5 Assignment 01

My name is Doris Estevez. I have been at CWE for 3 years. I went back to school in 2014 after almost 11 years without being in school. I am a single mom to 15 year old son. I was a teen-mom and had to work and put my education on hold for a while. I currently work at Grand Street Settlement (non-for-profit organization) under a contract from the DFTA (Department for the Aging) as a caseworker for a senior center (Grand Coalition of Seniors). I enjoy my job very much. It brings me a lot of joy and happiness that I can help people in need. It could be just reading and translating a letter or applying for benefits & entitlements for a senior. I am hoping to one day becoming a social worker. I would be the 1 generation to complete college and obtain my bachelor’s degree. My parents are both immigrants from the Dominican Republic. My mom came to the US when she was 7 years old. She speaks and write English well. My mom only finish high school and my dad has only 5th grade education. Both my parents work very hard to provide me and siblings a good life. They both always pushed and enforce us on getting an education. So, today I strive to finish my education for my parents and son. I want to set an example to them and my family that getting a degree will help you move forward in life.

While reading Lynn Hunt “Introduction” I found that the Declaration of Independence” was written at a time when people were becoming aware of their actions as human beings. Thomas Jefferson “We hold truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” (pg.15), he made a permanent mark on recognizing human rights in today’s society. This spark a worldwide opinion on human rights good and bad. But the Declaration of Independence did not included slaves, free blacks, some religion minorities and women. During this time, men did not consider these groups of people equal. It was only considered for “white men”. The concept of “equal human rights” took some time unfold to what is in present time. America evolve as times were changing. As I start this class, I observe how many young women are in my class. It was amazing to see the change in times. Women during the 18th centuries could not go to school. It took many centuries to see what is in place today. The Declaration of Independence (1776) was implemented but also had a lot of amendments added to it. I agree with Lynn Hunt’s opinion on how new kinds of readings, experiences and empathy all played an important roles in “brain changing individuals”. It took people to think beyond what was going presently. People need to understand the change that was coming.

My name is Shatorra Harris and this is my last semester here at city. The reason why I am taking this course is because I need a substitute for Spanish three. When I first came to city I entered in majoring in early childhood. The process to get into the program was longer than I foreseen so I decided to change my major over to social work. Although I love working with children I want to expand my knowledge and work with children and their families. At first I thought I really didn’t have any interest in this class but seeing how women didn’t have rights way back then and seeing the rights we have today is there really a huge difference. Hearing my grandma talk about her times when she was growing up and all this terrible things she had to endure made me think of how strong she has become.

Lynn Hunt describes the universal declaration of human rights as everyone being born with free an equal rights. The French did not believe in these rights. They had developed their own rights or deprived citizens from practicing their rights. The French declaration wasn’t so universal. They had blacklisted; people of color, children, mentally ill. And people who did not own property. The French was seen as discriminatory because of their inefficiency to acknowledge everyone truly having the same level of rights. When the rights  of man are ignored it would cause corruption. People would commit crime because they didn’t think that their rights were self evident. This happens today in the workplace. Workers  protest because they may feel that the employer is violating their rights as an employee.

Human rights must be consistent, identical and worldly. In order for these wise to be considered human rights, all humans from all over the world must acquire them on the same level. If you questions were asked such as when does someone have full participation of these rights? And do noncitizens share these rights and which ones? I believe when a person is able to fully understand their rights that’s when they should be able to participate in them. I also believe that all immigrants or noncitizens should also engage in these rights because they are still humans. They may have participated in the right where they came from so why can’t they participate in the right where they are currently residing. They’re able and aware of how to follow these rights. Thomas Jefferson changed the name of the rights to rights of man. But all men did not have access to these rights. Jefferson didn’t enable these right to Africans and African Americans but only to the slaves that were at home.

Human rights are not self evident because there is still some discrepancies within the rights themselves. It’s says that all men are born equal but one man or person can’t partake in these rights because of the color of their skin or because they came from another country.

Hello everyone, my name is Liatt. This is  my last semester at CWE. I currently work as a Direct Service Provider for a non-profit in Brooklyn. I work with adults with mental illness and intellectual and developmental disabilities. I also have a 14 year old daughter on the Autism spectrum.

