Human Rights for Women and International †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theHuman Rights for Women and International. Answer: Introduction The fairer sex, as they call her, maybe due to the more delicate and smaller physical stature in comparison to men or is it because it is really very easy to be unfair to them. A woman is thrust into an environment of cruelty right from the moment of birth or sometimes even before that when the parents decide to terminate the life of a female fetus. A male child is ever privileged than a female child, be it regarding education, clothing, food or parental affection. Born into a hostile atmosphere of the male dominated world, a girl child is often married off even before the onset of puberty. This action of the parents have an inherent desire to shed off the burden of feeding the girl child while the post marriage life of a girl is distressed by the entire responsibility of household chores and procreation. As per United Nations report, as mentioned in Human Rights and Girl Child (1993), a woman is denied proper food, education and most of the times even the basic necessities and are c ompelled to live a life without respect and dignity in a cycle of disempowerment. A female is raised as a socially inferior and intellectually inadequate creature who is subjected to barbaric practice of female genital mutilation, unconsented marriage ( often to older men), marital rape, domestic violence, honor killings, dowry deaths and so on. The woman is expected to beget only a male child and the inability to do that brings further suffering and she is sometimes pressurized either to leave the house or accept husbands remarriage. In all the aspects, she is the one who has to suffer tremendous emotional and psychological trauma till death. Women live a hellish life, physically and emotionally enslaved to the men. Women are the pivotal victims of the worldwide flesh trade, forced human labor, human trafficking, construction, and agriculture. But this arena of business involves small children and impoverished men too. Poverty plays the protagonist in this regard. They are bulldozed to serve unpaid, even unfed, or for meager payment. The statistics reveals that nearly 20.9 million people are allured into such jobs by deception, wherein, 11.4 million (about 55%) are females in contrast to 9.5% of men. Nearly 2 billion people are living a socially unprotected life as per United Nations Trafficking in persons protocol, and among them women are subjected to the worst conditions. Empowering women with education, proper food, self respect as well as self defense techniques is the only way to fight this problem prevailing across the globe. The stereotyped attitude towards women is the root of most domestic and sexual violence ( from which 35% of women population suffered worldwide) against women which needs to be changed in order to eradicate discrimination and foster equality between men and women. Amendments are necessary in legislation, practices, regulations and customs to bring parity in society. Age old religious dogmas and preaching that teach to be unjust to women should be addressed and modified to create a happy and fair world. Torture and Degrading Treatment The process of inflicting severe discomfort or pain causing inhuman suffering on someone, physically or mentally, or imposing humiliating actions as a punitive measure or in order to compel the victim to carry out orders, is considered as torture. Torture often has long term impacts and may be considered even more serious than genocide. Let us take the example of the 9/11 attack on the US Trade Centre, where the attackers justified themselves by the idea that they were only retributing the age old tortures inflicted on their community. But in a modern and civilized society retribution should not be combated by other means of retribution. This maxim has not been followed in reality. Though Article 5 UDHR and several other complementary documents have advocated refraining from torturing any human being, the principles mentioned in the documents have actually not been followed by those nations that have applied exceptionalism as a means of justifying their ill-treatment toward enemy com batants. Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture has clearly declared any severe form of torture as something that must be equated to inhumanity. But those who are to be considered as the protectors of humanity (especially the law enforcement officers) are pathetically the ones who are inflicting torture in its severest form. Torture and degrading treatment of the prisoners (and mainly those who had been imprisoned for having relation with any form of terrorist act) have surpassed the confinements of humanity, and hence, now, it has become quite difficult to distinguish between terrorists and law enforcers. This distinction should have always been upheld, but unfortunately it has not been so. Torture is the violation of a persons physical and mental integrity, but those who are supposed to sustain this integrity are now serving as agents of disintegration. The United States has always spoke of human rights, human dignity, and equity, but when it comes to the treatment of impr isoned terrorists, the state eventually forgets to implement its own philosophy. Such an approach should be considered detrimental not only to the reputation of the country as a global leader, but also to its international image as a land of hope and justice. It is high time that the countrys administration address the issue so that the lost prestige