Human Rights

Section A: What are human rights?
Human rights are what we believe that we are entitled to. We try to have broad, "universal" human rights such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; economic, social and cultural rights and everything else covered in the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In reality, however, the concept of entitlement varies from community to community. For example, I don't see why we should be entitled to bear arms- but that is my personal opinion, derived from my personal experience, and may not apply to another person living elsewhere in the world in completely different circumstances.

Section B: Why should we care about human rights?
I shall sidestep the messy cesspit of moralistic arguments- The denial or limitation of human rights limits the holistic development of individuals. Why should we care about individuals? Because they make up larger communities. Why should we care about communities? Because they contribute to the human race as a whole. Think about it- it is no coincidence that countries which deny basic human rights are also the most economically and socially backward. Every woman or child who is denied an education is denied the opportunity to change the world. Who knows how many geniuses we might have overlooked already? If we want to find a cure for cancer or AIDS, it would certainly help if we had more of our best brains working on it.

Section C: Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the campaign for human rights?
At a personal level, I believe that we should be optimistic about it because being pessimistic never helped anybody. That said, I think that optimism at this juncture can be justified. As the world progresses (the pervasiveness of the media, integration of economies, blah blah blah) , it is becoming increasingly difficult for any regime to deny people their rights because of pressure from the global community. There is a worrying instance where this doesn't hold true, though, and that is when fear is brought into the picture. Fear of terrorism or random violence, for example, can convince people to give up their freedoms in the name of safety. There are frightfully convincing conspiracy theories abound about how it's all a big scheme by the international elite to exploit the masses. I do believe that as long as we have intelligent and well-informed people in the world who dare to stand up and speak out, things will just progressively keep getting better. Of course, we can't afford to ever get stagnant and take things for granted. Nobody wants to be remembered as the generation that messed it all up.

Section D: What does the continued campaign for human rights imply about the human condition? So deep! I suppose it suggests that we do have a sense of shared destiny, that we disapprove of injustice and that we do desire peace and prosperity for everyone, at least at a superficial level. We ought to take that with a pinch of salt though, because idealistic movements naturally resonate with the more idealistic elements within us. We might claim to want to provide human rights for everyone, but we would probably be disturbed (but not surprised) by the number of people who would rather let the oppressed remain oppressed so that they feel superior (and safe). Does that sound like a crazy idea?

Let me propose a hypothetical scenario- if you could alter history such that the mainland Chinese would be denied the right to migrate and seek out a better life for themselves, knowing that it would drastically reduce competition in schools and in the workforce here, would you do it? What do you reckon the average Singaporean would choose (let's assume his vote were secret :P)? It might seem like the rational thing to do to promote your own (and your offspring's) chance of survival, and thousands of years of primitive thinking has hardwired that sort of instinctive decision making into our brains. Logically (and morally) though, it's the wrong thing to do. Perhaps one of the most revealing truths about the human condition is that we care about ourselves more than we care about each other.