HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights are the rights a person has simply because he/she is a human being. In other words, the laws that must be respected and cannot be violated which protect a person's dignity, their life, etc. without any single exception; they are universal.

The human rights were created in 1948 as a consequence after the horrific deeds of the Nazis under the direction of Hitler such as the merciless genocide known as Holocaust. People knew that something had to be done to ensure that no more similar tragedies would come to happen again. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights consists of 30 different articles.

One of the articles that I found most interesting was Article #26: The Right to Education

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Point 1 implies that all students should be treated equally and that the access to higher education levels should exclusively be regulated by their results in relation to their effort. That is to say, students should work for their future, not simply relying on mommy's and daddy's money. I didn't know that the worries for equalities of the Human Rights even arrived at that point. In fact, I'm not sure if there's any place on the Earth where this is applied consequently. That would be an example of a Human Right with a simple idea which is violated practically everywhere.

Point 2 basically is self-propaganda. Human Rights should be taught and promoted in school, which is, I believe, a good idea. If we make the children know about Human Rights early in school, they will stick to the idea and it will become something more natural for them. Probably this is the main problem of the Human Rights right now: the concept is great but they're vastly ignored by governments around the world.

Finally, the last point introduces the authority that parents have when it comes to decisions about their children. Maybe this is a critical issue since parents don't always make the right choices either... But I guess there has to be someone to decide as long as the children aren't mature enough to decide by themselves. And when is that? Questions over questions... After all, the Human Rights are not perfect. But most articles should already be applied without any problems and that's not the case. Apathy won't solve the problem.

(By the way, no new words, sorry)