scholarly journals Lives rendered invisible: Bearing witness to human suffering

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladjo Ivanovic
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Public Representation ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy

<p><em>This paper explores the ethical challenges involved in the ways public representation structures our experiences of atrocities and facilitates an adequate awareness of and response towards the suffering of others. It points out that such an analysis should not exhaust itself in answering what makes public representations of human suffering ethically suspicious and intolerable, but should rather extend this task by clarifying how the public forms sentiments about their social and political reality by elucidating under which conditions public representation promotes broader political agendas. One of the central tenets of human rights advocacy is the widespread conviction that exposure to images and stories of human rights abuse has a mobilizing effect on western audience(s) whose exposure to such knowledge can motivate them to intervene and prevent future atrocities. In order to assess the basic implications of such a conviction we must answer at least three principal clusters of questions. First, how do public representations of atrocities affect individuals and their capacities to conceive and respond to social injustices and the suffering of others? Under what circumstances may agents respond effectively to shocking content? Second<strong>,</strong> how do social powers operate within the field of perception in order to control how the viewing public is affected? And how do these effects inform and galvanize political support or opposition regarding concrete historical events? Finally, what can be said about the responsibilities of visual representation? Whose agency is it that images inform, and what reforms are necessary to make representations of suffering ethically effective means to encourage better acknowledgment of individual and collective responsibilities that would motivate the public to meet its moral and political obligations? This paper ultimately suggests that in order for politically implicated images to have an immediate critical effect on individuals and their agency, they need to cultivate alternative modes of perception</em>.</p>

scholarly journals The Theme of Humanitarianism as Portrayed in Langston Hughes’ Poetry

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Ahmed Adam Abdalla Babiker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Langston Hughes ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Human Value ◽  
Western Concept ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Important Means ◽  
The Difference

This study focuses on the theme of humanitarianism as portrayed in Hughes’ poetry. One key objective of this study is to find out to what extent Hughes deals with the theme of humanitarianism in his poetry. Also, to shed lights on the theme of humanitarianism as human value and to compare the western concept of humanitarianism with the Islamic one and reach some conclusions. The study follows the descriptive, analytic and comparative approach to discuss and rationally analyze five selected poems of Hughes with special reference to the theme of humanitarianism that is depicted in them. In accordance, a number of findings have been obtained:  many types of humanitarianism such as reducing the human suffering, protection of human rights, including, right of life, security, freedom, equality, justice and peace have been portrayed in Langston Hughes poetry. In addition, values of impartiality and neutrality which represent the central point of humanitarianism are also portrayed. Also, it can be said that conducting comparative studies is one important means for cultural understanding between different peoples, and can be used as an effective means for the exchange of ideas, values, experiences and yet draw the nations closer to each other; hence contributing to the spread of understanding and peace between peoples. Moreover, despite the existence of some differences in some points, specifications and concepts, nonetheless, the theme of humanitarianism is found as a key value in both American and Islamic traditions; although the difference of cultures, including religions. Lastly, it can be said that due to the findings of the study, we could argue that, the humanitarianism cannot be separated from human rights.

The New Digital Wave of Rationalization

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-74
Author(s):  
Lambèr Royakkers ◽  
Rinie van Est
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Digital Control ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Public Values ◽  
Public Value ◽  
The Public ◽  
Information Processes

The new wave of digitization and the ensuing cybernetic loop lead to the fact that biological, social, and cognitive processes can be understood in terms of information processes and systems, and thus digitally programmed and controlled. Digital control offers society and the individuals in that society a multitude of opportunities, but also brings new social and ethical challenges. Important public values are at stake, closely linked to fundamental and human rights. This paper focuses on the public value of autonomy, and shows that digitization—by analysis and application of data—can have a profound effect on this value in all sorts of aspects in our lives: in our material, biological, and socio-cultural lives. Since the supervision of autonomy is hardly organized, we need to clarify through reflection and joint debate about what kind of control and human qualities we do not want to lose in the digital future.

scholarly journals Epidemics, genome editing and human rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-209
Author(s):  
Branislav Fabry
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Genome Editing ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Western World ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
The Impact

The article deals with the contemporary legal and ethical challenges, caused by coronavirus COVID-19. It analyses the reason why the western world was so much surprized by that pandemics. The text mentions the succeses of western medicine in the battle against epidemics in the 20th century and sees it as one of the reason for underestimating the public health issues in 21st century. The article also emphasizes on other contemporary threat, the antimicrobiotic resistance and the need for new legal answers to pandemics. It deals with problem of human genome editing as the central topic by creating of hereditary immunity against new viral threats. The text also mentions the risks of such new treatment and the impact on human dignity that is understood as leading value in the contemporary legal regulation on biotechnology.

Interview with Omar Shakir

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-137
Author(s):  
Noura Erakat
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Committee Member ◽  
Editorial Committee ◽  
Rutgers University ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
University Professor ◽  
The Government ◽  
Israeli Supreme Court

In late November 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the Ministry of Interior's order to deport Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir. The court based its decision on a 2017 amendment to Israel's 1952 Entry into Israel Law enabling the government to refuse entry to foreigners who allegedly advocate for the boycott of Israel. The same law was invoked to deny entry to U.S. congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in the summer of 2019. The campaign against Shakir began almost immediately after he was hired by HRW in 2016, and the court's decision marked the culmination of a multi-year battle against the deportation order. In this interview, JPS Editorial Committee member, Rutgers University professor, and author Noura Erakat discusses the details of his case with Shakir in an exchange that also examines the implications of the case for human rights advocacy, in general, and for Palestinians, in particular. The interview was edited for length and clarity.

