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Showing posts with label Human Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human Rights. Show all posts

Friday, January 07, 2011

Human Rights Certificate Course. Wednesday 5/1/11.


Reading session and discussions
Why Wikipedia?
The collaborative editing process followed by Wikipedia allows frequent verification of facts and approaches an issue from various angles giving an understanding from different contexts. This method of regular updating and rechecking by different people ensures quick correction of errors. Other useful elements of Wikipedia include the Criticism/Reception section for most articles where the topic’s negative and positive criticism is acknowledged and discussed. Furthermore, the nature, quality and process of the editing and writing of the article itself is evaluated to give the reader an idea of the way the article has been written and by whom and what the reader should keep in mind while using the article as a reference.
For more on the process of editing at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia
What is a declaration?
A declaration is an acknowledgement. UDHR is not a law but a declaration. International covenant on women’s rights is still not sighed by India and so can’t impose sanctions.
Eleanor Roosevelt mentions the need for the UDHR as a declaration as opposed to a treaty, because treaties as an agreement on an issue, give space for revolt, debate and retaliation and like rules, are eventually broken. For example, Sati became more widespread after it was banned. After Sati was noticed in 1700s it was debated over for 50 years, as the British did not want to interfere in a religious practice. Its root in the Hindu religion was questioned and researched into, leading to the translation of Hindu scriptures. After the British translated the Bhagvad Gita, that was announced as the Holy book of the Hindus as the Bible was to the Christians, they could not find the religious root to back the practice of Sati and thereby banned it, as they could track no religious grounds. Ironically, the ban resulted in a wider spread of Sati. It was first banned in 1829 but after resurgence, it had to be banned again in 1956. There was another revival of the practice in 1981 with another prevention ordinance passed in 1987. (Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sati-Belief-beyond-the-law/Article1-345245.aspx )

The Age of Enlightenment and Immanuel Kant
The Age of enlightenment and the works of European philosophers during this time are vital while tracing the origin of the idea of human rights and the drafting of UDHR. Documents include; Bill of Rights of England, Bill of Rights of United States and Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France.
One of the men to be immediately associated with this age is Immanuel Kant. The division of human knowledge into disciplines like Arts, Commerce, Humanities, Social Sciences etc was an idea propagated by him and is used in Universities today. He also explores and states the purpose of a University and its role in the development of a student.
Practicality and application of Human Rights
Why is Human Rights part of our Holistic classes?
It is mandatory for the Supreme Court to take the responsibility of teaching the citizens human rights. All UGs must essentially teach HR.
“Items once purchased cannot be returned”Such a practice is illegal. There is a law in India that protects the consumer such that compensation can be demanded if a store doesn’t refund your money on return of a purchased item.
Julian Assange and Afzal Guru, whose works involved huge controversies, could not directly be arrested, as their actions do not violate any law. Being arrested for Assange’s contribution to Wikileaks would go against the UDHR and the right to freedom. So instead, Assange and many others are being charged on account of rape, sexual harassment and spam mail with obscene content and in spite of lack of evidence and unfair trials are being held in custody.

Marxism and Labor
One of Marx’s biggest contributions is considered to be his theories on “Labor”. Readers of Marx today are Feminists and Environmentalists. Feminists explore the relevance of labor and its association in the fields of child bearing (woman in labor, labor room etc)
Environmentalists approach Marx’s concept of labor with the question, where did capital come from? Their argument extends to nature being the primary source of capital. 

What is Slavery?
Slavery is an economical concept, not social. It is covered under economics and not sociology, as an economical phenomenon.
Capital does not suggest the richest, but simple small activities like a roadside tea stall also involve dealing with capital. Capital primarily involves ownership not money; Ratan Tata paid ndian Rupee ₹ 1 for acres of land, Infosys in Mysore was given the land for its campus for close to nothing, it is the process of owning the land that gives capital.
The Material that comes from Capital is labored upon to form the final product. This laboring upon which transforms the capital into a product with higher utility value is rewarded with wages. A slave in this process can be located at the end of the laboring process, minus the wage payment; a slave is one who is not paid for his/her labor.
A mother cooks a stew; the raw vegetables are labored upon to produce the stew. She is not paid for this labor. Is mother a slave?
Child labor in India when put into this context cannot be termed as slavery because the children are paid, however minimally.
Further reading:
·      Right to refuse to kill and conscientious objection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_Objector#United_Nations
Reference:
Pinto, Anil. Introduction to Human Rights. Jan 5th 2011. Lecture.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Human Rights Certificate Course. Tuesday 4/1/11.



UN and Human Rights and Duties
What are human rights?
Most of the class agreed with ‘they are the basic rights an individual should have by the virtue of being a human.’ 
If they are rights given to an individual, who gives him/her these rights?

