Human Wrote

Lets get serious for a minute. Here are some words that I said to some people in India. They said they were good words and I have just found them in an old book. Therefore I decided to put them up on here so you can all have a good think about it. I hope you all enjoy this (in a mature and serious way).

"What does the term 'Human Rights' mean? They are 'rights' or liberties that one is supposed to be able to count on. For example, your Human Rights are intended to ensure that the police, or any government organisation, cannot just kill you for no justifiable purpose. The 'human' part means that these rights are universal and earnt by simply being a human. Of course, this is not a standard upheld by much of the world. Even in Britain, and especially the USA, the human rights situation leaves much to be desired.

Human Rights in the UK stems from Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights which is not as some believe, a branch or product of the EU. However, now you must have ratified the Convention to become a member of the EU and the EU has signed it as a separate body.

The most important rights assigned to us as European citizens are the Right to Life, the Prohibition of Torture, the Respect for Private and Family Life, Freedom of Thought and Religion, Freedom of Expression and the Freedom from False Imprisonment. These are also the fundamental rights recognised by the EU.

Organisations such as the UN and the European Council on Human Rights arose primarily because of the Holocaust. Although the abuse of the Australian aborigines, Native American genocide, Japanese internment, South African apartheid as well as countless other abuses throughout the entire human history demonstrate the essential need for the legal patrol of governing bodies.

As I have already alluded to; this legal patrol has not been quite as effective as would be desired. In Europe Britain and Turkey are the two most prolific abusers of the Convention. Turkey's cases arise mainly from their occupation of Cyprus and their treatment of its Greek residents. Britain, on the other hand, consistently abuses the Freedom of Expression rules as well as the Right to Life. This is demonstrated to an astonishing extent with cases surrounding the shooting of Menezes and the IRA. We have also seen a shocking lack of adherence with the Prohibition of Torture of Article 3 after British involvement in the USA's torture programs was exposed.

Any involvement in America's transgressions is a bad sign as they struggle to stay out of the limelight shared by top Human Rights abusers after they declared the war on terrorism in 2001. Extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, suppression of the press and continued discrimination plague a Human Rights record comparable to such notorious countries as China and North Korea. Keep in mind that the USA join only Somalia as the two countries remaining to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."