of the nation can be regained and so that the world can exemplify the country as a true embodiment of justice and equality. Substantive International Human Rights: the Right to Life Right to life, personal liberty and personal protection are the three most important fundamental rights that a human entity should enjoy in his life ( Art. 3 UDHR, Art.6 ICCPR, Art.4 ACHR, ACHPR, Art.2 CIS, Art.5 AL). These rights should not be violated even in times of public emergency and it is upon the state to protect the right to life under but in reality, like in the case of Akkoc versus Turkey, State, was found guilty as it failed to protect these fundamental rights. The state should leave no stone unturned while conducting an investigation in a candid and transparent method leading to proper health care provisions in order to add to the rate of life expectancy while reducing the rate of infant mortality by making honest effort to put an end to malnutrition and epidemics. The very next issue which needs to be addressed with much empathy and concern is what should be the fate of the unborn fetus, when a pregnant woman is found guilty. In the case of Paton Vs the state, the Euro pean Commission of Human Rights emphasized on the fact that life begins at conception and hence death penalty should be withdrawn or postponed in order to protect the right to life of the embryo (Art.6 ICCPR). There are certain state emergency situations like terrorist attack, riots, civil war, where the state is compelled to order a lawful arrest or prevent the escape of a lawfully detained convict [Art. 2 (2) ECHR] or impose shoot to kill policies, to inhibit greater loss of lives (McCann, Farrell, Savage Vs UK, Ogur Vs Turkey). Forced disappearance is a newly added incident which came forth in the Velasquez Rodriguez case 1990. According to the African charter, death of the non combatant during a civil war or tussles beyond borders violates the right to life. But it is the duty of the state to protect the wounded non combatant as well as the members of the armed forces. Providing aid and treatment to the person in distress or wounded is the humanitarian responsibility of the state. Genocide, a term that was introduced after the Jewish holocaust is considered as a heinous crime under international law, be it during war or peace. Protection and preservation of the fundamental rights of every humankind is the highest duty of a state ( Natan Lerner p 145, cited in Smith 2005, 213). Genocide is mass killing or the conspiracy to kill a large group of people or cause potential bodily harm to them. Any person or a group of persons planning the same is a criminal in the eyes of law and is subjected to punishment. The trial of Jean Paul Akayesu, stands as an evidence, which was first convicted under the international court. Corporal punishments should only be attributed to convicts who committed genocide, murder, extermination and willful killing. The state should handle every convict with humanitarian perspective and judge the degree of crime before imposing death penalty for the utmost protection of the fundamental right to life. Prisoners Rights Do enemy combatants have any right while being imprisoned? Though from the humanitarian perspective the answer to the question should be affirmative, in reality, what the United States criminal justice system is performing is a pointer to the fact that not always truth and humanity is upheld in the context of punishment. Prisoners are seldom provided with their rights in the tenure of their imprisonment, and for the imprisoned enemy combatants right is not only a dream that is never going to be fulfilled but it is also a word that should not be uttered in order to evade more severe tortures. Enemy combatants, till date, have not been provided with some basic rights that every prisoner, being member of the human species, should receive. The extreme degree of torture, the deteriorating conditions of the prisons, and the violent environment in which imprisoned enemy combatants have to spend their horrible life are pointers to the fact that sometimes death is better than a life of oppres sion and torture. International human rights are also applicable to prisoners, and in this respect one should take a note of the fact that, there are some positive obligations on the part of law-makers, and one such obligation is the requirement to enact legislation that ensures protection of prisoners right to life. But in the recent past, several incidents within the prison system have proved the fact that in the United States, right to life for imprisoned combatants is just a myth. It is also to be noted that though International Human Rights speak of the requirement of public officials not to engage in certain types of conduct; in the United States the almost direct interference of public officials in determining the fate of imprisoned enemy combatants should be considered everything but judicious. It can be pathetic to see that conditions of the concerned prisoners, but it would be more pathetic to imagine how in a country symbolizing freedom and liberty, the basic freedom and liberty of prisoner s are curbed on a daily basis. The hellish conditions of the American prisons and the apathy of the protectors of law towards the upholding of the principles of human rights altogether have resulted in a criminal justice system that is based on wrong assumptions and wrong principles. It is high time that the nations administration addresses and mitigates the issue, or else, the future of the countrys criminal justice system would be a bleak one.