Character and Competence at the Top: Gerald Ford Becomes President and Pardons Richard Nixon

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Terry Newell
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Public Purpose ◽  
Approval Rating ◽  
Public Approval ◽  
Public Leaders

On August 9,1974, Gerald Ford took the oath as president when Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate.   Ford's inaugural remarks and the actions that followed, aimed at restoring trust in government and gaining the legitimacy he needed to confront national problems, rested on both his character and his leadership talent.  His public approval rating soared.  Thirty-one days later, Ford spoke to the nation again, announcing his pardon of the disgraced former president.  That speech and the actions connected to it also depended on Ford's character and leadership skills.  Yet, his approval plummeted, dooming his prospects to win the 1976 election. This one-month period offers important lessons for public leaders who want to both be good and do good.  Ford succeeded in the first speech and failed in the second.   The ability to articulate a transcendent public purpose, persuade the public in a compelling way, and master the art of building political support proved decisive in both cases.   Also decisive was his character and the way he sought to call forth the moral character of the nation.   

Private Water, Public Good

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeline Baer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
State Interventions

Chapter 4 provides an in-depth case study of water policy in Chile from the 1970s to present, including an evaluation of the outcomes of water policy under the privatized system from a human rights perspective. The chapter interrogates Chile’s reputation as a privatization success story, finding that although Chile meets the narrow definition of the human right to water and sanitation in terms of access, quality, and price, it fails to meet the broader definition that includes citizen participation in water management and policy decisions. The chapter argues that Chile’s relative success in delivering water services is attributable to strong state capacity to govern the water sector in the public interest by embedding neoliberal reforms in state interventions. The Chile case shows that privatization is not necessarily antithetical to human rights-consistent outcomes if there is a strong state role in the private sector.

Beckett’s Expelled

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyndsey Stonebridge
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Samuel Beckett ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Dark Background ◽  
The World

Samuel Beckett is known for his unique abstraction of human suffering. This chapter shows how his wartime experiences transformed his writing, producing one of the first really critical literary depictions of the new subject of human rights and humanitarianism. Beckett’s engagement with what he described in 1946 as ‘the time-honoured conception of humanity in ruins’ began with his own experience of displacement and with his work with the Irish Red Cross in Saint-Lô. The characters who wander through the three short stories that he first wrote in French, ‘La Fin’, ‘L’Explusé’, and ‘Le Calmant’, collectively known as the Nouvelles, are both subject to a regime of humanitarian indifference (‘They clothed me and gave me money’ read the first lines of ‘La Fin’) and restless agents, stumbling in a stripped down French, groping for a new narrative. These are the new clowns of the dark background of difference, ironists of their own suffering, chroniclers of the gap that had opened up between the placeless people and the rest of the world.

Navigating the Ethics of Big Data in Public Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 353-367
Author(s):  
Effy Vayena ◽  
Lawrence Madoff
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Credit Card ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Digital Disease Detection ◽  
The Public Sphere

“Big data,” which encompasses massive amounts of information from both within the health sector (such as electronic health records) and outside the health sector (social media, search queries, cell phone metadata, credit card expenditures), is increasingly envisioned as a rich source to inform public health research and practice. This chapter examines the enormous range of sources, the highly varied nature of these data, and the differing motivations for their collection, which together challenge the public health community in ethically mining and exploiting big data. Ethical challenges revolve around the blurring of three previously clearer boundaries: between personal health data and nonhealth data; between the private and the public sphere in the online world; and, finally, between the powers and responsibilities of state and nonstate actors in relation to big data. Considerations include the implications for privacy, control and sharing of data, fair distribution of benefits and burdens, civic empowerment, accountability, and digital disease detection.

scholarly journals Making equal rights to health an election issue in NZ local body elections

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Stone ◽  
D e b Leyland
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Health Inequity ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Body

Abstract In New Zealand there are 20 district health boards (DHBs) with local elections every 3 years. There is low voter turnout for these, we suspect because the public has low cognizance of the role DHBs have in governing their health and disability system. Good governance ensures everyone whatever ethnicity, gender or sexual proclivity, from birth to old age, able or disabled, mentally well or unwell, drugfree or addicted, has equal rights of dignified access to healthcare. Without public engagement in DHB elections, the community risks having candidates elected that also don't understand their role through a preventative public health framework or human rights lens. The United Community Action Network (UCAN) developed a human rights framework and Health Charter for people driven into poverty by the costs of staying well in NZ. The framework outlines 6 social determinants of health needing protection through policy, to ensure all enjoy their rights to health. UCAN and the Public Health Association of New Zealand (PHA) partnered to raise public and the candidates' awareness during 2019 elections, of these social determinants causing inequity in health outcomes. A series of short explainer-videos were created for sharing through social media during the election build-up period, helping to promote PHA Branches' public Meet the Candidates events. Post-election, a longer film was produced to send to the elected DHB members. Our theory of change centred on spotlighting health inequity for voters, so that they would elect DHB members who had the greatest understanding and commitment to addressing this issue. With shareable videos we aimed to attract audience, raise awareness and debate the policy solutions to health inequity with candidates, enabling more informed choice amongst the voting public. Post-election, we maintain supportive relationships with the elected DHB members that promised their commitment to our Health Charter during their campaigns. Key messages Using videos and social media, local body elections provide an opportunity to promote everyone’s right to affordable healthcare, supporting and informing voter decision-making. UCAN's Health Charter is an advocacy resource for raising awareness of the social determinants of health inequity and poverty for people with mental illness, addiction and disability.

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