Portfolio piece

Using the case study of The Girl in the River, explore why there is an ongoing debate about whether human rights should be universal or culturally relative. Are there some human rights violations that are just wrong, no matter who you are or where you live? 

I think that this is a going debate because you have your human rights vs religion and these are both big things that are against each other. The fact the human rights is also a declaration and not a must-have makes it harder for the human rights group because it is then something that people can choose to have, and this really holds human rights back from doing big/major things. I feel that human rights should be universal because you have people like Saba. Because she does not have human rights, she is not protected and the balance of power falls very heavily into the hands of the “killers” and not the victim. With human rights, there is more of a balance in what happens. Example if you kill someone then you pay the price for that, but with honor killing where the victim has no human rights and that family just has to forgive the “killer” in order to go free, where is the punishment. They should be universal because then it prevents people from having too much power.

I believe that if someone has shamed a family then they deserved to be punished, but the honor killing way is by far not the right way. I feel that punishments should be taken while not violating the rights. There are rights like the right to life which just cannot be violated no matter what. Honor killing is one of the examples where it is a way too much of a punishment to kill someone because of their sin on the family. Other cases may be harder to argue.

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3 Replies to “Portfolio piece”

  1. kabra19328@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg says: Reply

    3. I think that you could referred back to “Girl in the river” a bit more since you mentioned Saba, but you could have applied this to her case, and talked about different outcomes.

    2. What do you think you would have done if you were inn Saba’s position and why? Would you have forgiven your father or not? Do you think that is because you are more universalist or more cultural relativist?

  2. desba83027@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg says: Reply

    You brought up a very valid point when you said that the cultural reasons give more power to the killers in court than in normal cases and I definitely agree with that. The point that you brought up about honor killings and culture cases being a lot more complex than normal cases.

  3. jacks36131@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg says: Reply

    Hi,

    I think that your post is very interesting because you addressed the fact that The fact the human rights is just a document and not a hard law. I liked how you also addressed the fact the with honour killings if the family forgives the killer, they can go free without punishment.

    Well done 🙂

    – Cara

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