ELPIDA Course - English

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

- Do you consider some of your human rights to be more important than others? If so, think about whether these are affected by your age, your family status, the place and the way you live.

- The importance of educating people on their human rights has been documented. How and where were you informed about your rights and how to exercise them?

- Why do you think there is a separate convention on the rights of children or of people with disabilities?

- Do you think that a person with disability who is unemployed should be supported through an unemployment benefit or a disability benefit?

- It is common practice that a person with disability is treated with leniency in the workplace, i.e. he/she is expected to work less or offer less. Do you agree with this practice and why?

- In each country, apart from the main international human rights organisations, there are small local or national organisations active in this area. Describe three such organisations in your area/country as well as the rights they defend.

Purpose

The purpose of this section is to clarify what human rights are and to outline the scope of rights, their implementation and their peculiarities.

We intend to focus on the historical course and evolution of the human rights to our days and to provide "food for thought" for further reading and reflection.

Expected results

Upon completion of the study of this section, you will be able to:

• Recall what human rights are and be familiar with the most important ones. You will also know a number of institutions and international organizations working to safeguard rights and recognize cases of rights violations in the population groups that are usually affected.

• Interpret and prevent breaches of rights and act respectfully of these rights. You will be able to raise concerns, and use examples and stories to correct breaches.

• Adopt acceptance and respect practices, reproduce rights-assuring standards, and transfer all of this beyond the population group you are interested in and to other vulnerable population groups (e.g. the elderly, migrants, etc.).

 

Introductory remarks

The field of human rights is a broad, difficult field that is changing and shaping according to time, place, conditions, etc. There has been a clear difficulty for the authors of this text to establish a framework that would satisfy the full size of this field whilst including all those elements that are necessary for the understanding and importance of the subject. In this effort, we have included a number of issues that lead (from general to specialist) to our ultimate goal, which is the rights of people with disabilities, and especially that of employment.

In the process of writing a paragraph, we have constantly found that every question and point referring to a human right relates and refers to many others, generating new questions and the need for further study. In this section we will describe what human rights and their origins are, as well as international organizations and declarations.

Certainly, for any scholar who would like to deepen their knowledge in the history and the theoretical approach of the subject, a further study of resources will be useful, some resources of which are mentioned below.

Introduction

The cylinder of Cyrus (6th century BC) is considered as the first constitutional charter of human rights. It included the safeguarding of rights such as freedom, freedom of religion, protection of racial discrimination, etc., which are still being questioned in many parts of our planet.

 

 Since the Cyrus cylinder to date dozens of texts, declarations and wars have been necessary to ensure respect of human rights to a certain extent. The Great Charter, the Declaration of Human Rights (1789), is a long-lasting achievement. The UN Declaration of Rights in 1948 seems to be the culmination of battles the human race had to fight for equality, justice, etc. This UN Declaration is the main, fundamental reference document for human rights and it has been ratified by all UN member states.

On the other hand, as mentioned above, human rights have mutated, evolved and been adapted to human life and its needs. In its introduction, the UN Declaration states: "The indifference and contempt of human rights have led to acts of barbarism revolting around human consciousness and the prospect of a world where people will be free to speak and believe, redeemed by terror and misery, has been proclaimed to be the highest pursuit of man ... "

In this sense, we always need to be aware and ready to reform the conditions in our society in order to ensure the safeguarding of human rights.

ACTIVITY

Before reading the following text, please visit the UN human rights channel on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/UNOHCHR) and watch some videos at random. Videos are available in the 6 official languages of the UN. As an alternative, you can find material in your own language at https://www.unric.org.

Try to identify 5-10 human rights listed in the relevant videos and write them down on a piece of paper.