What do you think of...

[JGlass]

Human rights.

Are they universal, or do they change based on culture? Are human rights in America the same as human rights in China or Russia or Saudi Arabia or Kenya? Is it fair for human rights organizations based in one culture to call for human rights to improve in regions abiding by different cultural norms?

And what is the basis for human rights? Does it have a basis in religion? Philosophy? Science?

As our world grows smaller and smaller due to globalization, it's important to ask these questions.

 

[Dirk]

I think it's a very difficult question.

If you say they're universal, you're forgetting that to the Muslim woman who wears her cover-up with pride, our Western women with their exposed arms and necks are like the women in tribal Africa with their tits flopping all over the show.

If you say they're culturally exclusive, you say yes to female circumcision.

 

[A11oftheLights]

I think it's a very difficult question.

If you say they're universal, you're forgetting that to the Muslim woman who wears her cover-up with pride, our Western women with their exposed arms and necks are like the women in tribal Africa with their tits flopping all over the show.

If you say they're culturally exclusive, you say yes to female circumcision.

Shouldnt a basic human right be that a person is free to wear what they want without persecution or harassment. So they could still be universal and a muslim women can cover-up a western women can expose as much skin as they want and a tribal african woman can flop her tits about as she pleases unless they change the laws of the land. So basically human rights should be universal but the laws of the country and can slightly modify them to better suit the culture of the people.

 

[JGlass]

Shouldnt a basic human right be that a person is free to wear what they want without persecution or harassment. So they could still be universal and a muslim women can cover-up a western women can expose as much skin as they want and a tribal african woman can flop her tits about as she pleases unless they change the laws of the land. So basically human rights should be universal but the laws of the country and can slightly modify them to better suit the culture of the people.

Is being able to wear whatever you want without threat of persecution or harassment a human right? Should a preschool teacher be allowed to wear a t-shirt that says, "Fuck the police," on it? Would firing her for such actions be violating her freedom of speech?

Of course it wouldn't, because only a sociopath would wear such a shirt when they know they'll be spending the day with small children. But that raises the question, how can something be a human right if it's true sometimes but not true other times?

 

[CyberPunk]

I have always believed that human rights mean one thing: live and let live. You can do whatever the fuck you want with your life till the time it doesn't effect someone else's life. However, human rights are now distorted and put behind political propaganda more than anything. These days, it's very easy to offend someone. Political correctness takes precedence over real life issues, including human rights.

 

[A11oftheLights]

Is being able to wear whatever you want without threat of persecution or harassment a human right? Should a preschool teacher be allowed to wear a t-shirt that says, "Fuck the police," on it? Would firing her for such actions be violating her freedom of speech?

Of course it wouldn't, because only a sociopath would wear such a shirt when they know they'll be spending the day with small children. But that raises the question, how can something be a human right if it's true sometimes but not true other times?

If its not it should.

Thats not persecution though. Or it probably is i dont know the exact definition of persecution. But I'd also assume that the worker would have some sort of agreement in place that they'd be breaking the agreement if they wore a shirt like that.

I have always believed that human rights mean one thing: live and let live. You can do whatever the fuck you want with your life till the time it doesn't effect someone else's life.

Human rights are things like having access to clean water. I'm pretty sure the UN made having internet access a basic human right not too long ago.

 

[jmt225]

Of course it's a cultural thing.

If it isn't, then who do we give the power to, to decide what "human rights" actually are? No one should have that amount of power when there over 7 Billion people scattered across our planet.

 

[Dirk]

Of course it's a cultural thing.

If it isn't, then who do we give the power to, to decide what "human rights" actually are? No one should have that amount of power when there over 7 Billion people scattered across our planet.

So a group of people can do whatever they like, as long as they have done so as part of their culture.

Bear in mind this includes mutilation, slavery, incest and human sacrifice.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

Every living "person" as defined by the geneva conventions, has and should have equal rights. Even though this sacred text or that sacred text says they shouldn't. It's just a fact of life.

