Human Rights are fundamental principles or norms inherent to all human beings irrespective of their nationality, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, language, or status. They include civil, economic, and political rights as well as social and cultural rights.
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These rights are interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible and cannot be taken away although sometimes but they can be restricted. They are defined, protected, and can be enforced by the law.
Human rights were created to protect everyone equally without discrimination and are supposed to uphold fairness and equality for all individuals but we have not seen that to be the case as daily, individuals get their rights violated or restricted by other individuals or even the government.
This post includes a couple of such cases where people’s human rights have been violated. It also includes one that was experienced by a close friend of mine, called John, melted out to him by a clique of cowards.
Although many believed that international human rights law was one of our greatest achievements, there is very little evidence that supports its effectiveness. The human rights law lays down obligations of government to act in a certain way or refrain from certain acts, to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedom of individuals or groups but we see the same government and bodies owned by them violating the same rights they ought to uphold.
Over the years, we have witnessed violations of human rights in various countries from the government. According to Amnesty’s 2009 world report, it shows that individuals are tortured and abused in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 74 countries. Not only that, but women and children are marginalized in various ways also.
Here is a list of some human rights laws outlined in the international bill of rights and their violations in certain countries.
Right To Equality And Freedom From Discrimination
Despite unprecedented progress at the international level in enhancing the legal protection of individuals against discrimination, reports from all parts of the world confirm the fact that discriminatory acts and practices are anything but a memory from the past. Discrimination is multifaceted and present not only in State or public structures but also in civil society in general.
To a greater or lesser extent, discrimination may thus affect the way people are treated in all spheres of society such as politics, education, employment, social and medical services, housing, the penitentiary system, law enforcement, and the administration of justice in general.
Just as we have seen in the case of George Floyd and others who died before him, as a result of systemic racism, racial discrimination has eaten deep into our society as the system instead of being fair, continually violates the rights of certain individuals.
If the government and other bodies that swore to protect its citizens continually restrict their rights, it is no wonder that the common man also restricts and violates the rights of another.
Right To Life, Liberty, And Personal Security
This is the belief that a being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity including the government. It focuses on protecting individuals’ freedom from unreasonable detention and to protect personal safety. This means you have a right to your freedom and must not be imprisoned or detained without good reason.
Yet an estimated 6,500 people were killed in 2007 in armed conflict in Afghanistan, nearly half being non-combatant civilian deaths at the hands of insurgents. In Brazil, in 2007, according to official figures, police killed at least 1,260 individuals, the highest total to date. All incidents were officially labeled “acts of resistance” and received little or no investigation.
In Uganda, 1,500 people die each week in the internally displaced person camps. According to the World Health Organization, 500,000 have died in these camps.
All of these were gross violations of the right to life, liberty, and personal security and yet individuals and government responsible walked free.
Freedom From Slavery And Forced Labour
The right to freedom from slavery prohibits people being held in conditions in which the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised while the right to freedom from forced labor requires that a person be free from work or service that is compelled under the threat of penalty and which the person has not offered to perform voluntarily.
Yet in northern Uganda, the Lord’s Resistance Army guerrillas have kidnapped 20,000 children over the past twenty years and forced them into service as soldiers or sex slaves for the army.
In Guinea-Bissau, children as young as five are trafficked out of the country to work in cotton fields in southern Senegal or as beggars in the capital city. In Ghana, children five to fourteen are tricked with false promises of education and the future into dangerous, unpaid jobs in the fishing industry.
In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked women, especially women coming from the Philippines and Thailand. UNICEF estimates 60,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines.
The US State Department estimates 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year. In nearly all countries, deportation or harassment is the usual governmental responses, with no assisted services for the victims.
Right To Privacy
This human right is supposed to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals but is violated so much. Government and private sector actors continually invade our privacy by mass surveillance and collection of personal data. Technological companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, collect personal data which are used to influence large groups of people.
Ever wondered why after googling a product or service, you start receiving mails and seeing adverts of said products? Well, that is a violation of your right to privacy, but it is so rampant that it has become the norm.
Freedom Of Thought, Belief, And Religion
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.”
This could include your right to wear religious clothing. This also includes a wide range of non-religious beliefs including atheism, veganism, and pacifism. Mocking religiously dressed people, apart from being an insensitive thing to do is a violation of their human rights.
Freedom From Torture And Degrading Treatment
This state “No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Yet, over the past five years, Amnesty International has reported on torture in 141 countries. This means people are still being tortured and are facing degrading treatment in three-quarters of the world.
In countries such as the Philippines and Mexico, torture is widespread and routine in police stations. In Darfur, violence, atrocities, and abduction are rampant. Women, in particular, are the victims of unrestrained assault, with more than 200 rapes in the vicinity of a displaced person camp in one five-week period, with no effort by authorities to punish the perpetrators.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, acts of torture and ill-treatment are routinely committed by government security services and armed groups, including sustained beatings, stabbings, and rapes of those in custody.
