Human Rights

A big topic which cares for worldwide discussions is the violation of human rights. Torture is more widespread in our modern age than at any time in our history. In many countries advanced technology is used to develop the methods of torture. Many people must suffer the cruel tortures and humiliations. The conflicts between black and white people are increasing. Many newspapers have written about human rights in the world and the topic has gained more publicity. People established organisations and have risked their lives to improve human rights.

First steps to improve the conditions were taken. The United Nations passed the Declaration of human rights in the year 1948 and many decisions were taken for a hopeful future of human rights.

Article 1

Article 2

In Spite of all the assemblies and decisions, human rights are still being violated in many countries. Violation of human rights most happens in developing countries. Many countries in the third world were former colonies. They inherited the form of democratic system from the colonial powers. They have parliaments and elections, but in most cases there is a more or less brutal dictatorship behind the seeming democracy. The elections are often not acknowledged, oppositional parties are declared illegal and their leader are imprisoned or killed. The political situations in these countries are often unstable, because the governments are often overthrown. After every coup a lot of people are imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to death. In some communist countries and in the largest part of the Third World the violation of human rights obvious is more obvious.

You will be forced to share the opinion of the government, to accept their religion, complain about other racial groups etc...If you don`t do so, your basic right as citizen and your human dignity will be deprived. You will be tortured, held in prison for many years, won`t get any ordinary legal proceedings and perhaps will be killed in a brutal way. People who have been tortured can find it hard to concentrate, they are maybe unable to work again and they can become prematurely old.

The reserves of gold, uranium and other minerals are very important for South Africa. But the people in South Africa never get a profit of these mineral resources.

A worldwide well-known man, who fights against the oppression in South Africa, Nelson Mandela says: "The white man makes all the laws, he drags us before his courts and accuses us, and he sits in judgement over us". The Europeans have always been a minority part of people in Africa. But it seems as they were the majority. They controlled the economy, the administration, they exploited the country and made the laws for African people. In general the living and working conditions of African people were very bad.

Other countries which violate human rights are the democratic countries like America and Central Europe. They often disregard the rights of minorities and the people aren`t always as free as they would like to be. Just look at the yearly report of Amnesty International. Often innocent people and teenagers were beaten from police officers. An other kind of minorities whose rights are often disregarded are the immigrants. Many slaves were brought to the USA in the 18th century and later they were cheap workers.

We can support human rights organisations like Amnesty International and take a position against the violations of human rights.

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement. It is independent of any government, ideology, political party or any economic interests. It was started in 1961 with a newspaper article by the British lawyer Peter Benenson. Today there are more then one million members in over 150 countries.

The members of Amnesty International are politicians, workers, doctors, housewives, farmers, teachers and students, in short people who feel strongly that political imprisonment, torture and executions are wrong.

The members collect signatures for international petitions and raise money to send relief, such as medicine, food and clothing, to the prisoners and their families. If prisoners are tortured, Amnesty organises a flood of telegrams and letters to be sent to the government responsible. If you want to support the work of Amnesty just become a member of the organisation.