Human Rights and Obligation
There is a sheer need to balance out rights and obligation in the Australian context. Human beings have the basic urge to demand their own rights, but when it come to provide rights to other, the attitude remains indifferent. Citizens should be made aware of the notion that with every kind of benefit, it comes a sense of responsibility. Human rights are the rights inherent to all people equally irrespective of their caste, creed, race, sex, nationality, religion or any other status. Every human being is entitled to human rights without any discrimination. These rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated as well. The government needs to follow the obligations laid down by the international human rights law for protecting, as well as, promoting freedom and human rights of individuals and groups. The international human rights law suggests that every state is responsible to promote and promote individual or group freedom and human rights irrespective of economic, political and cultural systems. Human rights are considered as universal, each no matter where does he/she live entitle to equal rights. A person enjoys human rights not because he/she is a citizen any particular country but part of the human family. This depicts that every individual whether a child or adult entitles to equal human rights (McCorquodale, 2003).
Human rights are undoubtedly inalienable; these rights can be taken away from an individual in exceptional situations like if a person is found guilty of a crime, then his/her right of liberty might be restricted. Apart from the exceptions, human rights cannot be taken away from any person. Human rights form a complementary framework because these are interdependent. For instance, if a person's opinion is encouraged to apply in any decision-making process then he/she would get right to express his/her opinion freely, to attain necessities of life or to associate with others. The human rights formulate basic standards for the individuals without which nobody can survive with dignity. The misconception about human rights is that people considered their rights significant and others unimportant. Human rights do not emphasize on just attaining own rights in the society but also accepting responsibilities of an individual to others. Human rights demand an individual to respect, support and protect others.
The human rights include obligations and rights. Obligations are imposed on the state level; it has to follow the obligations that come under international law for protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights. The state is responsible to protect and promote individual as well as groups human rights. At the individual level, it is a person’s responsibility to take care of humanity and protect others instead of just asking for owns rights (Vasudevan, 2004; Haerens, 2011).
Historical Origin of Human Rights
The development of international human rights law was considered as the biggest accomplishment of the 20th century. However, the implication of human rights did not start due to the United Nations effort nor some law. It has been seen that societies in the world developed systems of propriety and justice to promote and protect the welfare of the society as a whole. From the religious point of view, the human rights practices are promoted in different religions like Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism, etc. all religions give the preaching to promote humanity, justice, and fairness in the society.
Before the 20th century, no culture or society either in the non-western or western world endorsed widely to practice or consider human rights as alienable. Different legislative documents assert on the human rights, for instance, the English Bill of Rights, US Constitution and the French Declaration of the rights of man and citizen, etc. These documents emphasize on protecting and promoting the following areas of human rights: religious, women, and minorities, social, political and economic rights in the society. However, the biggest loophole among all the documents is none of them emphasize on the fundamental concept that everybody is entitled to respect others rights not just theirs (Jacobs, 1990).
Human Rights, the Universal Declaration, and Australia
If the abilities of human beings are concerned then the human population can be distributed amongst people with disabilities and people without disabilities. When the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 was suggested, there were indivdiuals who had this thought in mind as if it is not an important issue. Although the population of people with disabilities is around 18.5% in Australia but still the human rights were seen from the perspective of people without disabilities. This example depicts that if a person demands certain sort of rights then he must be open to provide the same to other groups. In the mid-20th century, there were two influencing incidents that propelled human rights topic in the global arena. The first incident was when the colonial people faced discrimination and struggling hard to get their dignity and self-esteem from a foreign power. The second incident was Second World War. Both the incidents affected the people around the world badly and realized the significance of human rights. People were created badly; they slaughtered and treated ill will, which raised the pressure on the western world to bring international peace among countries. Because of agitation, ill-treatment and raised voices of innocents compelled to form a body, which must be responsible for bringing and managing international peace among countries by setting laws and standards. United Nations was formed in 1945; the rights of human beings were first articulated in UDHR (United Declaration of Human Rights) (Soliz, 2007; Langwith, 2008).