These are just a few Human Rights and their violations by government and individuals, but there is a host of them that are continually restricted and violated daily, some without even realizing it.
As much as the government is responsible for enforcing compliance with human rights, each individual has a role to play.
Common issues like racism, discrimination, and bullying are not inherent but are learned from other people such as parents, relatives, friends, and even social media. These traits can be checked and corrected and should be, as they ultimately lead to violations of the right of others.
Although these issues don’t apply to everyone as they are mostly restricted to some groups in the society such as women and children, people from a different race or ethnic group, different religion, people who dress and act in a certain way, people with different sexual orientation and so on, they ultimately affect the whole society as we have seen in the case of George Floyd.
A young, unarmed black man who was killed in the custody of white police officers might seem like another case in the news but George Floyd’s case was different as people are tired of the continuous racial discrimination from law enforcement agencies and as such protests began in different parts of the United States and all around the world.
We saw prominent individuals such as Jeff Bezos, John Boyega, Ariana Grande, J Cole, and many others come out to support the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Hopefully, this would bring the much-needed spotlight on racism in the United States and other parts of the world and help curb this injustice permanently, as we are tired of the continuous killings of fathers, brothers, sons, and friends.
Violation of human rights may occur on a large scale such as in crimes against humanity (genocide, bombing, mass killings) or on a small scale which can be in form of bullying a Muslim girl because she decided to wear a hijab. Either way, it is wrong and should be checked, punished, and immediately corrected.
Human rights exist, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the entire body of international human rights law. They are recognized—at least in principle—by most nations and form the heart of many national constitutions. Yet the actual situation in the world is far distant from the ideals envisioned in the Declaration.
After almost 70 years since it was enacted, one would think that by now we would have it figured out, but to some, the full realization of human rights is a remote and unattainable goal. Even international human rights laws are difficult to enforce and pursuing a complaint can take years and a great deal of money.
These international laws serve as a restraining function but are insufficient to provide adequate human rights protection, as evidenced by the stark reality of abuses perpetrated daily.
Discrimination is rampant throughout the world. Thousands are in prison for speaking their minds. Torture and politically motivated imprisonment, often without trial, are commonplace, condoned, and practiced—even in some democratic countries.
Racism is the order of the day, rape, sexual and physical abuse of women has become the norms. Bullying is the new “IT” thing in schools. Privacy has become a thing of the past. And yet we wonder the kind of world we are leaving for our children to grow up in.
For human rights to be strictly adhered to, the punishment for their violation must be enforced both on government, groups, and individuals, irrespective of their social and economic standing.
There must be sensitization in schools, community, and society in general about -what Human Rights are and the penalty for violating the rights of others and these penalties must be strictly enforced.
Know Your Rights
a) Right to equality and freedom from discrimination
b) Right to life, liberty, and personal security
c) Freedom from slavery and forced labor
d) Right to privacy
e) Freedom of thought, belief, and religion
f) Freedom from torture and degrading treatment
g) The right to equality before the law
h) The right to a fair trial
I) Right of peaceful assembly and association
j) The right to participate in government
k) The right to social security
l) The right to work
m) The right to an adequate standard of living
n) The right to education
o) The right to health
p) The right to food and housing
Knowing the fundamental human rights will help you from violating the rights of others and know when your rights are been violated such as in the case of my friend, who, for this post, I will call John.
John’s Human Rights Story
John was never going to write about this, but when he told me his story of how his life, both career, and business, was stagnated for 7 years in the USA; and how he was stalked everywhere he went with his privacy and life being invaded, It irritated me that I had to investigate it to be sure before putting it in writing.
And yes, you can call me a goat because John told me that he would be called a goat if he wrote anything about his experiences.
Now, before I start, let me paint a little picture of who John is. John is highly educated, can be stubborn, and does not know how to hide his emotions. You could tell if he disliked you or was angry at you.
But he is also the kind of person that does not like to stirrup trouble and relates with everyone the same regardless of culture, age, and social status, which I thought was one of his flaws. He can sometimes be too outgoing and also too tolerant of a lot of rubbish.
And now that is out of the way, let’s get back to the story.
I know that you are already wondering what happened that led to John’s human rights violation. And No, he did not kill anybody nor did he commit any crime.
But, according to him and after speaking with a couple of people to verify some of his stories, I found out that there is a list of reasons why this was done to him, and you will not believe these reasons:
1) He was ungrateful at his previous school, and the department administrators there promised him hell on earth, which snowballed from there.
2) He is an illiterate and a poor communicator, which is laughable
3) Some girls/women did not get what they want from him
4) He broke the heart of a girl
5) He was too showy in many things including the way that he dressed
6) He spoke with many people especially girls at the same time
7) He was annoying and rude to women and his elders
8) He was too lazy
9) He was too tolerant of nonsense
10) He posted something stupid or published a mediocre website online.
11) It was out of jealousy and envy, especially for being too ambitious.