I chose this class because I feel it will connect well with a class I took in the fall titled Women and Work. Another reason I chose this class is because I think it is important to understand the history of human rights and why women are still fighting for them.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789 essentially said that all people are born free and have equal rights. The document also specifically named those rights, such as freedom, the right to own property, the right to safety and protection,  the right to be involved in the creation of laws, the right to a fair trial (innocent until proven guilty). Many of  the articles in the declaration  sound very similar to the U.S Constitution but the language changes in some of the articles. According to article 6 of The Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen, the words “all citizens” is used where in article 1 of the document the words “all men” is used.

I think that language as well as changes in society (education, employment, economics) affects how rights are interpreted, exercised, and applied. Today civil and human rights are not applied evenly or equally. In the past rights were not applied evenly or equally either. All of the precursory documents written regarding rights and citizenship were written by men. In almost all of them women, slaves, and people that are not property owners were not written in to the documents therefore not protected or included.

There are many groups of people today in the U.S that do not enjoy full citizenship  and who are not protected by the constitution or bill of rights. A persons social location determines citizenship, inclusion, protection under the law and whether or not one can exercise certain rights as well as political representation. Gender, immigration status, race and economic status all determine what rights apply to a particular group or if that group is even included under those rights. Human rights are still being violated today just as they were in the past.

I don’t understand a declaration to be law but instead they are a set of rules that were put into writing in order to prevent one person from having too much power. A declaration is basically a document stating how a person should be treated by others in the larger society and what society expects of its members.  Again, the language used as to who these rights protect is also very vague and not specifically naming every group of people. So if the terms “man” and “citizen”  were used then for me that implies that only men are protected and only men can be citizens. Women, slaves, and  people who did not own property, were not mentioned in the declaration, they were not thought to be honorable and had no political representation or rights. The language used in the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen separated groups of people based on gender, economic status and race.

Good evening, My name is Brittany Thomas and as fore stated in class, besides this course being a requirement, I am taking this class to increase my awareness of women’s rights and human rights as a whole. For as long as I can remember I have been surrounded with strong women in my life. From my grandmothers to godmothers to my own mother I have never doubted that I woman is just as strong if not stronger and capable in every capacity as a man. I take pride in that strength and it is because of that strength I am a first generation college graduate. Breaking so many barriers just within my own life and family it has been impressed upon me by the strength of the women in my family that I continue to pursue my education and take all the opportunities afforded to me. It saddens me to see not just young women but young black women such as myself who are not able or willing to enjoy and reap from a college education. Even my mother at an early age was unable to continue with her studies due to having become the head of her household after the passing of my grandparents. However its is never too late to finish your education. She is now pursing an online business degree and everyday is showing me the strength of a woman is unmeasurable.

In reading the introduction to this book by Lynn Hunt a couple of things really stood out to me. With so many revisions of what is now called the Bill of Rights, it is clear that not everyone who the bill was supposed to include and protect actually included and protected. Many were actually excluded with every revision. Blacks, people without property, foreigners and most of all women were considered not human enough to participate in political decisions as well as to be protected by the Bill of Rights .  The founders should have not been able to revise the bill if these groups were not going to include everyone. Which leads into the section about the truths of the bill to be self-evident. To say that everything listed and agreed upon as a human right of men (meaning all people) is self-evident is a very hypocritical statement to make. How can the Bill of Rights claim that it is a universal format and principal for all men while yet showing that it will not be afforded to all but in reality to a few, in particular the white aristocrat, the white male born on American soil, who has slaves and property and so forth. The Bill of Rights has been flawed for a very long time. The only thing self-evident about the Bill of Rights is how unequal it truly is.

Due Sunday, February 5th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase, make sure to include the proper citation.

1. Write an introductory post that tells the class who you are and about your interest in this class.

2. Then, in about a page, reflect on the following: In the introduction to her book, Inventing Human Rights, Lynn Hunt (2007) draws our attention to some of the legal documents that were precursors to the Universal Declaration for Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. Choose one of these works and begin to contextualize it in relationship to the framework for human rights that exists today.