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Introduction
“Whatever career you may choose for yourself –
doctor, lawyer, teacher – let me propose an avocation
to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for
civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will
make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher.
It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It
will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring
from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career
of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human
rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater
nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”
Martin Luther King Jr., US Civil Rights Leader
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Human and Civil Rights
Fundamental human rights are those rights that correspond
to the basic needs of all human beings, rights to which they
are entitled by virtue of their human status. Governments
do not confer them. Governments must recognise these rights
and protect them since they are inherent to each and every
member of the human family. These rights are those affirmed
and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948), and include the rights to life, liberty, and security
of person.
In the aftermath of the Second World War the nations of the
world looked back on the human rights violations of the Nazi
regime and determined it must never happen again. The Universal
Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly
and forms part of the International Bill of Human Rights.
It identified the fundamental rights of every human being,
rights that needed to be cherished and protected in the civil
law of nation states. Article three of the Universal Declaration
states that ‘everyone has the right to life, liberty
and the security of person.’ But the civil laws of individual
countries may still sometimes conflict with fundamental human
rights and need to be brought into line with international
law where human rights are concerned. Other rights such as
the right to drink in a pub at 18 years of age rather than
21 years of age are rights conferred by individual states
and may vary between states.
“Individuals have rights and there are things no person
or group may do to them (without violating their rights).”
Robert Nozick, Philosopher
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‘I Have A Dream’
Dr Martin Luther King Jr is the legendary civil rights leader
of the last century who led the peaceful movement for racial
justice and equality for people of colour across America.
In this context, the civil rights movement in the USA included
demands for the better protection of fundamental human rights,
as well as equal treatment under the law where civil rights
are concerned.
The USA signed up to the Universal Declaration in 1948. Nevertheless,
black people in the US continued to experience the denial
of equal recognition and protection under the law where their
rights were concerned that they were entitled to expect. Of
course the treatment of African Americans in the 1960s was
just one example of the disparity that existed for many groups
or individuals whose human rights were not equally protected
by their national governments (cf the much more systematic
and widespread denial of human rights on racial, religious
and political grounds in communist countries and in South
Africa). Nevertheless, it had become a major scandal in a
country that prided itself on its respect for human rights.
Civil laws in the US which perpetrated discrimination against
blacks were not only in flagrant disagreement with the Universal
Declaration but also contradicted the US Declaration of Independence
(1776) that asserts the natural rights of each human being
in that all people are ‘endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights.’
Dr King’s tireless efforts to raise awareness of the
discrimination, segregation and other injustices which black
people were forced to endure in their own country was the
catalyst for change as was his preaching of a better way to
live, one that reaffirmed the human rights of people of all
colours and creeds. His famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial
at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 was
a defining moment for the American Civil Rights Movement at
that time and remains one of the most inspirational speeches
on justice and equal rights for all.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise
up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal’.” Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights
Leader
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History
There are many theories about human rights. In modern times
the notion of ‘the rights of man’, emanating from
the Enlightenment of the seventeenth century has been broadly
accepted. There is now universal agreement that every human
being has an inherent dignity from which arise inherent fundamental
human rights. People may disagree philosophically and religiously
about the nature of human rights. But today, everyone agrees
that human beings have fundamental human rights that must
be protected by the law of the land and in a way that shows
no favouritism.
The purpose of identifying and recognising universally agreed
human rights was and is to promote the peaceful coexistence
of all peoples, and to protect people against harm, including
that perpetrated by their own governments. In the absence
of these principles being put into practice, discrimination,
intolerance, oppression and injustice will always take place,
and on a grand scale. In the light of the atrocities and horrors
perpetrated by the Nazis, the nations of the world proposed
the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Universal Declaration affirmed that the goal of freedom,
justice and peace in the world could only be achieved on the
basis of the recognition of the inherent dignity of the human
being and the legal protection of the inviolable and inalienable
human rights that flow from it. This is so because when we
affirm and protect the rights and freedoms of others, we affirm
and protect our own rights and freedoms.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights –
This great and inspiring instrument was born of an increased
sense of responsibility by the international community for
the promotion and protection of man’s basic rights and
freedoms. The world has come to a clear realisation of the
fact that freedom, justice and world peace can only be assured
through the international promotion and protection of these
rights and freedoms.” U Thant, Secretary-General of
the United Nations 1961-1971.
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Abortion
Due to the abortion laws and practices of many countries
around the world one group of human beings, the unborn, has
their fundamental rights consistently undermined and violated.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes each individual
human being as a member of the human family. There is to be
no distinction between so-called persons and non-persons.
Each human being is entitled to be treated and respected as
a person before the law.
Some abortion supporters say that there is a point between
fertilisation and birth when the child becomes a human person.
Only then is he or she protected under the law. Abortion supporters
seem unable to reach an agreement among themselves as to just
when such a point is realised. On the other hand the language
used in UN human rights documents is inclusive: all members
of the human family, without distinction of any kind, are
the bearers of human rights.
