Human rights?

     I really appreciated the hopefulness of David Barashes article Human Rights. He gives us a nice summary of the history of Human Rights. He explains how different cultures or societies are going to have different ideas of what defines a human right and how this poses challenges especially for us in the west who may want to go into  another country and impose our own ideas of what human rights are and how they can change their culture to fit this mold. The article also goes into different ways human right are being upheld throughout the world through t with the help of various organizations including the U.N. which helped me to have a better appreciation for the fact that they are making a difference in peoples lives and not just acting as a talk piece for governments trying to put on a good show, particularly the United States.

       I thought the quote from Cyrus Vance sums up the article beautifully when he say's "We pursue our human rights objectives not only because they are right, but because we have a stake in the stability that comes when people express their hopes and find their future freely. Our ideals and our interests coincide" (184). In discussing human rights in class yesterday it became apparent that I am working from a model that can be very idealistic and something that much of the world cannot relate to.  Again the theme of getting a bigger picture of what is happening to our fellow citizens around the world comes up for me. We are all interconnected and it does not serve anyone to shut out the pain and suffering that is experienced by another being because we are never separate from anyone or anything else.