Sunday, October 01, 2006

Law and Human Rights - a new age

The new UK laws outlawing discrimination on the grounds of age
coming into force, this month, present challenges to employers
but especially at a time of increasing human longevity, will
imho, add considerably to the quality of life.

Traditionally however, legal rights are balanced by
counterpart obligations. I recall making this
point in a debate on sharecrazy
about the killings on London's transport system on 7th July:

"...Civil rights. Probably you like me
can recall when air travel was romantic
and security checks were non existent.
Probably too you can recall
when huge controversy was caused by giving
British Policeman guns even for one off cases?

Random mass killings have alas led to such positive
attributes of our Society being diluted. Obviously
such dilutions of Society's and individual's
freedoms cannot be avoided in some cases for the
sake of the common good.
However once gone, such freedoms are difficult to
recover so are best not discarded too quickly.

Thirdly; civil responsibilities...
The convention on Human Rights was a post WW 2
development.
Life has moved on immeasurably since then
and that convention needs reviewing accordingly. My suggestion
is that rather than remove human rights piecemeal
in response to particularly appalling
criminal murder and mayhem, there
be set up, perhaps by the UN
or heaven forbid, the EC, an organisation dedicated
to creating a convention on human responsibilities,
the adherence to which could be factored in when
considering individual's human rights..."

The new age anti-discrimination laws, will undoubtedly be
beneficial for old and young alike but society does need also
to provide a clear yardstick for social responsibilities that
should accompany the raft of rights that are being enacted.

1 comment:

  1. Weak and sad imho:


    Quote from the BBC:
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    Arms deals with Saudi Arabia have been worth billions to the UK
    The Serious Fraud Office has ended its corruption inquiry into a £6bn fighter planes deal with Saudi Arabia.
    Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the SFO was "discontinuing" its investigation into Britain's biggest defence company, BAE Systems.

    The probe had related to the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. BAE has denied any wrongdoing

    ReplyDelete

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