushed the authority to stop oppression and embrace transition.
Truth and justice commission emerged at this point, and were campaigned for democracy (Bosco, 2004). Creation of democracy led the government to engage in attempts to set up ways of ensuring that the justice in the country is observed, as well as a frame work of ensuring human rights are followed.
To the local people, some individuals have gone to the extent of putting up memorial landscapes that are historical to the people, reminding them of the time their rights were being violated. Madres de Plaza de Mayo is one of the symbols used in Argentina, that acts as a reminder to the general public of having the rights of the public (Bosco, 2004).
The symbols are reminders of the visitors as well as the public of the past and how oppressive it was to them. Rituals have also been used as a symbol of fighting incidences of lack of issuing of rights. The fact that they are collective can offer a commemoration to all the people of importance of the past as well as the need to observe human rights.
Education to the local public of their rights has been promoted through various methods. Among them has been setting up Truth and Reconciliation bodies. In these bodies, the cause of the violence is determined as well as the reasons that led to the occurrence of the violence.
According to Humphrey (2002), it is not always that these bodies offer justice to the public, as in some instances, for example the incident is South Africa: So that the truth can be determined, the violators of these rights were given amnesty to unreveal the truth that would set closure to the general public. Humphrey highlights that the testimony has more importance than meeting the individuals’ physiological needs.
Giving these testimonies also involved transformation and creation of a culture of having human rights being observed. Humphreys is also keen to note that the international court can be used to offer justice to the individuals who have been involved in massive denial of rights (Humphrey, 2002).
Through this system, the public rights can be fought against as well as ensure that justice is practiced. Having trial is one of the steps that can be taken to ensure that the general population has recovered from the violence times. Morality is also instilled by this move. However, this is not always enough, working with the memory of the past is important in ensuring that the political reality is created in the country.
Human rights are important among individuals in any society. They enhance the spirit of living in harmony among the individuals in the society. There are many theories that explain the need to have practice of right. Among them is the anthropology theory that stresses on the need of collective fight for peoples’ rights (Wilson, 2006).
There is no need to just highlight the rights that people have without ever ensuring that the rights are given to the people. Justice is also an important element in offering the rights of the people; individuals involved in violence against other people, whether political or not, should be accountable for their actions.
There is also the need to have a truth and justice commission to bring healing to a country that has suffered great violence, and also trials to individuals involved. To a country involved in violence, there is need to set a reminder to the future generation where the country has come from, to ensure that it does not happen again. Setting out symbols can be one of the solutions that remind the locals of where they have come from.
List of References
Adams, V. (2002) Suffering the Winds of Lhasa: Politicized Bodies, Human Rights, Cultural difference, and Humanism in Tibet, in The Anthropology of Globalization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Bosco, F. J. (2004) Human rights Politics and scaled performances of memory: conflicts among the Madres De Plaza De Mayo in Argentina. Social & Cultural Geography.
Gutman, A. (2001) Introduction. In Michael Ignatieff Human Rights: As Politics and Idolatry. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford.
Humphrey, M. (2002) The Politics of Atrocity and Reconciliation: From terror to trauma. London: Routledge.
Wilson, R. (2006) Afterward to “Anthropology and Human Rights in a New Key”: The Social Life of Rights. American Anthropologist.