Anyone can clearly see that these reasons are not crimes, but ridiculous excuses for messing with someone’s life. And even if he did any of these things, it did not warrant the violation of his human rights. I know of people who are/ have done far more worst things and nothing like this ever happened to them.
I even heard that John was told he would get his life back, and start earning what he deserved if he dated the toxic person, a girl, who was playing the victim that she loved John, but John broke her heart after speaking with her. Some girls, including foreign girls, even said that John harassed women/girls. And the scary part is that some of these girls are white as they could get you in the worst troubles imagined.
I must note, at this point, that it seems when you speak to an immature girl, and you are perceived to have money, then you must date that girl or she will set you up:=)
Well, lesson learned, John! Be careful who you speak with or how you come off in public before you create misunderstandings as a black guy.
Let’s keep in mind that it is understandable that the law favors women, especially in the USA, as there are many Jerks out there that would want the hurt women.
But I must say that some women take advantage of the law or their white privilege to harm people’s lives, especially when they don’t get what they want.
See this video:
I think such women should be severely punished because even when they are found out, the damage may have already being done.
So many situations abound were some wicked or racist women have used the law to ruin the lives of men. Also take a look at the New York Central Park Five, or the true-life story of Brian Banks, and you will fully comprehend what I mean.
And this is also why I think that the law should always carefully investigate any accusation from a woman before they lock up an innocent person.
And so, back to John’s story, why did it happen to him?
At this point, a couple of things, during my investigation, jumped at me—it is because he is also BLACK, presumed rich and illiterate, was angry, thought to be weak, and also tolerant to a lot of the nonsense around him.
See, people already knew that the negative accusations, from some spoilt entitled girls, against John were lies, but the damage has already been done to John as some biased, and should I say, racist folks have already capitalized on the situation and taken actions that affected John’s career, reputation, and business. Some of their actions, in a bid to isolate a grown man, also turned people, even John’s supposedly true friends, against him.
And so these folks, to cover up the nonsense that they have caused him, which has now crossed the line of human rights violation, decide to have a god-like complex and do whatever they felt was necessary to make him leave the country before anyone knew what was going on.
And that meant tracking his every movement and words because they were looking for something incriminating to justify/intensify their dastardly action against John.
Even though John was hindered from getting the job that he wanted, these manipulators were glad that John got a teaching position so that the world can witness what an illiterate and poor communicator he is, which will help justify their wicked actions against John. But unfortunately for these folks, their plan backfired against them.
You see, these people, mostly women, wanted John to look stupid so that they can say, see, this is why we messed up his life.
And for John to look stupid meant he couldn’t do anything smart. And that includes having a business, including this platform, eFor-real, which he helped build.
By the way, getting the platform to this extent has been a tug of war. 4 years now and the organic traffic is building slowly, but still not reasonable—-I hope no foul play here because of John?
Yes, at this point, it does beg the question. But I can already hear people saying that you are just being paranoid and that the platform is not getting enough organic traffic because they are not doing their search engine optimization (SEO) enough or correctly. Or that they are in a highly competitive niche, which could be true.
But in the other counts, I can assure you, as an SEO specialist myself, it is not the case.
And, again, let’s not get too distracted!
So these folks, especially women, continued to discriminate against John at every turn because they wanted him gone before anybody realized what they had done.
Even some of John’s racist neighbors got involved. But I would blame John for that as I wondered why he would share the link to a platform that he knew wasn’t ready and was mediocre?
But, not trying to make any excuse for him, it seems like the desperation to escape the clutches of those that wanted to destroy him, impeded his decisions. As everything that John did, his stalkers wanted to show that they could do as well and that it was not a big deal.
See, the goal was to show that John is not skilled enough and so is not worth saving from the barrage of these human rights violators!
Anyway, fortunately, as I write this post, the violation and discrimination against John seem to have instantly stopped, hopefully, permanently. But I do wonder why, though?
Could it have anything to do with the ongoing protest associated with George Floyd’s death, as these human rights violators felt that the time is off as racism and discrimination are now very sensitive topics at the moment?
Well, I am thankful, as it did give John some breathing space.
But I was curious as to why John did not just pack up and leave, and his response was logical and reasonable to me—“If you run from a problem that someone/people intentional cause for you, then you better keep running for the rest of your life, as the problem will always find you unless you take a stand. In other words, never let anyone dictate your life for you.”
And I also did ask John what he learned from his experience. And he told me that he did be more careful and cautious about everything around him include how and who he spoke with and also what he did, especially in public.
I am, however, glad that this experience did not stop John from pursuing his dreams and from looking at the world too negatively. But, rather, the experience did make John stronger, wiser, and exposed his true friends and family, especially when he needed them the most.
A world free from racism, discrimination, and other violations of human rights is possible and it begins with you, so do better! And the next time you see someone’s rights been violated, speak up and change a life.
Tags: human rights Human rights law Human rights violations know your rights The law
