Social and Political Issues

Human Rights .

What are human rights?

  1. Standards that recognize and protect the dignity of all human beings

  2. Norms that aspire to protect all people everywhere from sever political, legal, and social abuses

  3. Inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status

Human Dignity

  • The belief that all people hold a special value that's tied solely to their humanity

  • Touches every important aspect of the human experience (e.g. sexual and gender identity, citizenship, equality, privacy, education, employment, healthcare, etc.)

Five Principles of Human Rights

  1. Universal

  2. Inherent

  3. Inalienable

  4. Indivisible

  5. Interrelated

Scope of Human Rights

Freedom-based Human Rights

  • Deal more with civil and political rights

  • Include social freedom and equality

  • Enable people to advance in life regardless of their personal background

Needs-based Human Rights

  • Deal more with social and economic rights

  • Seek to provide equal opportunity for material needs to be met through the availability of resources that enable people to achieve freedom-oriented rights

Types of Human Rights

Economical, Social, and Cultural Rights

  • The right to employment

  • The right to social protection; the right to an adequate standard of living

  • The right to education

  • The right to enjoyment of benefits of cultural freedom ands scientific progress

Civil and Political Rights

  • Equality before the law

  • The right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence

  • Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; freedom of opinion and expression

  • The right to peaceful assembly

  • The right to participate in public affairs and elections

  • Protection of minority rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • Created after World War II by the United Nations in 1948, three years after the UN’s establishment

  • Came about after the two worlds wars as a means to promote freedom, peace, and overall better life standards

  • Universally recognized and implemented in the laws and constitutions in the 1987 Constitution as the Bill of Rights

Inequalities .

Definition of Inequality

Inequality is the phenomenon of unequal and/or unjust distribution of resources and opportunities among members of a given society.

Equality vs. Equity vs. Justice

Equality

  • Equality is the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability. Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities.

Equity

  • Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. What is “fair" as it relates to equity isn’t a question of what is the same but rather the point from which a person begins.

Justice

  • Justice can take equity one step further by fixing the systems in a way that leads to long-term sustainable, equitable access for generations to come.

Types of Inequalities

  1. Gender inequality

The disparities between women and men in a society in terms of their access and opportunities in the social, economic, and political spheres and their share in decision-making power at all social levels.

  1. Economic inequality

Significant disparity in the distribution of income, wealth, and opportunity between individuals, groups, populations, social classes, or countries.

  1. Race and ethnicity inequality

Differential access to opportunities, resources, and overall life chances based on an individual or group’s race, and/or ethnic identification and expression

  1. Educational inequality

The unequal distribution of educational opportunity, financial and educational resources, qualified teachers, or digital assets that results in lessening of a student or population’s educational, academic success, or performance.

Inequality of Outcomes vs. Inequality of Opportunities

Inequality of Outcomes

  • Inequality of outcomes occurs when individuals do not possess the same level of material wealth or overall living economic conditions.

  • This understanding of inequality focuses on the standards of living that measure one’s success or well-being, such as income, education, and health.

Inequality of Opportunities

  • In the late 1970’s Amartya Sen’s capability framework proposed that well-being should be defined and measured in terms of the beings and doings valued by people (functionings) and the freedom to choose and to act (capabilities).

  • One’s income, well-being, and freedom is also highly dependent on “contingent circumstances, both personal and social” that include the individual's age, gender, family background, and disability.

  • Inequality of opportunities is more centered on the actual opportunities of living that give people the freedom, or lack thereof, to pursue a life of their own choosing.

  • Equality of opportunity exists when life outcomes depend only on factors for which persons can be considered responsible, and not on disadvantageous attributes outside of their control.

SDGs that address inequalities

  1. No poverty (1)

  2. Zero hunger (2)

  3. Good health and well-being (3)

  4. Quality education (4)

  5. Gender equality (5)

  6. Decent work and economic growth (8)

  7. Reduced inequalities (10)

  8. Peace, justice, and strong institutions (16)