What are Human Rights?

 

From the very beginning of its existence, Humanity has faced the problem of human relationships. Should these relations be one of mutual respect or of mutual hostility. World religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and others try to solve this problem in their own way, but despite this, enmities, conflicts, clashes between individuals and human communities have continued to be a key fact in the lives of people and societies.

 

Today the respect for Human Rights in the contemporary world is continuing to be one of the most important among the Humanity problems. There are many definitions of the key term Human Rights.

 

 “Human rights are standards that recognize and protect the dignity of all human beings. Human rights govern how individual human beings live in society and with each other, as well as their relationship with the State and the obligations that the State have towards them”.

 

Of course there is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on  December 10, 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.

 

There is a necessity to mention how the Human Rights are determined and proclaimed in this document of great importance.For example:

 

Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and  should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

 

Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or  other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to  which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust,non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

 

Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

 

And so forth….

 

Today, in the 21st century, with the presence of modern means of destruction on the one hand, but on the other hand the existence of technologies that allow all people on Earth to live with dignity, as well as the idea of the Global Society as a shared destiny of humanity, puts in the most sharp way the agenda of the countries of the world and the international community as a whole, the issue of human rights, including the rights of development.

 

The Violation of the Human Rights and the Right to Development

 

A very important or may be one of the most important violation of Human Rights and the Right to Development is the mass poverty.

 

Poverty is a characteristic of the economic situation of an individual or social group, in which they cannot satisfy a certain range of minimum needs necessary for life, maintaining the ability to work, and procreation.

 

Poverty is generally classified under two main areas: absolute poverty and relative poverty:

 

Absolute poverty: Absolute poverty refers to the condition of a person whose income is not enough to meet the basic needs that are required to live a normal life for a long period;

Relative poverty: Relative poverty refers to the condition of a person when they are unable to earn sufficient income that restricts them from maintaining the minimum standard of living in a society in which they reside.

Regardless of its causes, poverty has devastating consequences for the people who live in it, like as:

 

Early Death;

Disability;

Diseases;

Emotional and Cognitive Impairment;

Social decline such as the breakdown of family ties,

social isolation;

Social problems like crimes, extremism, abuses, etc.

Social unrest, tensions, conflicts, etc.;

Others

The most important problems connected are the causes of the mass poverty and how to deal with them?

 

This is the critical point of the report which takes the view that in the most cases the main causes of the mass poverty have social roots.

 

Especially today at global level the existence of so called neoliberal models of development are showing us that neoliberal mode of functioning creates bipolar type of society – on the one pole are the super-super rich. On the other pole is the mass poverty.

 

Neoliberalism as Main Cause of Contemporary Mass Poverty

 

Neoliberalism is generally associated with policies of economic liberalization, including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, austerity and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. The main driving force in neoliberal economic models is the motivation for profit maximization in the interest of individual and group interests.

 

Neoliberalism created as ideological base the spiritual platform of postmodernism. Such philosophers as Jürgen Habermas, Daniel Bell and Sigmund Bauman interpret postmodernism as a result of neo-conservative policy and neoliberal ideology, which is characterized by aesthetic eclecticism, fetishization (i.e. to be excessively or irrationally devoted to an object, activity, etc.)  of consumer goods and other distinctive features of the so called post-industrial hyper consumer society.

 

In the postmodernist philosophy, as well as in the postmodernist culture as a whole, main thesis is the rejection of traditional values, including the humanistic core of the world religions, as well as the rejection of the ideas of the Modern such as the rationalism, the idea of the nation state, the problems stated by thinkers as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the questions posed by the Quantum Theory.

 

Postmodernism questions whether these ideals and ideas can actually exist at all. There are a number of concepts in postmodernism as a cultural phenomenon, which are sometimes mutually exclusive. Frankly speaking in postmodernism are planed mechanisms of deconstruction, leading to disintegration of the human communities and societies.

 

Briefly, in its content, neoliberalism is an expression of individual and group selfishness taken to its extreme level, which opposes it to the long-term interests and perspectives of the development of the communities and the societies as a whole.

 

Scholars, who themselves associate with neoliberalism, are the economists Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and James M. Buchanan, along with politicians and policy-makers such as Margaret Thatcher/so called “Thatcherism” and Ronald Reagan/” Reaganomics”/.

 

The neoliberal model of capitalism in the US has become the socio-economic and political platform for “American globalism”, i.e. of implementing American-style globalization as a long-term project. The latter represents an attempt to create a "mono-format" world in key dimensions of international development.

 

So the Neoliberalism in the form of “American Globalism manifested itself as policy in world economy and international affairs” as geopolitical and geo-economical dominating tendency in “Post-Cold War” period.

 

In general terms this tendency goals are "dilution of the national state" and the creation of a global system of the so-called a "democracy without borders". Every country in the world that dares to oppose the US can be accused of violating "democracy" and "human rights" and be "punished" accordingly.

 

As a result of neoliberalism and US globalism today we are witnessing the greatest inequality in all human history. “The Richest 1% own 46% of the World’s Wealth”.

 

The neoliberal global system due to its internal contradictions had fallen  in crisis. Now the international community is witnessing the aggravating of the socio-economic, political and socio-cultural situation at global level due to the system-structural crisis of the neoliberal capitalism. 

 

Therefore, it must be stressed that only by overcoming the neoliberal type of functioning, only by following the principles of social justice, social equality and social solidarity will be possible to defeat poverty and to respect truly the Human Rights for development and decent human life.