Understanding, Perspective and Approach to Human Rights - 2750 Words

Vindictive Analysis of the African Understanding, Perspective and Approach to Human Rights (Research Paper Sample) Content: Human Rights; African PerspectiveNameInstitutionIntroductionThe United Nations (UN) defines Human Rights as the rights inherent to all human beings, whatever the nationality, national or ethnic origin, place of residence, colour, religion, language, sex or any other status. The concept of global human rights culminated after the Second World War and was espoused in International Law since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948. The African Union (A.U), an institutional arm of the UN as well as individual African countries that are independent individual signatories of the U.N. chatter on Human Rights are custodians of human rights in Africa (Debalen, 2011). On the other hand however, the concept of human rights is viewed very differently in Africa. The stark difference in perspective derives from the different and unique African culture that gives a whole new dimension and point of view to human rights as known el sewhere. This paper therefore seeks to evaluate conceptual and practical approaches to the African perspective of Human Rights in the continent.African Perspective on Human RightsContrary to popular belief, the concept of human rights is not viewed with a universal approach all over the world. This is mainly due to the fact that the world generally has widely varied cultures and experiences. While the concept of Human Rights is relatively recent in Africa, there have been tremendous steps made with United Nations Systems and institutions, international law and the African Union overseeing implementation of the concept among member states.Legislations and ConventionsMilestones have majorly been made with regards to ratification and adoption of the various treaties, guarantees by law and various progressive legislations, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. It is however important to note that even with these important steps with leg islation and ratification, vast gaps remain in this regard to begin with. This translates to weak and non-existent framework within which to enact the various aspects of Human Rights. Take for instance, The Convention on the Rights of the Child, one of the most widely ratified human rights treaties in history. Certain African states like Somalia and South Sudan have not ratified the treaty. Even more examples of gaping disparities in this regard are that South Sudan has not ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Somalia and South Sudan have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Tanzania, The Central African Republic and Zimbabwe have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women while Sudan and Angola are only signatories. Moreover, only twelve countries in the continent are bona fide state parties of the International Conventi on for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This is the trend across most core treaties of the Human Rights Convention.Women RightsAfrica is a generally socially and culturally conservative continent and this has had its own problems with regards to human rights. Consequently, certain entrenched traditions and intolerance have greatly hindered enactment of legislations that foster human rights or even implementation of such laws and treaties where they exist. This has led to continuation of various practices that can generally be viewed as hampering human rights. A classic example across the continent is the perpetual patriarchal societies which have hindered growth, development and self-actualization against women while largely favouring men. Men are arguably considered custodians of the societal norms and thus superior while women generally weak and in need of constant input of men to make their choices. This has left women lagging behind on matters of great importance both to themselves and the society at large. It has also propped up practices like Female Genital Mutilation against women across the Continent aimed at controlling women and confining them to societal decorum and decency. For instance, in December 1993, the UN General Assembly incorporated FGM in resolution 48/104, a Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. However, the practice is widely done in 27 African countries.Despite various individual government efforts across the continent, there are areas where the practice goes on unabated. In Eritrea, for instance, FGM is performed on 90 percent of girls and the rate currently stands at 75 percent of girls. Higher statistics litter the continent in places like Somali, Nigeria and the Central Africa Republic. Women largely consent to these practises in an attempt to conform to norms so as to be seen as desirable to the men and increase their appeal and marriageability. Notable too is that this procedure happe ns at a relatively young age and is largely enforced by traditional and religious beliefs that tend to establish control over women sexuality in disregard of their human rights and liberty of choice (Kuster, 2000). The same cultural and social practices have informed resilient continuation of practices like child marriages and forced marriages. These have had profound consequences on victims in the general global view but closer scrutiny points to greater rates of consent among perceived victims.In addition, cases of unreported and unaddressed domestic violence remain fairly high with painful consequences on victims but these norms keep them from complaining in most cases as the acts are viewed as meant to put them in their rightful places.Leadership in Africa has largely been a preserve of males with women coming up as subordinates. While this has left fewer opportunities to women and put major odds against women leadership in various field, it takes place with consent from the sam e women. Women by far outnumber men in the continent but the cultural obligation for men to lead has left women at a serious disadvantage when it comes to leadership. It is no surprise that these African cultural norms easily make women to sometimes make decisions against their own interests so as to conform. It is for this reason that there has only been one competitively elected president in the entire history of the African continent with others coming in as interim leaders. Ms Helen Johnson of Sierra Leon remains the only ever rightfully elected female president in the history of AfricaKillingsCases of extreme intolerance on the continent have been cases of honour killings especially in the predominantly Muslim North in cases of premarital pregnancies. These are done with the notion of protecting the honour and pride of the victims family as well as heed perceived religious teachings. Killings based on superstition have also happened across the continent on suspicion of witchcra ft. In such cases, killing is socially justifiable to keep the communities safe from evil spirits and dangerous spiritual forces besides avenging the evils caused by such people.LGBT RightsAnother area where human rights violation records in Africa remain highest in the world is with the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. There has been some progress in the continent in this respect. For example, Mozambique passes a legislation legalizing same sex marriages on 1 July 2015 among other progress on the continent. That said however, there is still a long way to go since more than thirty countries still have anti- gay laws. For instance, Nigeria has laws banning gay relations with a penalty of 14 years imprisonment for offenders. In fact research shows that intolerance to gay relations could have recently reversed the small gains made across the continent. For example, in the last five years alone, more than twelve of the countries of Africa have made the unprecedented step to recriminalize same sex relations by enacting new or reviewing existing legislations against gay relations. These have gone hand in hand with violent confrontations against people perceived to be of gays, some killed in cold blood without redress. This is largely because Africans generally have a very negative attitude towards same sex relations and the act is considered unnatural hence, great resistance to any attempt at normalization. So negative is the perception of the African public about same sex unions that people tend to vent their disgust and frustration at individuals seen to perpetrate such acts (Barzilia, 2003). The feeling of most Africans is largely against such people, making getting away with any acts of violence against the LGBT community relatively easy and almost expected. The fact that most Africans are in one way or another very religious stirs huge mobilization against gay rights, leaving nearly no place for gays in normal African soci eties while seriously infringing on human rights of the LGBT community on the continent.People with DisabilitiesHuman rights violations in Africa have also been largely perpetuated against people born or living with disabilities. The cultural norms and superstitions have caused outright rejection of children born with disabilities across the continent. For this reason, the plight of children with disabilities has been well known but not well documented even among locals. Stories of abuse, neglect or even seclusion in homes, communities and in schools across Africa are very common but not usually corroborated by authorities. Many children with disabilities do not attend school because their families are ashamed, tied by superstitions or believe these children have no real ability to learn and compete favourably.Various social myths and beliefs have led to abuses against people living with albinism. This is usually based on be...