Read and translate the text given below.
T he Significance of the Human Rights
During the years after World War II, the Cold War polarized capitalist and communist countries into East and West, with each emphasizing different types of rights. The United States, proud of its achievements in the areas of civil and political rights, criticized its communist rivals, particularly the Soviet Union, for denying these to their citizens. On its part, the USSR asserted the importance of government in ensuring that all citizens have adequate food, health care, employment, social insurance, and education. Members of the Soviet Union accused the USA of refusing to guarantee these economic and social rights to its citizens. These political stances, however, did not adequately capture the reality that both sides of the East-West conflict were struggling with issues related to the full range of rights.
Other nations, such as Sweden and Denmark, sought to promote both clusters of rights through the establishment of social welfare states. And many of the new nations in Africa and Asia, created since the end of World War II, such as Egypt, the Philippines, South Africa, and Tanzania, wrote constitutions embodying the wide range of principles found in the UDHR. They have sought to establish development strategies reflecting a commitment to these rights.
However, if we look across the globe, it is evident that we are far from achieving the goals of justice and human dignity for all. Yes, there have been popular movements towards democratization in many parts of the world, with elected leaders replacing dictators. Yes, there have been advances in education, health care, and sanitation. Nevertheless, among the 4.4 billion people who live in developing countries, three-fifths still have no access to basic sanitation, almost one-third are without safe drinking water, one-quarter lack adequate housing, one-fifth live beyond reach of modern health services, one-fifth of the children do not reach grade five in school, and one –fifth are undernourished.
Almost all of the world’s nations have indicated a commitment to achieving full economic, social, and cultural rights by agreeing to the United Nations’ international covenant on these rights. The United States has not; it appears unwilling to conduct the self-scrutiny that would be required.
The results of this lack of commitment leave the United States with much to do. One US child in five lives in official poverty, between 1.2 and 2 million people are homeless during any year, 40 million are without health insurance, and the number of people turning to emergency food shelves and soup kitchens for their meals is rapidly growing.
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Human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and inalienable. Therefore, the enhancement of all rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural – must be our goal.
Make up five questions to the text and ask the groupmates to answer them. Discuss the problems mentioned in the article.
3.8 CASE STUDY & ROLE PLAY
The Case
Women’s rights
Role Play In October 2012 the EU’s Justice Chief Vivian Redding tried to impose a 40 percent quota on EU firms to get more women in top jobs, but her plan hit the buffers in Strasbourg.
Getting more women on company boards has been a long cherished aim for many senior EU officials. Only 3% of chief executives in big European companies are women, 14% sit as company board members. The situation is slowly changing. However the European Union believes at this current rate, it will take 50 years to achieve gender balanced boardrooms. The problem is how to break a glass ceiling? The “glass ceiling”, which symbolizes the barrier preventing women reaching top positions still exists all over Europe.
Europe’s Justice Chief Viviane Redding wants quotas, forcing firms to reserve 40 percent of their top jobs for women by 2020.
But the EU Commission remains deeply divided on the issue. Many of Redding’s colleagues, notably women, still support self-regulation. Five of the Commission’s nine female commissioners are said to oppose Redding’s proposal. The result was that there is no decision yet.
Women still have a long way to go if they want to reach the targets issued by the European Commission – position, salary and respect in the workplace are vital if gender balance is to be achieved. When that happens the glass ceiling will be a thing of the past, but for now it stands as a reminder as to how far women have to go to find equality in the business world.
Case Analysis
1. Women’s rights around the world are an important indicator to understand global well-being.
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(to be institutionalized and supported by law, social custom and behavior; to be ignored and suppressed; a major global women’s rights treaty; to be ratified by the majority of the world’s nations a few decades ago; successes in empowering women; numerous issues still exist in all areas of life; to range from the cultural, political to the economic; gender discrimination; to affect girls and women throughout their lifetime; to suffer the most poverty)
2. Women work more than men but are paid less.
(to do two-thirds of the world’s work; to receive 10 percent of the world’s income, to own 1 percent of the means of production; to be underpaid; to perform low-status jobs; unpaid work in and for the household; to take the majority of women’s working hours; to spend less time in remuneration employment; to own fewer assets)
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