The Concept of Citizenship: Challenging South Africa\u27s Policy

The concept of citizenship has come to represent the full cluster of civil rights held by individuals as members of modern states. Therefore, of all the reforms undertaken by South Africa in response to the economic and political instability of the last two years, the most potentially far reaching was State President P. W. Botha\u27s announcement that citizenship would be restored\u27 to South African blacks. In September 1985, Botha affirmed that some form of citizenship would be extended to all South Africans. Finally, on July 2, 1986, the South African government passed The Restoration of South African Citizenship Act

America and the World: Human Rights at Home and Abroad.

Multiple provisions in the Bill of Rights appear gutted around the last year. While abroad, Mr. Pitts received an outside perspective on American news which provided him with a new outlook on current events. The United Nations Social Forum brought voices into the United Nations which are not typically heard, such as poor and vulnerable populations not represented elsewhere. Concurrently, the Johannesburg Summit addressed similar issues. However, as of late, the American government suppresses the voices of the American people. The Patriot Act includes provisions which deter dissent, freedom of speech, and assembly. This Act also purported to give the government expansive new powers. The Patriot Act also allows internet providers to hand over individual email addresses of anyone deemed a threat. Already the Act appears to violate the First and Fourth Amendments. America treads further on the Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights to Due Process by refusing access to impartial courts for detainees on military bases. Along those same lines, the United States government violates the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a speedy and public trial. For each provision of the Bill of Rights, an international equivalent exists. These equivalencies are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Affording people rights enhances security, while repression of those rights diminishes security. When we feel the need to repress rights at home in America, other nations feel comfortable following suit. The bottom line is repression does not work. Repression creates more terrorism. The United States needs to realize working with other nations is the way in which to attain global security

America and the World: Human Rights at Home and Abroad (Speaker Presentation)

I will try and provide a bit of an inventory of some of the main provisions of the Bill of Rights that appear to me to have been gutted in this country in the last year. The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been weakened. For each provision of the Bill of Rights, there is an international equivalent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, spelled out in more detail in various international treaties on the subject. While not identical, the major international human rights are similar in essence to their United States counterparts. The bottom line; repression doesn't work. We have alienated our closest allies. We have all-too-often used the U.N. as a cloak or mask to legitimize the pursuit of our selfish interests, instead of the genuinely global interests that we all have in this newly interdependent world. The reality now is that our interests are so often the same as their interests

America and the World: Human Rights at Home and Abroad (Speaker Presentation)

I will try and provide a bit of an inventory of some of the main provisions of the Bill of Rights that appear to me to have been gutted in this country in the last year. The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been weakened. For each provision of the Bill of Rights, there is an international equivalent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, spelled out in more detail in various international treaties on the subject. While not identical, the major international human rights are similar in essence to their United States counterparts. The bottom line; repression doesn't work. We have alienated our closest allies. We have all-too-often used the U.N. as a cloak or mask to legitimize the pursuit of our selfish interests, instead of the genuinely global interests that we all have in this newly interdependent world. The reality now is that our interests are so often the same as their interests

Major Developments at the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1992

The forty-eighth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the principal human rights organ of the United Nations, occurred at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from 27 January to 7 March 1992.\u27 The session took place at a time of unprecedented invigoration of the United Nations in general, and demonstrated both the challenges and the opportunities facing the organization and its primary human rights arm in the world community today