Tag Archives: Human Rights and Liberties

[Video] Lest We Forget: Victims of Martial Law – youtube

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Lest We Forget: 

Martial Law and its victims

ON THE 63rd anniversary of the declaration of December 10 as International Human Rights Day, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism releases a 13-minute video in memory and in honor of those who fought for democracy and freedom during the dark uncertain days of Martial Law.

The video is a compilation of the stories of six human rights victims or their families, all of them part of the 10,000 human rights victims who were recently awarded $1,000 each as part of a settlement against the estate of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

More than the story of anguish and terror and tragedy, these are stories of ordinary men and women who lived extraordinary lives. Too, these are stories of wives who became widows, and children who became orphans. Most of all, these are stories that the victims could only wish they could forget, even as they hope we all will remember and learn.

Interviews conducted by Malou Mangahas; camerawork by Winona Cueva. Editing by PCIJ interns Florenz Sison and Darlene Basingan; score by Florenz Sison.

Courtesy of http://pcij.org.

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[Videos] Human Rights Violations in the Philippines | **EXPLICIT – youtube

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A mock News Report Video for UW (University of Washington) Students for a Research project based on the Human Rights Violations in the Philippines.

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[Video] What Human Rights mean to me

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Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can learn to love.”

Human rights violations know no borders. From child soldiers in the Congo, ethnic cleansing in Darfur, to the rise in human trafficking right here in the US, it is easy to see that the whole world needs to change.

By knowing all 30 Articles of the UDHR we can be equipped with the knowledge to fight against any injustice anywhere in the world. On this 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration, with all the turmoil that currently exists in the world, it has become more important than ever for people to know their rights, to pass them onto others, and to defend them relentlessly.

The solution to global issues such as poverty, famine, war and political unrest is encompassed by the UDHR, and human rights education is the first step in resolving these issues at a grassroots level.

I hope to see the day when human rights education becomes a mandatory part of every middle school curriculum on every continent across the world, so that every man, woman and child knows and can defend their God-given rights.

- Amnesty International, USA

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[Videos] YOU ARE THE JUDGE! ~ The Government VS The Right To Travel! – youtube

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Freedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a human right concept that the constitutions of numerous states respect. It asserts that a citizen of a state in which that citizen is present has the liberty to travel, reside in, and/or work in any part of the state where one pleases within the limits of respect for the liberty and rights of others,[1] and to leave that state and return at any time. Some immigrants’ rights advocates assert that human beings have a fundamental human right to mobility not only within a state but between states.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement

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[Video] Human Rights Defenders – youtube

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Human rights defenders are individuals, groups of people or organizations who promote and protect human rights through peaceful and non-violent means. They:

  • uncover violations
  • subject violations to public scrutiny
  • press for those responsible to be accountable
  • empower individuals and communities to claim their basic entitlements as human beings.

Throughout history, courageous and visionary people have sought to extend the boundaries of human rights protection to those outside its boundaries, whether it be those living in slavery, workers unprotected against exploitation or women denied the vote.

Today, despite international laws that protect them, human rights defenders are needed all over the world to monitor and challenge abuses and violations.

 

- Amnesty International

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[Book] Legalization of Human Rights

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Of the many concepts employed in law and politics, the concept 
of human rights is the most obvious expression of a moral ideal. 
As such, it is also a view about, at least, the minimal social 
conditions necessary for the existence of a healthy political 
order. Yet, the specification, implementation and interpretation 
of that ideal has, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 
been dominated by international law.


This fact should be striking for three reasons, all of them implied 
in the above description of the ideal. The first is that a moral 
ideal would seem to imply that the specification, definition and 
interpretation of these rights is not a necessarily legal process—
the ideal is not a legal ideal, that is, unless one believes legal 
codification is the only, or principal, way to express these moral 
aims, and that legal interpretation is merely the working out of 
these aims on a case-by-case basis. 


Secondly, the ideal of human rights describes a social order in which 
persons have social guarantees against certain abusive forms of behaviour, 
or types of usage of state power. Law would normally be thought of as 
just one element of such an order, and in fact the efficient operation of 
law itself presupposes many other social practices and guarantees, for 
example, a certain degree of social stability and confidence in the 
legal system. 


Thirdly, there is no obvious reason why all human rights, or all aspects
of human rights, are most appropriately advanced through legal means, 
unless that is one thinks that human rights ideals have an efficient 
and functioning human rights law as their primary aim.


An additional complication for this simple image of a transference of 
human rights aims or ideals into human rights legal aims and practice, 
is the kind of laws that are involved. The legal codification of universal 
human rights has taken place in international law which, by its nature, 
has distinctive features we should be wary of when looking at what it 
codifies and how. The way international law codifies human rights is 
likely to be sensitive to a number of non-neutral influences, such 
as inter-state negotiations, compromise, and the accommodation of 
other goals and values than human rights themselves. 


Furthermore, it is a significant feature of international human rights 
law that, once ratification of international treaties has been achieved, 
the process of implementation is state-driven.


Human rights legalized—defining, interpreting, and implementing an ideal

- Başak Çali and Saladin Meckled-García
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[Book] International Law and Indigenous Peoples

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We witnessed a modest amplification of community-oriented 
rights in the body of international norms in the last decades 
of the twentieth century, reflecting a sharper understanding 
of the importance of community in the construction of personal 
and social identity, and of community membership as a focus for 
oppression. Indigenous peoples claim recognition as distinctive 
human groups with a right to take their own decisions in matters 
affecting them, and resist the depredations of others. 


An important tendency of indigenous politics has been to search 
for adaptations of human rights principles that relate to their 
circumstances – reflected in their interventions into ongoing 
deliberations towards a UN Declaration, and an American Declaration, 
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. While a considerable amount 
has been achieved in the elaboration of instruments specifically 
dealing with indigenous rights, what is sometimes characterized 
as a form of human rights ‘exceptionalism’ for these groups remains 
precarious. 

Whatever recognition they have achieved thus far, a swing of the 
pendulum against the recognition or welcoming of difference is 
always possible, particularly in times of felt scarcity,globalizing 
pressures and the ‘securitization’ of politics and law. Indigenous 
peoples are ideal-type endogamous groups: self-defining, rooted 
historically, eco-religious, and self-organized – though the groups 
are also, as with all human groups, in part the product of interaction 
with others, and of non-ideal categorization by racial supremacists, 
colonists and the like.


                                                - Patrick Thornberry
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[Book] Elements of a theory of human rights

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Article Abstract:

The conceptual understanding of human rights is benefited by considering the reasoning that moves the activists and the range and effectiveness of practical actions they undertake, including recognition, monitoring and agitation. It is argued that the richness of practice is critically relevant for understanding the concept and reach of human rights.

Author: Sen, Amartya
Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Publication Name: Philosophy & Public Affairs
Subject: Political science
ISSN: 0048-3915
Year: 2004

United States, International Affairs, Human Rights, Evaluation

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Political-science/Objectivity-and-truth-youd-better-believe-it-Elements-of-a-theory-of-human-rights.html#ixzz1aXUy17Gc

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[Video] Malcolm X: We demand our rights – youtube

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“We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to

be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a

human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which

we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.”

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       - Malcolm X

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