Complete the text with the words from the box.

Human rights

Everyone who treats the question of human rights should bear in mind that there is an enormous ……………between a constitutional right, which a state guarantees to its own citizens and, sometimes to foreigners who are within its jurisdiction, and a human right which is inherent whatever the nationality of the person is or wherever he lives.

Human rights transcend political divisions. They are basic minimum standards of freedom and security for all. Alleging human rights violations, some countries have imposed economic sanctions against others such as restriction of trade. Human rights have been cited as a reason for military intervention against foreign countries (although there were undoubtedly other reasons for such intervention).

Is criticism of, and even intervention against, another country justified? Opponents of interference argue that it is wrong to impose Western moral values on other cultures and it can have only …………effects for the community solidarity and economic security of their nations. The governments of some countries defend the veiling of women, applying special procedure to ……………...criminals and sentencing them to corporal punishment such as cutting off the hands, as practices founded in their religion and traditions which ensure a safe society.

However human rights organizations demand that basic moral standards should ……………..every national act of law. Morality and legality become connected when constitutions are violated and citizens flee over the border into other countries seeking political asylum (and their countries threaten them with forcible return).

In purely legal terms most countries of the world have signed international agreements concerning the treatment of individuals. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 without a dissenting vote. The period shortly after World War II was certainly an ……………… moment to stipulate basic human rights: equality in dignity and rights irrespective of race, color, sex, language, religion etc. The Declaration also proclaims entitlement to freedom from slavery, torture and cruel punishment, arbitrary arrest and detention, the right to express one’s opinions, to a fair, independent public hearing of a criminal charge.

However the Declaration hasn’t become an …………. document binding for all governments as it doesn’t carry the force of a treaty obligation.

So in 1966 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted. It is not as comprehensive as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but it’s more important as it has binding provisions about racial and sexual equality, torture and slavery, freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Not all the members of the United Nations have signed the Convention and only 34 countries have agreed to an Optional Protocol which allows individuals to seek ………………in a court of law against violations of the Convention.

Legal arguments are used to …………any breach of rights. However, when the laws of a country violate human rights, groups like Amnesty International protest to the government on moral grounds. These advocates of human rights obviously deserve respect. Rather than being ……………..to dictatorship regimes, only ……………that the laws should be implemented and the human rights observed, they choose voicing their protests, campaigning for prisoners of conscience and creating publicity with the aim to speed up the release of such prisoners and put an end to inhumane treatment.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1763