The Politics of Human Rights

by Michelle Li

Edited by Harvi Karatha, Layout by Alison Ye

Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own cent.” - John Locke

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." These first lines of the Declaration of Independence clearly illustrate the American values of freedom, and in particular, the unalienable rights of life. In the Declaration of Independence, it is clear that all American citizens should have the same access to freedom and right to live.

Yet, slavery was legal in America until 1865, almost a century after America adopted these truths into its founding document. Even after slavery was abolished, African Americans were and are still treated as second-rate citizens.

Women didn’t have the right to vote until 1920, nearly two centuries after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Even now, women still struggle to have the same rights and privileges as men in society.

It wasn’t until 2015, just 5 years ago, that gay people were allowed to get married in the U.S. 2015 is almost three centuries after the founding fathers of the United States declared that all men had a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Since when did the right to human life become so hotly debated and politicized? ? So politicized? Why is the government in charge of deciding who gets to live as they are?

The human rights debate in politics can be traced back to the issue of slavery in the United States. Slavery was toted by the South as a “necessary evil” for the economy. On one hand, our Founding Fathers were writing that all humans in their new country must have freedom and the right to live. On the other hand, a huge portion of the population in their new country was already being denied freedom and the right to live.

The enslavement of people based solely on their race was not a human rights issue in the United States. It was simply a matter of pleasing the south so that they didn’t rage into a civil war. The fact that the enslavement of an entire race was seen as ‘justified’ set the precedent of how the United States deals with the abuse of human rights.

Women struggled to gain the vote because the men in politics at the time viewed women as some ‘lesser’ species that didn’t have the cognitive ability to match that of a man’s.

The right for women to participate in the all important activity of voting was questioned simply because their sex did not match that of a man’s.

Those of the LGBTQ+ community were discriminated against in the United States because they were viewed as ‘unnatural’. Christian values often interfere in politics and create highly debated political issues when no such issue should exist.

Ultimately, the United States has a long history of politicizing human rights issues ranging from womens’ rights to those of the LGBTQ+ community.

These rights are still often very politicized, and the rights to live still not securely insured.