The declaration consists of thirty articles that cover the following human rights: economic, cultural, social, political and civil rights. The declaration mentions the rights and obligations of individuals and government, which is acceptable universally. The declaration also emphasizes on the fact that human beings are required to take care of humanity; the human rights do not aim to actuate selfish attitude among people. Instead, individuals are required to think about the welfare of others (John, 1990).
Human Rights Framework
Soon after the declaration, legally bind documents were created that known as conventions. There were divided into two separate covenants that contained the legal status of human rights into two different categories. The first one was the international covenant on civil and political rights, and the other one was the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. ICCPR emphasizes on individual’s liberty rights and prohibits taking away the freedom of speech and expression from individuals. The other covenant UDHR emphasizes the state's responsibility to fulfill and meet individual's necessities like food, shelter and healthcare. The covenants were adopted in 1948; the other twenty human rights conventions have been served as the foundation by the Universal Declaration. All the human rights conventions along with the Universal Declaration form the framework, which is known as human rights framework. The framework helps in defining and establishing a mechanism that protects and promote human rights in the world (Immanuel, 1991).
Theoretical Framework of Human Rights
Numerous theorists present their point of view on human rights. Jack Donnelly was one of those theorists who emphasizes on the concept of dignity. According to him, human rights should be respected and accepted worldwide because human beings dignity is the top most priority to live a life in the society. However, the sole dignity concept failed to prove as the foundation of universal moral standards of human rights. Gewirth other theorist negates the concept given by Donnell; he suggests that there is a need to focus on the human well-being and defines three level of human well-being. These types include basic well-being, Non-subtractive rights, and additive rights. As per him, the basic well-being includes fulfilling the necessities of life. The Nonsubtractive rights help in fulfilling the purposive agency, on the other hand, additive rights is enabling others to develop the capabilities like attaining education. The theorist agreed with the fact that each has his/her capability so the rights must be given to the individual so that he/she can meet the capacity at fullest. The theories of human rights are based on dignity, development and well-being, however, the main purpose of human right is to promote and protect the quality of life (Allan, 1985; Jack, 1989).
Human Rights and Australian Human Rights Commission Act
The Australian Human Rights Commission Act compromises of laws and regulations that help in protecting and promoting the human rights. This commission must balanceout the human rights of indiviudals and the sort of responsibilities every individual has on their shoulders. The human rights commission works with other agencies at the state and territory level to protect and protect their citizen's rights. The government has formulated laws for protecting the civil and political rights, rights of indigenous people, economic, cultural and social rights, minorities rights, sexual discrimination and other discriminatory issues apart from the mentioned one's children and women rights. On the state level, the Australian government is implementing strong laws for saving humanity. However, laws and regulations are being made, but still minorities in the region are struggling hard to get equal rights in the society. The Australian government is somehow failed to eradicate discrimination against minorities in the society. The rules and regulations must be strictly followed to protect and promote human rights in the society completely.
Sense of Awareness for Rights and Obligation
As people in these days are aware about their rights, their should be a major focus on Obligations. The country needs to build a system, where this notion should become the moral authority of the citizens of to respect the rights of others. They should be made aware that each right and benefit that an individual receives should be accompanied by the list of obligations that he needs to fulfill. This should become part of the culture that will ultimately helps develop the same sense of responsibility in the future generations.
References
Allan Gewirth, (1985) "Why There Are Human Rights", Social Theory and Practice, 235-248, at p.235.
Haerens, M. (2011). Human rights. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
Immanuel Kant, (1991) "Perpetual Peace," in Hans Reiss (ed.), Kant: Political Writings, 2nd.ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.125.
Jack Donnelly, (1989)Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, p.17.
Jacobs, W. J. (1990). Human rights. New York, NY: Scribner.
John O'Manique, (1990)"Universal and Inalienable Human Rights: A Search for Foundations", 12 Human Rights Quarterly 465-485.
Langwith, J. (2008). Human rights. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press.
McCorquodale, R. (2003). Human rights. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate/Dartmouth.
Soliz, A. (2007). Human rights. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press/Thomson Gale.
Vasudevan, A. (2004). Human rights. Danbury, CT: Grolier.