 

[Gelgarin]

Are human rights in America the same as human rights in China or Russia or Saudi Arabia or Kenya?

Can't speak for the other two, but...

Russia: more or less.
Saudi Arabia: fuck no.

Is it fair for human rights organizations based in one culture to call for human rights to improve in regions abiding by different cultural norms?

Yes.

 

[jmt225]

So a group of people can do whatever they like, as long as they have done so as part of their culture.

Bear in mind this includes mutilation, slavery, incest and human sacrifice.

If it's not against the laws of their country, then yes.

Thankfully though we live in 2014 and that kind of stuff is pretty much illegal everywhere, and most humans actually grasp that it's not right. Took a very long time to get there but we're here, and no "human rights" nonsense led to us gaining a conscience. It's all part of our evolution as a species.

 

[Gelgarin]

How does social evolution actually happen?

 

[JGlass]

So we have this patient at the psych hospital I work at that is completely psychotic. He has no idea where he is, barely knows who he is, and cannot grasp his current situation at all. The first thing he did when we let him out of our sights for not even five minutes is grab a crayon and write all over the walls of his room. The result is one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

Since he seemed so keen on destroying his room, we moved him into the quiet room, a much smaller room that has no furniture and is usually used to seclude patients during a crisis. We gave him his mattress, blankets, and pillow so he could sleep in there. He started tying nooses with the blankets, so we took them away. He started hitting people with the pillow, so we took that away. He started throwing hit mattress around the room, slamming it against the floor, and using it as a punching bag, making a ton of noise while the rest of the unit was trying to sleep.

We couldn't take his mattress away. Why? Because having a mattress is a human right. Pillows and blankets are not human rights, but mattresses are. I guess the logic is that mattresses are less likely to be used for harming oneself or others compared to pillows and blankets, and a person deserves SOMETHING to sleep on that puts some cushion between them on the floor.

Still, it seems like a weird place to draw a line. I think it says a lot about our relationship with comfort and sleep. But if having a comfortable place to sleep is a human right, then isn't allowing the level of homelessness we have in this country a human rights violation? That might be a stretch, but if not having a mattress to sleep on his a human rights violation, than shouldn't it be a human rights violation to not give someone a safe, comfortable place to sleep?

 

[A11oftheLights]

So a group of people can do whatever they like, as long as they have done so as part of their culture.

Bear in mind this includes mutilation, slavery, incest and human sacrifice.

This is why human rights should be universal.

And another reason I believe rights are universal and not cultural is the fact that just because you have a right doesnt necessarily mean you actually have it.

 

[JGlass]

I think there's a difference between human rights and national/cultural rights. I don't think a person in Germany can have a "human right" that doesn't exist in Bangladesh and it still be called a "human right".

If a culture allows for things like incest or slavery, then those cultural norms are in violation of human rights and should be changed. However, that sword swings both ways. Arranged marriages are seen by some as a somewhat barbaric thing (after all, one should be allowed to choose who they start a family and spend their life with), but in some cultures they are perfectly acceptable. Aziz Ansari's parents met through an arranged marriage, and they're happily married to this day.

I think sometimes human rights activists can be misled into what basically amounts to cultural crusading (Missionary work comes to mind. I'm not bashing missionaries, they do a lot of good for the communities they visit, but they do it because they're trying to spread their own culture that they view as superior to other cultures). Fortunately, or more accurately unfortunately, there are so many glaringly obvious human rights violations in the world, so the major ones (rape, lack of access to healthcare, lack of access to clean water) are usually the focus right now.

 

[ScreaminNormanSmiley]

There is no such thing as human rights. There are just a bunch of people screaming for there rights like toddlers because they don't get what the want without working for it. Get a job, work your way up to power and then you can have or give whatever you are winning for.

 

[Miko]

Human rights? Yeh, 'the right to remain silent'. Scum, all of ya.

 

[The Butcher]

Uncle Arthur used to have a saying: "Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out." Unfortunately, one day he put his theory into practice. It took 75 Federal Marshals to bring him down. Now let's never speak of this again.