Human Rights

Paper Summary:

This paper stresses that human rights should be practiced and protected around the world because they are the inherent right of every human being. The author of the paper points out that it is much easier to proclaim human rights than it is to grant and preserve them and states that it is critically important to extend human rights to everyone because humanity can never truly consider itself civilized if human rights are being violated anywhere in the world. The author also examines human rights problems, such as totalitarian dictatorships, theocracies, the abortion debate, the death penalty and genocide.

From the Paper:

"The history of human rights has been rather bleak, for throughout most of human history, war and conquest have been pervasive and the brute force of rulers has determined the structure of societies. Under such conditions, human rights have been irrelevant. The vanquished were enslaved and the lower classes in every society were at the mercy of the classes above them. It was only when the Enlightenment generated the development of democracy that human rights began to recognized and protected in developing democracies."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Andreopoulos, G 2003, Concepts and strategies in international human rights, Peter Lang, New York.
• Bedau, H 1997, The death penalty in America: current controversies, Oxford University Press, Cambridge.
• Donnelly, Jack. 2002, Universal human rights in theory and practice, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
• Dunne, T and Wheeler, N 1999, Human rights in global politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Forsythe, D 2006, Human rights in international relations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

More papers on Human Rights:

• Term Paper # 57846 : "Human Rights in China: A Misnomer?"
• Research Paper # 57471 : "Human Rights Violations in the U.S.A."
• Term Paper # 114172 : "Human Rights and International Relations"
• Persuasive Essay # 134050 : "Should Human Rights Be Practiced Around the Globe?"

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