Others answered that any issue against an individual would be a human rights issue. With the example of the Sufi shrine in Shimoga it was explained how religious issues (in terms of claiming land) are not treated as human rights violations.
Another response was that human rights are the rights acquired at conception. This brought us to discussing the ‘inalienable’ nature of human rights.
Mapping out Human Rights
The most important concept that is the foundation of the understanding of Human Rights: is the role of the state.
It is essential to understand that Human rights violations are charged against the state.

Many have claimed the existence of human rights in Indian history. But the acceptance of human rights would suggest a neglect of the ‘divine right’, which was the dominant guiding force through the history of Indian society.
John Locke and Natural rights

Challenging the then predominant belief of original sin and the inheritance of this sin by every individual of the human race, Locke propagated the idea of Tabula Rasa. This marked the shift from the Divine right of the King and the Christian Monarchy. This suggested that a child is born with a clean slate and it is society that ‘writes’ on this slate. The Lockean doctrine of natural rights approached the individual as free to define his/her character based on interaction with society.  To read about the understanding of Tabula Rasa from the 11th C Ibn Sina, and following through St. Thomas Aquinas, Locke and Freud, and its application in different fields: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa

Social Contract Theory

The relationship between the individual and the state, which involves the rights of an individual, is no longer considered a divine rule; it is a contract. This introduced the concept of the contract theories, a broad class of theories that explain the ways in which people form states to maintain social order. It implies that people give up sovereignty to a government to receive social order through the rule of law. (Law can only be enforced on a body, it cannot function without a physical human body; someone has to be held responsible, a face to represent.)
For further references to the social contact theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract#Philosophers .

It is in a way, legitimate state authority, derived from consent of the governed. For example, Hitler is often seen as a dictator who forcefully took over Germany. But we forget that he was democratically elected and that it was a state sponsored violence. Once at power, he claimed that the Jews are his people and he is free to do with them as he pleases, even sending them to concentration camps in a similar way that a parent claims authority over his/her child defending their reasons and power to beat the child when they feel right.
The contract between you and state is to be protected by the police. So violation of our rights happens when the state steps past its role as protectors to exploiters; Fence eating the grass.
Theoretically, no citizen can say no to war and is expected to pick up a gun and fight for the state at a war situation. This sweeping power that is allowed to be imposed upon us by the state began to be questioned; the protection of human rights from the state.
The question of Human rights only comes into the picture in a state that enforces control. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) declares a protection of the people against violation by the state. (Declaration, not law) The situation of mass violation of people’s rights by different states, brought the need for a UDHR and for the United Nations, an international body that would keep a watch on the governments of countries, ensuring they don’t overstep their power and violate citizens.
Context of UDHR
By questioning the claim that ‘human rights are western rights’, the argument of the drafting of UDHR was discussed. 
The developing countries including Latin America, Africa, India etc drafted the declaration that reflected the fundamental beliefs shared by countries around the world regarding human rights, in an attempt to ensure they avoided a situation such as the suffering of Germany. These declarations were later inculcated and the provisions of human rights were made part of the Indian constitution.

The allies supported these third world countries; (Atlantic Charter 1941) a joint statement by Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill of their mutual goals for post WWII. It explained the objectives of the war and reaffirmed the four freedoms; “the freedom of opinion, of expression, of religion and the right to basic needs”. This was an ‘assurance that all men in all the lands may live put their lives in freedom from fear and want’, that promised an evolution, avoiding another Germany of repressed citizens.
The UDHR was drafted in 1948 after WWII as the first global expression of rights that every human being is entitled with.
Hence the UN and the UDHR was created with the purpose of watching over and protecting the citizens of countries.
RSA and ISA
The Repressive State Apparatus and the Ideological State Apparatus was discussed in response to categorizing human rights violation in public schools and private schools.  The RSA includes Heads of State, government, police, courts, army etc. that can intervene and act in favor of the ruling class by repressing the ruled class, while the later includes ideological practice by institutions like the media and education systems.
For further details of RSA and ISA and the difference between their functions, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser#Ideological_state_apparatuses
Questioning the fundamentals
The previous discussion led to another, which pointed out that the media is always for the government; commenting on their ideologies but never questioning them. For example, though the Times of India might comment on the slow or poor development of the metro, it will not question if the metro is required in the first place. Similar questions can be raised with respect to every field; in Social work for instance; Why should the poor be uplifted? Why must a boy in the slum be educated? 
This highlights the importance of developing a critical faculty of thought as an approach.

Further reading:
·      Upendra Baxi and PIL
·       Non-human persons rights; Animal rights.
·       Alternative Law Forum: http://www.altlawforum.org/
Reference:
Pinto, Anil. 'Introduction to Human Rights.' Christ University. 4 Jan 2010. Lecture.