Globalization, State, Mass Media and Human Rights

Globalization, State, Mass Media and Human Rights

‘The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government’……………  Thomas Jefferson.

‘The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy’.……………Alex Carey

‘States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions’……………Noam Chomsky

‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist’……………Dom Helder Camara

Human Rights:

Human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. Human rights are what make us human. When we speak of the right to life, or development, or to dissent and diversity, we are speaking of tolerance. Tolerance will ensure all freedoms. Without it, we can be certain of none.

Human Rights are:
The rights that someone has simply because he or she is a human being.

•         Universal

•         Interconnected

•         Indivisible

Common Myths about Human Rights:

•           Human Rights are the same as civil rights.

•           Human Rights violations occur only in poor, foreign countries.

•           Human Rights are only concerned with violations.

•           Only adults and lawyers can understand the significance of Human Rights.

•           Human Rights are only legal rights.

•           Both Rights and Responsibilities

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted by the UN Commission on Human Rights chaired by, then first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.  The UDHR was adopted by the 56 member nations of the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. 

December 10th is now celebrated around the world as International Human Rights Day.  There are now188 member states in the United Nations that, upon membership, agreed to educate their citizens about the principles of the UDHR. Most of these countries have incorporated the principles of the UDHR into their constitutions.

Five Primary Categories of Human Rights:

•         Civil Rights

•         Political Rights

•         Economic Rights

•         Social Rights

•         Cultural Rights

Human Rights Education:

          Human rights Education is necessary for each and every one in the society. By knowing human rights it is possible to follow rules & regulation and rights & duties.

•         Produces changes in values and attitudes

•         Produces changes in behavior

•         Produces empowerment for social justice

•         Develops attitudes of solidarity across issues and nations

•         Develops knowledge and analytical skills

•         Produces participatory education

Globalization:

Globalization is the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen. The global economy is sometimes referred to as globality, characterized as a totally interconnected marketplace, unhampered by time zones or national boundaries. The proliferation of McDonalds restaurants around the world is an example of globalization; the fact that they adapt their menus to suit local tastes is an example of globalization (also known as internationalization), a combination of globalization and localization.

Globalization and Human Rights:

Globalization—the growing interpenetration of states, markets, communications, and ideas across borders—is one of the leading characteristics of the contemporary world. International norms and institutions for the protection of human rights are more developed than at any previous point in history, while global civil society fosters growing avenues of appeal for citizens repressed by their own states. But assaults on fundamental human dignity continue, and the very blurring of borders and rise of transnational actors that facilitated the development of a global human rights regime may also be generating new sources of human rights abuse. Even as they are more broadly articulated and accepted, the rights of individuals have come to depend ever more on a broad array of global actors and forces, from ministries to multinationals to missionaries.

Globalization is a package of transnational flows of people, production, investment, information, ideas, and authority (not new, but stronger and faster). Human rights are a set of claims and entitlements to human dignity, which the existing international regime assumes will be provided (or threatened) by the state. A more cosmopolitan and open international system should free individuals to pursue their rights, but large numbers of people seem to be suffering from both long-standing state repression and new denials of rights linked to transnational forces. The essays in this volume show that the challenge of globalization is that unaccountable flows of migration and open markets present new threats, which are not amenable to state-based human rights regimes, while the new opportunities of global information and institutions are insufficiently accessible and distorted by persistent state intervention.

The effect of globalization on state-based human rights violations will depend on the type of state and its history. In newly democratizing countries with weak institutions and elite-controlled economies (Russia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia), the growth of global markets and economic flows tends to destabilize coercive forces but increase crime, police abuse, and corruption. Global mobility and information flows generally stimulate ethnic mobilization, which may promote self-determination in responsive states but more often produces collective abuses in defense of dominant-group hegemony. On the other hand, the same forces have produced slow institutional openings by less fragmented single-party states (like China and Mexico). In much of Africa, globalization has ironically increased power vacuums, by both empowering substate challengers and providing sporadic intervention, which displaces old regimes without consolidating new ones. Some of the most horrifying abuses of all have occurred in the transnationalized, Hobbesian civil wars of Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Congo.

Centre for Globalization:

The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization uses a variety of means to explore globalization and promote the flow of ideas pertinent to our core issues. The activities organized by the YCSG are designed to interconnect in ways that will further the Center’s mission and enable us to achieve our goals.

Activities range from public lectures to international conferences to multidisciplinary roundtable discussions. YCSG connects the academy and policy worlds by bringing scholars and experts from outside the University to interact with faculty and students in workshops, panel discussions and colloquia, and organizes at least one major conference each year to explore an important aspect of globalization. A highly visible role of the Center is to bring key leaders in international affairs to campus to make a major public address.

The Center has initiated a program to bring distinguished visitors to Yale for periods of up to one year to complete a project or collaborate on a body of work. Visitors will represent a range of backgrounds and experiences, from researchers and practitioners to distinguished former government officials.

YCSG has developed and continues to cultivate collaborations with multilateral institutions, international and global organizations, and individuals who through their work in academia or public policy contribute significantly to the globalization debate.

          It is necessary to establish such type of centre in our university also. In the modern generation also computer literacy is very low in our community. It is very sad thing that our students have no interest to learn computer education. Without computer it is not possible to share opinions of other country citizens.

Amnesty International:

Amnesty International is a world-embracing movement working for the protection of human rights. It is independent of all governments and is neutral in its relation to political groups, ideologies and religious dividing lines.

Amnesty  International  was  founded  in 1961 by Peter Benenson, a British lawyer. It  was  originally  his  intention  to  launch an appeal in Britain with the aim of obtaining an amnesty  for  prisoners of conscience all over the world. The committee working  for  this  cause  soon  found that a detailed documentation of this category of prisoners would be needed. Gradually they realized that the work would have to be carried   out on a more permanent   basis;  the  number  of  prisoners  of  conscience  was  enormous  and they were to be found in every part of the world.

Amnesty international organization protecting the human rights through out the world. It gives ranks for protecting human rights to each and every country in the world. In Asia our rank is best when compared to other neighbouring countries.

Role of mass media in protecting Human Rights:

          Now we are living in the modern technological world. It is easy to know any type of things with in seconds through out the world. Audions of televisions and internet users increasing day by day. It is easy to protect human rights with the help of mass media. Mass is called as fourth estate. With the help of mass media it is easy to motivate about human rights each state of the citizens in the world. Our daily news papers focusing on human rights. It is true that government of the each states in the world have  take good  steps to protect human rights because of mass media. It is very important the Poets, Writers and Journalists should take care to protect human rights through their poems, books, novels and articles.

Conclusion:

          Swamy Vivekananda said “We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet”. It is true. It is our Government duty to give such type of education for each and every student in the country. Through education only we can solve all types of problems. Through education it is easy to motivate peoples about moral values and human rights. Education gives knowledge, strength and creativity. By proper using of technology, it is possible to India to become developed country in the world in future. ‘Save human rights and give safe life to every one’ .

*****