Blog #4 Deeper into human rights

          After watching "The Story of Human Rights" I was surprised at how many people have no idea what the most basic rights they have are.  In the first few minutes of the video, the makers decided to conduct research on what average people thought human rights meant.  Interviewers went around city streets and asked people what the definition of human rights were, many people stared blank faced into the camera, or gave a response similar to my personal favorite, "the rights that humans have..."  I was slightly disgusted with society and myself when I realized that I probably would have said the exact same thing.   This was ultimately a wake up call for me as I witnessed that most humans remain in the dark when it comes to their given protections.

          There are 30 articles containing the granted rights documented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Ratified at the end of World War II, some of the top listed rights include that everyone be recognized as a person before law, no one shall be held in slavery or servitude, and everyone has the right to move freely within their own state.  While this is just hardly 10% of the stated rights, I can find numerous flaws in the ways our world abides by these statements.  If this document was truly recognized by every country and everyone in the world, then why is there mistreatment of criminals and innocent people filling prisons, thousands of people enslaved even after the end to slavery, and why are people raided out of their homes everyday and forced to live somewhere designated for them in their own state.  Our freedoms have been invaded and controlled. It irks me that people have spent their time making such a document for it to be ignored by power-hungry leaders. 

          I'm curious to know why schooling, especially government classes, don't spend much time going deeper into human rights.  I think for self defense purposes everyone should know what their rights are as humans, and what the certain things are that no one, absolutely no one, can take away from them.  Perhaps a solution to ending the undermining of human rights would be more education, however, I say this hastily because I do not know if people are genuinely good.  Thus, the issue may be the wasted time on the document instead of our failure to follow it.