Human Rights Activism

America is the most powerful nation in the world, and by all standards, the most democratic. There are many nations- mostly in what we call "The Third World" where democracy is non-existent and where human rights are violated daily. Knowing this, the major question to be debated is: Do we have a right- morally, politically, even economically, to interfere in the internal affairs of another country? In fact, there are disputes about the meaning of human rights. "Elie Wiesel has called (it) a 'world-wide secular religion' (Ignatieff 2001 53). The author disagrees with this, implying that under this definition it becomes merely "humanism worshiping itself (53). In other words, what we need to establish is whether even the idea of human rights activism is self-serving or whether it really does sufficient good to merit the outlay of money. To justify our activism, we need to start with human rights law, and how it has expanded since World War II.

After the establishment of the United Nations, one of its most important initial documents was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which clearly stated that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". It is obvious that there are many nations in the world, even as UN members, where this is not true. One can certainly think of China, not to mention many other Asian and African nations, often under the thumb of a particularly authoritarian regime. One can think not only of native populations i

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een discovered to be politically and culturally detrimental. While the Peace Corps, basically American-founded and funded, has a diminished presence and interest, Amnesty International, which is Britain based by truly international in character, has had greater success. One can also look, for example, to a successful international humanitarian effort, Medicins sans frontiers, which supplies doctors and medical assistance and health providers from a number of nations. Such internationalism requires careful and well-structured organizations and communications. The organizations should be all-inclusive; Keck and Sikkink (1998) include the media, churches, foundations, trade unions and consumer organizations, nongovernmental research institutions among others. Next, we need to probe the effectiveness, to date, of human rights advocacy. Ropp and Sikkink point to Guatemala: "The Guatemalan Constitution of 1985 is literally permeated with human rights norms that structure the entire document" (Ropp & Sikkink 190). Human rights certainly played a vital role not only in the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, but his election as president and an easing of apartheid. The U.S. Congress held up China's "most favored nation" statu

Category: Psychology - H