Smash The System: Human Rights
From Unfocusgroup.org
Nobody can deny that we should live in a world free from torture and unnecessary suffering. I myself am regular donor of Amnesty International, and believe that it's shocking what happens in some parts of the world.
However, I question the "rights"-based approach. Human rights tends to start off with noble aims, but becomes too system-based and eventually becomes a tyranny.
I don't believe that anybody in Britain actually thinks that the European Court of Human Rights works very well.
As such, I don't believe that we need a codified system of rights at all. We just need a more humane system all round, with all things considered, rather than a blanket idea of "rights".
I would prefer a system of law that looks at actions, rather than rights. For example:
- Rather than having "the right not to be tortured", just outlaw torture.
- Rather than having "equal rights for women/minorities", just remove laws that discriminate between one gender and another, or one race or another.
One can easily see that it is more directly meaningful to remove wrongs rather than install "rights".
The illiberal left
Unfortunately, many organizations that campaign for freedom actually inadvertently call for more bureaucracy. Organizations such as Liberty, which campaign for human rights, tend to campaign for extra laws that grant people rights. The problem is that these laws become fuzzy, and eventually lead to inhumane, petty bureaucracies.
A better solution would be to call for the repeal of illiberal laws, rather than the creation of new laws.
So too, the Liberal Democrats are anything but liberal. They consistently call for the "big government" approach that ultimately lead to bureaucratic inertia. They should be called the "Liberal Bureaucrats"
Where were any of these people when illiberal laws were passed, such as the smoking ban or the fox-hunting ban?
Back to Smash The System
