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A question of rights

A question of rights. Area of Study 4 Monday 25 October 2011. Meet Edna.

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A question of rights

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  1. A question of rights Area of Study 4 Monday 25 October 2011

  2. Meet Edna. • In Somaliland, where local camels often have more freedom than women, Edna Adan knew that her country needed a hospital dedicated to serving women. There were so many challenges, like the time a nomadic woman gave birth in the desert and developed a fistula, tearing her bladder. Her husband couldn’t stand her smell and wetness, so he stabbed her in the throat. To build a hospital for such women, Edna secured an abandoned site, which had been used as a dump; she cobbled together money and construction began. When the hospital was mostly built, but still lacked a roof, the money ran out.

  3. Meet Prudence. • Mothers may die giving birth from various complications, from eclampsia to sepsis. But behind the medical explanations, there are more critical sociological and biological ones, as Prudence Lemokouno and her family found out in Cameroon. A mother of three children at 24 years old, Prudence went into labor with her fourth, when an untrained birth attendant sat on Prudence’s stomach and jumped up and down and ruptured her uterus. The impoverished family paid a motorcyclist to take Prudence to the hospital, only to find out that they needed $100 for a caesarean that would save both lives...

  4. Meet Angeline. • Angeline Mugwendere’s parents were poor farmers in Zimbabwe, and when she went to school barefoot in a torn dress, classmates always mocked her. She could never pay school fees or afford school supplies, but even with the teasing and humiliations, Angeline pleaded to stay in school. At the end of primary school, she took the nationwide sixth-grade exams and had the best score in not only her school, but also her district — one of the highest in the nation. But she couldn’t afford secondary school.

  5. Meet Srey. • SreyRath was a 15-year-old self-confident Cambodian girl when she was trafficked to a brothel, drugged and beaten, and forced to work 7 days a week, 15 hours a day sleeping with male customers. Condoms were banned, she was never paid, and she was fed just barely enough food to keep her alive. Sex trafficking is frequently forced prostitution, often of teenage girls like SreyRath.

  6. Meet Alma S, fifteen years old • “When I was ten, I went to work in the first house. I would wash the dishes, make the beds . . . . I slept there. This was in San Salvador. They didn’t pay me because they left and went to their mother’s house and didn’t give me the address. I worked there for four months without being paid. I worked from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. In the morning I would do the cleaning and then make lunch. I took care of the three-year-old child. I would cook [and] wash clothes.”

  7. Flor N, seventeen years old • Flor N. works thirteen hours each day as a domestic worker in San Salvador, beginning at 4:30 a.m. “It’s heavy work: washing, ironing, taking care of the child,” she told Human Rights Watch. When she finishes her workday, she heads to her fifth grade evening class. “Sometimes I come to school super tired….I get up at 2 a.m. to go to work.” When she rises at 2 a.m. to return to work, she must walk one kilometer along a dangerous road to catch a minibus. “At 2 a.m. there are gangs where I live. This morning there was a group from a gang that tried to rob me of my chain,” she said. • Flor receives about U.S.$26 each month for her labors. “In the morning I give milk to the baby. I make breakfast, iron, wash, sweep.” The only domestic worker for a household of four adults and a three-year-old, she is also responsible for preparing their lunch, dinner, and snacks, and she watches the child. “Sometimes I eat, but sometimes I am too busy,” she told us. • “There is no rest for me. I can sit, but I have to be doing something. I have one day of rest” each month.

  8. What are human rights?

  9. Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that all human beings are entitled to have. • These include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, freedom from slavery and torture and equality before the law.

  10. What are the sources of human rights?

  11. International sources of human rights • Universal Declaration of Human Rights • International Covenant on Civil and Political rights • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

  12. Australian sources of human rights • Constitution • Common law • Statute law • E.g. The Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006

  13. How are human rights protected?

  14. United Nations bodies • Human Rights Council • Human Rights Committee • International Court of Justice

  15. Non-government organisations • Amnesty International • Red Cross • Human Rights Watch

  16. In Australia… • Courts and tribunals • Ombudsmans • Government Departments • Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission • Human Rights Commission

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