Assignment 4
Moyn’s explanation of human rights begins by giving us a background of how they emerged. After WWII the concept of human rights began as a way to stop and prevent “crimes against humanity”. However, Moyn explains that this concept wasn’t really taken into consideration until a later time. Human rights were just an ideology that was thought of. Human rights can be seen as a movement. This human rights movement was a way for people to speak up against the government. They wanted to have their rights protected; they wanted the government to give them the human rights, which they deserved as humans and not because of the country or nation that they lived in. Political resistance was viewed when speaking up for human rights. It was as if you were going against what the government had set up for you.
The rights of man were for the government. This means that the individuals were seen and given rights based on their belongings, socioeconomic status and religion amongst others. There was autonomy over individuals rather than general liberties. In a sense the government was putting a limitation to the rights that were granted. Socialism was the way in which individuals had to conform to.
Human rights were based on morals. As we know morals are based on the individual, there isn’t a general moral code that everyone lives by. The only code would be human rights, that those rights weren’t the same for everyone. The rights of man were viewed based on the status that the individual held, the position in which they had. In order for an individual to have “more” rights they had to own more property, stand on a higher socioeconomic status. Overall they had to agree and live by the standards that were set for them. Human rights were granted for people to be safe, for their rights to be respected, for the government to not take advantage of individuals. However, even now we’re living in a time where our liberty is taken advantage of and is taken for granted. Cruelty against humanity is happening, torture and killings are happening against humanity. Human rights were thought of to be the natural rights a human in born with regardless of categorization. We must now focus on humanitarian rights as a natural universal born right instead of a given right. The separation of rights shouldn’t be the basis of human rights.
