United Nations and Positive Human Rights Essay

Introduction

According to the United Nations, positive human rights refer to the goods and services that have monetary values. Conversely, the empowerment among the people to do or not to do certain actions may also be regarded as human right approaches, additionally, positive human rights may also involve individual advising or encouraging other people to undertake or not to undertake certain course of actions. Positive human rights therefore include food, shelter and other material possession. In accordance to the United Nation's definition, human rights can be classified into two categories namely; negative human rights and positive human rights. The positive human rights involves right to food, rights to medical services of healthcare, right to shelter and social security (Ramcharan, 2013, p.118). Positive and negative rights often oblige either an action or inaction. The obligations may be either due to moral or legal characters. The idea of negative or positive rights may also be applied in the understanding of liberty rights. The negative rights include political and civil rights such as right to life, political and civil rights, right to private property, freedom of worship or religion, freedom from violence or crime, freedom from slavery and right to fair trial.

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Positive human rights are often subjected to the actions taken by another person or a group of people. Alternatively, the exercising of positive human rights requires the addition of someone else's actions to the equation. In contrary to the above evidence, the negative rights prohibit others from taking actions against the right holder. The negative rights are associated with perfect duties while on the other hand; the positive rights are usually connected to imperfect duties. Positive rights is contrary to the negative rights require the provision of government effort. Right to clean water, education, and housing, for instance, requires government interventions. Positive and negative rights in most cases conflicts since carrying out the duties attributed to positive rights usually involve infringing on the negative rights. For instance, the positive rights to social welfare present a duty to the government to avail services. Implementing the positive rights usually involve increasing the state expenditure, a situation that requires an increase in taxes. The above case would infringe the negative rights and the citizens would, however, remit more money to aid the process.

The Role of the United Nations Relating to Positive Human Rights

The United Nations member countries play major often plays major roles in the protection and upholding of positive human rights. The major aim of the United Nations member's state is to ensure that all the individuals or people across different states absolutely enjoy the positive human rights. In accordance to the United Nation's policies, every person is entitled to equal positive rights and no one should be denied an opportunity to enjoy these rights due to their social status, gender, religion, culture or any other form of diversity that may be a source of decimation. To be more specific, the United Nation has the absolute civic responsibility to enlighten and educate the citizens of all kinds of positive human rights (Quinn, Degener, & Bruce, 2002, p.13). The United Nations advisory board has the sole responsibility to advise the member countries on how to implement the positive human rights. The board also assists the member states in improving the positive human rights. For example, the organization usually provides fellowships and experts advice on how to carry out the implementation programs for different groups of people with respective of their countries. In most states, the social system is often challenged by the prevailing cultural disadvantages, for instance, the nations that experience political or racial hatred may sometimes have difficulties in implementing the positive rights and as a result, it is the responsibility of the United Nations to enforce and implement the rights as stated in the international statue.

The United Nation's responsibility in the implementation of positive human rights often depends on the extent of nation's political will. Before stipulating positive human rights, a nation must have the social, political and economic capability to ensure smooth implementation of the above positive human rights. The state, on the other hand, irrespective of the economic status, must always adhere to the international requirements and standards when it comes to the implementation of human rights. According to the United Nations, to implement the international positive human rights, the member states must affirmatively integrate them into the domestic laws. Each state should, therefore, decide the implementation of the obligation at the national level.

How the Member States Have Handled Positive Human Rights and What Can Be Done To Improve Positive Human Rights

Most of the United Nations member's states have been reluctant when it comes to the implementation of the positive human rights. The accomplishment of the positive human rights should involve creating awareness, enlightening and educating the citizens or members of the public about the positive human rights. Most states have however ignored the above requirement and instead, they have infringed the positive human rights. According to the research done by the United Nations Development Program, over 45% of the study participants feel that their positive rights are being violated (United Nations Development Program, 2018, p.3). As a result, all the United Nations member states need to develop strategies on how to obey and implement the positive human rights irrespective of the political, social and economic situation of a country. Creation of awareness, enlightening programs, and civic education are some of the steps that states can take to ensure the complete achievement in the implementation of positive human rights. According to the research done in Kenya about the implementation of positive human rights, close to 46% of the individual selected for the study agreed that the government is in a position to implement the positive human rights but the implementation process is often marred by the lack of political goodwill and continuous political interferences (United Nations, 1998). According to the United Nation's reports, close to 60% of the third world states is not doing much or is not taking appropriate states towards the establishment of positive human rights (United Nations, 1998).

Advance democracies, when compared to the developing and third world states, have undergone tremendous steps in the achievement of positive human rights. These states have enhanced the legislation that protects the positive rights of the citizens. In addition, these states have elaborate education mechanisms and enlightening programs that guide the implementation of positive human rights. In the advanced democracies, the positive human rights are integrated within the constitution of the laws of the land so as to ensure that both the citizens and foreigners living in the countries are equally protected. In the third world nations and in countries where there are a lot of political interferences, the leadership should always be held accountable for the violation of positive human rights. The United Nations often give authority to the government of the leadership of a given state to ensure that the positive human rights are implemented.

Supporting Theories

There are several factors that often hinder the implementation positive human rights among the United Nations member countries. These factors may be attributed to the lack of awareness and ignorance (Barnidge, 2016, p.107). Some of the theories that explain the hindrance in the implementation of the positive human rights include cultural imperialism theory, cultural relativism theory, descriptive moral relativism theory as well as the Meta-ethical moral relativism theory. The Meta-ethical moral relativism theory often tries to explain the reasons why the advanced democracies such as the United States of America have several challenges in the implementation of the positive human rights. In the Meta-ethical moral relativism theory, moral judgments are false or true and they are relative to some particular standpoints, for example, the historical or cultural periods. There is no standpoint that are unique or that are privileged over the rest. The theory has also been linked to the claims about morality and more specifically to the fact that different cultures exhibit radically unique moral values. There has always been denial on the existence of the universal moral values shared by mankind. On the other hand, some theorists argue that people should refrain from introducing moral judgment on practices and beliefs characteristic of cultures that are unique to one's beliefs. According to Meta-ethical moral relativism, there are always no objective grounds for initiating the moral values of one's cultural believes over the other. Societies should make their own choices in line with their customs, practices, and beliefs.

References

Barnidge, R. P. (2016). The United Nations Human Rights Committee and Counter-Terrorism Measures of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights after 11 September 2001. In The Liberal Way of War (pp. 107-132). Routledge.

Quinn, G., Degener, T., & Bruce, A. (2002). Human rights and disability: The current use and future potential of United Nations human rights instruments in the context of disability. United Nations Publications.

Ramcharan, B. G. (2013). The UN human rights council. Routledge.

United Nations Development Program. (2008). Human rights protection inproves but Georgians concerned about labor rights, personal data and rights of minorities- EU and UNDP research reveals.

United Nations. (1998). Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-1998. Ottawa: Canadian.