Human rights in the USA

Afaf Al- Aker 9E

What are human rights?

• Human rights are basically the rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.

• These rights are entitled to any human whatever our nationality, color, sex, national/ethnic religion, language, or any other status.

• Example of human rights are: freedom from slavery, the right to marriage, work, health, education, freedom from torture.

• Human rights are undeniable, they should not be taken away, unless there was a necessary situation. For example: the right to liberty may be taken away if a human is found guilty of a crime by a court of law.

• “Human rights are what reason requires and conscience demands. They are us and we are them. Human rights are rights that any person has as a human being. We are all human beings; we are all deserving of human rights. One cannot be true without the other. “-Kofi Annan, Secretary-general of the United Nations

Human rights in the USA• In our world today there are plenty human rights issues varying from

minor offences to major cases.

• Some of these offences include: female genital mutilation, child labor, and cases relating to AID’s.

• Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality or on any other particular identity has impacted nearly 32 million people in the United States.

• Racial discrimination in the US judicial system is shocking. According to the 2007 annual report on the state of black Americans issued by the National Urban League (NUL), African Americans (especially males) are more likely than whites to be convicted and sentenced to longer terms. Blacks are seven times more likely than Whites to be incarcerated.

• Reports say the United States attacks more than 190 countries and regions including China on their human rights issues, but mentions nothing about its own human rights problems.

• The United States of America is the world's largest prison and has the highest inmates/population ratio in the world

• The freedom and rights of individual citizens are being increasingly marginalized in the United States.

• Hungry and homeless people have increased significantly in US cities. The US Department of Agriculture said in a report released on November 14, 2007 that at least 35.5 million people in the United States, including 12.63 million children, went hungry in 2006, an increase of 390,000 from 2005.

The United States of America

Economic issues

• Although there has been mush success with empowering women, a number of issues still exist.

• For example women work more than men, yet they are paid less. Gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime, and women and girls are often the ones that suffer most poverty.

• In many cities in the United States of America, African Americans aren’t employed due to their race, which leads to poverty.

• Economists are often skeptical concerning the economic effects of various forms of human rights.

• It has been argued that basic human rights can make the legal system less efficient but also that extensive social rights are incompatible with market economies.

• It is argued here that basic human rights are a precondition for other kinds of rights such as property and civil rights.

Social issues

• Hunger, homelessness and preventable diseases are not inevitable social problems or simply the result of natural disasters – they are a violation of people’s economic, social and cultural rights.

• Many people around the world, particularly those living in poverty and other marginalized groups, have their rights violated on a daily basis and too often are denied justice when they try to challenge these violations

• In many societies people are discriminated due to their color/nationality/race/ etc, which is due to a lack of human rights.

• Economic, social and cultural rights are a broad category of human rights guaranteed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other legally binding international and regional human rights treaties. Nearly every country in the world is party to a legally binding treaty that guarantees these rights.

• For example: rights at work, rights to education, cultural rights, etc.

• Although some of these rights aren’t followed by some citizens, and often they don’t face consequences.

Environmental issues

• It is a right for humans to have a clean and safe environment, and yet we are failing by polluting the environment.

• Environmental rights mean access to the unspoiled natural resources that enable survival, including land, shelter, food, water and air.

• They also include more purely ecological rights, including the right for a certain beetle to survive or the right for an individual to enjoy an unspoiled landscape.

Political issues• There are a wide variety of databases available which attempt to

measure, in an exact fashion, exactly what violations governments commit against those within their defensive control.

• An example of this is the list created and maintained by Prof. Christian Davenport at the Kroc Institute - University of Notre Dame.[95]

• Wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against huuman rights abuses are monitored by United Nations committees, national institutions and governments and by many independent non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, International Federation of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Anti-Slavery International.

Solutions

• In order to solve human rights issues, we have to come up with as many ways to aware people of women's rights, human rights, African American rights, etc.

• We can do this by starting campaigns and protests against these issues to start global awareness.

• Also when the government sees that more people are starting to care, they can increase the consequences of racism and inequality.

• For example there are many campaigns in the USA such as the HRC (human rights campaign) that fight for those who are unable to fight for themselves.