Human rights

Every person at birth has certain God – given priviledges and freedoms that cannot be taken away by anybody, group of people, authority or government regardless of the religious, economic or ethnic division one belongs to, he has to live a descent and dignified life. This priviledges are human rights or fundamental human rights and they are stressed in the constitution of any country.

Effectively, we can define human rights as those privileges citizen are endowed with and protected by their constitution. The citizens have duties and responsibilities towards their country of residence and in return the government of the country must protect the rights of a citizen without the ambit of the constitution.

The human right is not earned purchased or inherited. It has its foundation in most religions of the world.

LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

1. State of Emergency: This is a governmental declaration or a rationale for temporarily suspending rights and freedom of persons. Such declarations usually come during the period of civil unrest. Emergency provisions are usually entrenched in the constitution thereby giving a legal backing to government declaration of state of emergency.
2. Conviction in a law court: Someone having been tried and found guilty of crime may be denied his right to life or movement as the case may be.
3. Slander libel and sedition: The freedom of expression and the press can be derived if someone publish false information about another person or make statement that are untrue or tarnish a reputation of another person. He could be charged for slander and liber respectively.
4. War: In a war situation, human right and freedoms are temporarily suspended especially the freedom of movement, conscription (false to join) into the Armed forces to fight against ones wish and buildings close to military barracks may be confiscated during war for security reasons while the owners and occupants are restricted to a safer area.
5. Military regime: They are usually regarded as unconstitutional and undemocratic form of government because they forced their way to the position of authority (de-facto) through coup d’état (a forceful and unlawful takeover of government).

The first thing a military government does when a coup d’état is successful is to suspend the constitution of the state and replacing it with decrees which supress and subrogate the right of man. Hence, in military era there is flagrant abuse of fundamental human right.

Assignment

What are the roles of individuals during state of emergency?