History reveals many cases where some human beings have been
similarly excluded from moral consideration. Those exclusions,
made on the basis of skin colour, ethnicity, religion, or
class have led to justifications of grotesque abuses of human
rights from slavery to genocide. The Declaration makes it
clear such discrimination against any member of the human
family is in direct conflict with the ‘equal and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family.’
Where the unborn are concerned, the Declaration on the Rights
of the Child (1959) reaffirms that “the need for …
special safeguards has been … recognized in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights”. These ‘special safeguards
and care, including legal protection’, says the Declaration
on the rights of the Child (1959), must be given to children
‘before as well as after birth’ because of a child’s
‘mental and physical immaturity.’
Abortion is clearly incompatible with universally agreed
fundamental human rights.
The right to life, the most basic of all human rights, belongs
as much to the baby in the womb as to the toddling child,
the adolescent, the middle-aged person or the pensioner. Abortion
legislation explicitly denies the absolute right to life of
children in the womb by setting a time during which abortion
is permitted, and specific criteria which if met would legally
permit abortion.
“This is the duty of our generation as we enter the
twenty-first century – solidarity with the weak, the
persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It
is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanising
meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves
not by their own identity but by that of others.” Elie
Wiesel, Novelist, Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust survivor
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Vulnerable groups
The practice of induced abortion directly affects the rights
of a particularly vulnerable group of human beings –
unborn children. It is justified by pro-abortion supporters
on the basis that the individual right to privacy of the mother
trumps the right to life of the baby in the womb. Put another
way, since the baby is in the mother’s personal private
space, her womb, and the mother has sovereign right over her
own body, she is entitled to have an abortion. Here the unborn
child is denied equal protection of the law since abortion
of its nature robs another individual of his or her life.
With abortion the group whose rights are being ignored and
abused are the ones most vulnerable and least able to speak
for themselves, preborn babies.
“It seems to me clear as daylight that abortion would
be a crime.” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, pacificist
political and spiritual leader of India who led the cause
for Indian independence from the British Empire
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Womens Rights
Some women carry an especially heavy burden of poverty. In
some parts of the world they may be subject to discriminatory
laws, denied access to the courts, and denied the same level
of education as are men of a similar class and background.
Greater imbalances occur between classes and socio-economic
groups than between men and women of similar background.
The feminist movement today is strongly pro-abortion. A small
but fast growing minority of feminists are pro-life feminists.
They believe abortion does nothing to help empower or liberate
women. This is a continuation of the views of the mothers
of the feminist movement who also opposed abortion on the
grounds that it was a violent act against women and babies
in the womb, and that it showed a lack of respect for motherhood.
Feminists for Life is one such pro-life feminist organisation
that, like the early American feminists who opposed abortion,
works to systematically eliminate the coercive factors that
drive women to abortion by facilitating practical solutions.
FFL is a non-sectarian, non-partisan grassroots organisation
dedicated to empowering women through progressive, non-violent
choices for themselves and their children.
What the early feminists said about abortion:
Emma Goldman referred to the relatively high abortion rate
in the slums as “the brutalisation of the poor.”
The suffragists were adamant that abortion was further evidence
of women’s oppression. Susan B Anthony said of her work
for women’s rights: “Sweeter even than to have
had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to
me to help bring about a better state of thing for mother
generally, so that their little unborn ones could not be willed
away from them.”
Sarah Norton looked forward to a world without abortion with
the words: “Perhaps there will come a time when…an
unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood…and
when the right of the unborn to be born will not be denied
or interfered with.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton argued that none are free till all
are free: "When we consider that women are treated as
property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our
children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Mattie Brinkerhoff found in abortion not freedom, but despair:
"When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude
that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman
destroys the life of her unborn child, it is evidence that
... she has been greatly wronged."
“Abortion undermines a society's human rights obligations,
its notions of social justice, its attempts to resist aggression,
conflict and domination, its desire to create harmony. Abortion
- "the right to choose" was held up as the answer
to poverty, as the means to achieve a woman's social and economic
equality. It would give us happy families free from a burden
of "too many children." But scraping, poisoning
and dismemberment in a woman's own womb could never deliver
such promises. Pitting women against their own offspring could
hardly be a social benefit. Abortion has failed the basic
tenets of feminism. A movement concerned about women, children,
the poor and dispossessed has discriminated against a whole
population of human beings. A movement, which had in its ranks
“the most recent immigrants from non-personhood”,
began to impose non-personhood on another group. In embracing
abortion, feminism has betrayed its ideals.” Melinda
Tankard Reist, writer, researcher and director of Woman’s
Forum in Australia.
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Racism
The most predominant form of human and civil rights violations
relates to the treatment of groups because of their race,
ethnicity, religion or the colour of their skin which are
all forms of racial prejudice.
