1 8.1 On freedom
1. The statements below form part of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United
Nations in 1948. How far are these statements adhered
to in today’s world?
+ No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
+ No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile
+ Everyone has the right to a nationality.
+ Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion.
Reading
2. You are going to read an extract from a book on human rights. Seven paragraphs have
been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each
‘gap (1-7). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
‘When the Berlin Wall came tumbling
down in 1989 so did the plaster cast,
which had kept the idea of human.
rights in limbo, It was now free to
evolve in response to the changing
‘conditions of the late twentieth
century,
1
(Of course, in one sense, the quest for
universal human rights standards
after the Second World War was an
early attempt to communicate across
national boundaries, albeit a rather
faltering endeavour, with its claims to
universality challenged both in terms
of authorship and content. More
recently, a loosening of the reins
of the human rights dialogue has
ushered in wider debate.
2
Perhaps the best known of these is
Amnesty International, established
in 1961. Before Amnesty, there
were very few organizations like
it, yet now there are thousands
operating all over the world, Whether
‘campaigning for the protection of
the environment or third-world
debt relief, any such organization
is engaged in the debate about
UNIT 18
Values for a godless age
fundamental human rights. And it is
no longer just a soft sideshow.
‘The fact that strangers from different
countries can communicate with each
other through the worldwide web is
having a similar effect in dealing a
blow to misinformation. During one
recent major human rights tral over
sixty websites sprang up to cover
the proceedings, while sales of the
government-controlled newspaper in
that country plummeted,
in the interests of human rights
organizations to seek to reinforce the
legitimacy and authority of the state,
within a regulated global framework
art of the new trend in human
rights thinking is therefore to include
powerful private bodies within its
remit. The International Commission
of Jurists has recently explored ways
in which international human rights
standards could be directly applied to
transnational corporations,
a
7
‘The effect of increased responsibility
at this highest level has been to
continually extend the consideration
of who is legally liable, directly
or indirectly, under international
‘human rights law. In part, this
is an acknowledgement that
‘even individuals need to be held
responsible for flagrant breaches
of others'rights, whether these are
preventing protesters from peacefully
demonstrating or abusing the rights
of children.
Tehas been noted that paradoxically,
in such circumstances, it may be
Whatever the way ahead, the
lessons of the past must be learnt.
Any world view or set of values
which is presented as self-evident
is ultimately doomed to failure. The
case for human rights always needs
to be made and remade. In a world
where globalization
too often seems like a
GOULD VETORTOE
old-fashioned cultural
imperialism, it is
important to query
the claim that human
rights are universally
acceptedOne of the most significant of these is what
has come to be called ‘globalization’, the
collapsing of national boundaries in economic,
political and cultural life, From the expanding
role of the world’s financial markets and the
spread of transnational corporations to the
revolution in communications and information
technology, more and more areas of people's
lives are affected by regional, international or
transnational developments, whether they are
aware of this or not.
‘The problem is that the growth of globalization
‘makes the protection of nation states a
pointless goal in certain circumstances.
‘Transnational corporations with multiple
subsidiaries operating in a number of countries
simultaneously wield significant economic and
political power and it is often extremely difficult
for the state - both home and host governments
= to exercise effective legal control over them.
If the proliferation of pressure groups has raised
the profile of the human rights debate, satellite
television has reinforced much of the content
of their campaigns. The fact that from our
armchairs we can all see live what is happening
‘to others around the world has had an enormous
impact on the way the struggle for human rights
is viewed. It would not be remotely believable
to plead ignorance nowadays, for 24-hour news
coverage from the world's hotspots reaches us all.
Not only must states not infringe rights, and
enforce those rights which fall within their
direct sphere (like providing a criminal justice
systom or holding fair elections), but they also
have ‘positive obligations’ to uphold rights
enshrined in human rights treaties, even when it,
is private parties which have violated them.
‘The results of its investigations were published
in 1999 in a unique pamphlet on Globalization,
Human Rights and the Rule of Law. The issue
This is, after all, a uniquely propitious time, as
the values and language of human rights are
becoming familiar to more and more people,
who judge the merits or otherwise of political
and economic decisions increasingly in human
rights terms, Arguments seem fresh and
appealing in many quarters where once they
sounded weak and stale.
na global scale, it is not strong states that
are the problem here but weak ones, as they fail
to protect their citizens from private power ~
‘whether it is paramilitaries committing murder
and torture or transnational corporations
spreading contamination and pollution,
How do you view the future for universal human rights? What
role does the Internet play in social and political change? Will
increasing globalisation lead to more or less freedom for the
individual’ Why?
Look back at the extract and find words or phrases which mean
the same as a-f,
caught between two stages of development
a relatively weak attempt
arrelaxing of the rules
a less important event
causing something or someone great difficulties
brief or scope
mean ee
to be faced is whether to treat these and other
corporations as ‘large para:state entities
to be held accountable under the same sort
of regime as states’, or whether to look for
different approaches to accountability ‘that
are promulgated by consumer groups and the
corporations themselves’
No longer the preserve of representatives of
nation states meeting under the auspices of the
United Nations, a developing conversation is
taking place on a global scale and involving a
growing cast of people - for an increasing range
of pressure groups now frame their aspirations
in human rights terms.
5 Replace these words and phrases in
paragraphs A-H with suitable synonyms
or phrases.
wield ... power (A)
b proliferation (B)
€ raised the profile (B)
4 propitious (C)
e infringe (F)
£ enshrined in (F)
& promulgated by (G)
fh under the auspices of (H)
ON FREEDOM 153