It's a Crisis!!

A Malian Refugee Camp

During a crisis, nations often find that the rules completely change. The practices and ideologies that once worked wonderfully, are now harmful and even unethical. It can be difficult to maintain human rights during these periods of time.

During a humanitarian crisis, health care and education systems are not often available. Women and children are often exploited for economic or sexual reasons. This goes directly against human rights. There is never any excuse for that. Other countries must make it a priority to restore access to health care and education, and to ensure the safety of the general population. Basic rights, such as food, water, and shelter should be established as soon as possible. After that, to restore human dignity, we must work with the people so that they will be able to rise from the rubble on their own. This can be done by buying goods from the nation, and giving loans to people to create businesses.

During civil rights movements, I believe the government should maintain at least a right to the basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter for citizens. That should be a priority of the government’s, along with addressing the needs and desires of the protesting group. During protests, the people have the responsibility to respect others property and wellbeing. The government should do whatever it can to protect the people from harm. The same is true with antiwar movements.

With situations of McCarthyism, where accusations are being made against individuals without proper evidence, or with illegal investigation techniques, rights of the individual are very imposed upon. Companies would sometimes get a private search done on their employees, during which they would be questioned and have a background check. These individuals were not permitted to have an attorney present. Constitutional rights were greatly infringed upon. I don’t believe this was the correct approach to the issue. There is never a good reason to forsake these rights.

During pro-democracy movements, citizens should have the right to protest. They need to make their opinions known, against all odds. However, the people also have the responsibility to respect others property and wellbeing.