Martin Luther King fought for equal civil rights for people
of colour in America but today many African-Americans say
they are facing another civil rights issue and are taking
action to combat the high levels of abortions among women
in the black community. One of the organisations in this movement
is the Issues4Life Foundation and is supported by the niece
of the slain civil rights leader, Dr Alveda King, herself
a post-abortion woman. Issues4Life plans to provide information
and dialogue on life issues in the black community as well
as services to combat abortion and compares the numbers of
abortions among blacks to ‘genocide’ with statistics
showing black women account for 32 percent of all those getting
abortions nationwide, while they make up just 13 percent of
the population. It is interesting to note that black women
in America are also disproportionately poor. In 2002 New Jersey
Pastor Clenard Childress Jr., president of Life Education
And Resource Network (LEARN), created the www.blackgenocide
.com, website to address the issue which compares abortion
to slavery.
"It is not the first time a segment of the community
has had their rights denied…it is a civil rights issue
because it is dehumanising and not giving proper status as
a citizen. Most people on the opposite side think it is not
a person, just like they did during slavery." Pastor
Clenard Childress Jr., Pastor of the new Calvary Baptist Church
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60th Anniversary
One inspiring aspect of the Universal Declaration for Human
Rights is that it was born out of the cooperation of so many
different nations, cultures, ideologies and political systems
coming together to produce a common statement with the purpose
of setting out a vision for the world where every citizen
regardless of sex, ethnicity, religion and so on can live
in freedom and peace. It was proclaimed a "common standard
of achievement for all peoples and all nations", towards
which individuals and nations should "strive by progressive
measures, national and international, to secure their universal
and effective recognition and observance".
The 58 Member States of the United Nations General Assembly
formally adopted the Universal Declaration on 10 December
1948, at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, with 48 states in
favour - making it 60 years old in December 2008 – and
in the meantime has been reiterated by the countries of the
United Nations now amounting to over 190 countries.
The countries who voted in favour of it in 1948 were Afghanistan,
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Canada,
Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, the Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece,
Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia,
Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway,
Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Siam (Thailand),
Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay,
Venezuela. Abstaining: Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian SSR, Union of South Africa, USSR,
Yugoslavia. It is worth noting that the countries who abstained
were those which were communist, racist, or theocratic.
The theme for the 60th anniversary is ‘Dignity and
Justice for all of us’ which the UN states: “reinforces
the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as
a commitment to universal dignity and justice. It is not a
luxury or a wish list. The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and its core values, inherent human dignity, non-discrimination,
equality, fairness and universality apply to everyone, everywhere
and always. The Declaration is universal, enduring and vibrant,
and it concerns us all.”
The Universal Declaration offers a standard which promotes
protection for the human rights of all and especially for
the weakest and most vulnerable, the voiceless and those who
cannot defend themselves. But among the many who support and
fight to uphold the Rights of the Universal Declaration, there
are those who simply do not want any protection for the baby
in the womb where human rights are concerned.
Paradoxically, among those especially intolerant of the rights
of the unborn are many who are actually on the payroll of
the United Nations Organisation itself and work assiduously
to gain universal recognition of a so-called ‘right
to abortion’. Nevertheless there are many others who
know that human rights apply to all human beings, regardless
of their stage of development. They recognise that to set
a time when a human being becomes entitled to rights not only
weakens the argument in favour of inherent rights but heralds
a return to the very set of circumstances which obtained at
the time of the Second World War. Acceptance of abortion relies
on the utilitarian premise that if it provides a solution
for a practical problem, it is morally justifiable even though
such a ‘solution’ involves a repudiation of the
specific provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
The baby in the womb is a human being in his or her most
helpless form and is entitled to the protection of the law.
Curiously, those who refuse to provide that protection are
to be found amongst ‘human rights advocates’ who
advocate what they call ‘reproductive rights’.
And ‘reproductive rights’ is code for abortion
seen as a woman’s right, a necessary evil that promotes
the best interests of women. In these circumstances the natural
rights of the unborn child are sacrificed on the altar of
the rights women.
In her article Women Deserve Better Than Abortion Serrin
M Foster, President of Feminists For Life in America explains
that in reality abortion is not about making things better
for women but society. She says of the situation in the USA:
“Statistics gathered by abortion supporters reveal
that the primary reasons women with unintended pregnancies
turn to abortion are lack of financial resources and lack
of emotional support. Many women also say they felt abandoned,
or even coerced into having an abortion. Despite child support
laws, some fathers threaten to withhold support. Domestic
violence against single pregnant women at the hands of a boyfriend
is being reported with greater frequency. Coercion crosses
all socio-economic classes…Abortion is a symptom of
– never a solution to – the problems faced by
women…Abortion has completely failed as a social policy
designed to aid women. It is a reflection that we have failed
women – and that women have had to settle for far less
than they need and deserve.”
"Please use your freedom to promote ours." -Aung
San Suu Kyi, Burmese
Democracy Leader and Nobel Peace Laureate
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