Wost1001Sec2

Human Rights

Amy stated today in lecture that cultural and traditional practices cannot be used to say that certain people are not observing human rights. I agree with that statement, but where do we draw the line between what is "okay" to practice and what goes again human rights. One of the girls in class said that genital mutilation is against human rights and thus is wrong, but polygamy is okay because it is not really going against anyone's human rights. It is important to look at individual cases, but it is still impossible to set up guide lines for what counts as against or for human rights. What about those people who want to partake in traditional practices that may "violate' their human rights? What do we do with them? Do we force them to not do it becuase that would mean that we are violating their rights by not allowing them to violate their own rights? That sounds a bit weird, but things like that do get complicated. I was also thinking about men and whether their are certain practices that violate their rights. It seems as though most traditional practices are for the benefit of men and thus do not violate their human rights. Some people feel that marrying more than one wife is bad because it is not fair for the women, but what about women who can marry more than one men? I am not exactly sure how those kinds of marraiges work, but I was just wondering whose rights are in question. I think that human rights seem simple when you think that every human should be entitled to them because they are human, but then you think about all the other parts of the picture and it gets complicated. Besides that, other cultures may view human rights differently based on their cultural beliefs. It is important not to force U.S. views of what are human rights and what are not onto non-western countries.