Protecting Human Rights: Canada's Policies for Ensuring Equality - Essay Sample

Introduction

Human rights are essential and must be protected by all means in all the countries of the world. Many states have policies that are designed to take care, defend and protect these rights (Morgan, 2016). Canada, as many other countries have a set of policies that protect the rights of the people of Canada. These policies do not only protect the citizens but other persons who are in the country at the time. These policies are often substantial and protected by the law, some of them are passed in the parliaments, and when broken, they often come with punitive consequences to the people who break them (Morgan, 2016). However, even with all the protection that the policies have, that are broken by individuals, the state and other organs of the country. In the previous year 2018, a plan on the human right was violated. This paper digs deep into the procedure and how it was broken.

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The government of Canada is currently looking into a decision that the United Nations on Human Rights Committee, which concluded that Canada had broken the policy of protecting human rights by ensuring quality health care for its people. The UN Human Rights Committee accused Canada of violating the rights of a person who is said not to have proper documentation of belonging to this country. It is reported that the migrant was denied access to essential healthcare which is a policy of protecting human rights in the country (Donnelly, & Whelan, 2018). Therefore, the failure to accord the immigrant the primary health care was an indicator of a policy that was violated by the nation.

In 1999 a citizen of Grenada visited Canada and remained in this country for all that time since she secured a job. Having a job here made her stay longer. She was however licensed and permitted to work in the country, which means that the nation legally recognized her and that she was not in the country illegally. The woman worked for several firms on temporary contracts for many years. It was during this time that she commenced the process of registering herself as a Canadian citizen which was a process that took much time due to her inability to raise an amount of money that was necessary for the process to be successful. During this process, she fell ill and decided to visit a hospital in Canada for medical attention and treatment.

After going to the hospital, she received some emergency management of a condition that she was suffering from. However, for diagnosis reasons, the healthcare workers of the hospital needed her blood samples for tests which they did not do because the lady did not have a health card and was not able to pay for the services due to her financial constraints. She gave this information in an affidavit she had filed in the court of law suing the hospital for not according her the necessary treatment and medical procedure.

Due to the suffering, she went through for the lack of a health card she applied for a Federal Health Program in the year 2009. This is a program that covers specific medical services requirements for refugees and other people who are in Canada who are not citizens (Allotey, & Reidpath, 2018). Her application did not go through as her claim of being a refugee was not active. It was ruled that during that moment, she was living in Canada as an undocumented immigrant. For this reason, she decided to petition to a court of law to challenge, and her attempt was unsuccessful. However, the court found out that the denial to be provided with the refugees' health program was against the countries health policy that states that all people in Canada have a right to essential treatment whether they have money or not (Coyte, & McKeever, 2016) The court went ahead to rule that the government of Canada had the right to deny health coverage for the people who are in the nation illegally.

After the United Nations listened to this issue, it provided a ruling that every person, regardless of where they come from or whether they are citizens or not have a fundamental right to life. The right to life of a person is vital, and the provision of better health care services help in protecting this right (Beard, Officer, De Carvalho, Sadana, Pot, Michel, & Thiyagarajan, 2016). The human right committee, therefore, ruled that the Canadian government was to provide the lady with adequate compensation for the violation she was subjected to. The committee also ruled that the government was to review its legislation to ensure that even the immigrants who are not documented have an equal chance of accessing quality health care services while within the country.

Clear policies are essential as they provide guidelines on what the state or an organization can do. They also ensure that no one or the state organs violate the policies (Tricker, & Tricker, 2015). Having clear policies will assist in avoiding consequences such as those the Canadian government was suffering as it had to compensate the lady. Additionally, well-set strategies help in preventing violation of the rights of the citizens. It would also prevent the damage that would come as a result of breaking a system which would, in turn, expose the right of a person to risks. For instance, from the case, had the woman perished due to the disease, the loss would have been as a result of violating a crucial policy.

The knowledge from this work is essential as it would assist in recognizing and protecting the rights of a person. Health care is a policy that is vital in promoting the right of people and promoting the quality of life of the people (Beard, et al. 2016). Additionally, the information provided is essential as it paints an image of respecting the dignity of a person and not discriminating them along with their ethnicity or other issues (Morgan, 2016). It also teaches that health care is an essential policy which should be respected. All people, organizations and governments of all the nations of the world must protect the policies. The policies aid in the protection of the rights of the citizens and non-citizens hence promoting human rights. (Donnelly, & Whelan, 2018).

References

Allotey, P., & Reidpath, D. (2018). The health of refugees: public health perspectives from crisis to settlement. Oxford University Press.

Beard, J. R., Officer, A., De Carvalho, I. A., Sadana, R., Pot, A. M., Michel, J. P., ... & Thiyagarajan, J. A. (2016). The World report on ageing and health: a policy framework for healthy ageing. The Lancet, 387(10033), 2145-2154.

Coyte, P. C., & McKeever, P. (2016). Home care in Canada: Passing the buck. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 33(2).

Donnelly, J., & Whelan, D. (2018). International human rights. Routledge.

Morgan, R. (2016). Transforming law and institution: Indigenous peoples, the United Nations and human rights. Routledge.

Tricker, R. B., & Tricker, R. I. (2015). Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices. Oxford University Press, USA.