Human Rights Day Piece

One of the rights I most cherish as an individual (besides the right to life, the right to food, shelter and security as well as freedom of speech) is freedom of movement and residence.

This right is very important to me as an individual as well as a future Journalist because I cannot imagine living in a world where I (as an adult) would be prohibited from going where I please. The reason this right is so important to me is a very basic one, all animals born into this world were meant to enjoy its beauty and vastness with no boundaries and limits, including us human beings. Well at least before we (the ‘oh so ahead of time’ species God created after everything else) started creating boundaries and creating ideas of private ownership of little pieces of this beautiful gift granted to us by its creator.

Many people aren’t lucky enough to enjoy the freedom some of us are fortunate enough to be living, for example: Aung San Suu Kyi is a very powerful, well educated and politically active Burmese woman who has faced harsh treatments from the Burmese government for wanting a more democratic system of governance in her country, for the good of all its citizens. She was placed under house arrest in 1989 -a year after I was born, and was offered freedom only if she left her country, I don’t know about you but I don’t think the Burmese government truly understood the meaning of Freedom. How can you tell me I’m free if I cannot enjoy that freedom wherever I want to be in the world, including my home country?

Human Rights Day for me, as an individual as well as a student here on Rhodes University’s campus means that we spend a week reading texts , listening to talks from prominent speakers as well as people who have experience in this area of our country’s Constitution and many other events. This is all meant to spark a question in our minds about our own Human Rights, how aware of them we are as well as how aware of those who have had their rights unjustifiably violated.

So think about your rights, starting from today and work to improve your knowledge. One right a day keeps (the need for) a lawyer away.