Freedom+of+Expression

__**March 19th 2009**__
If you thought that everyone has the freedom of expression, the freedom to do what they want to do and the freedom to decide the paths of their lives, then you are very wrong. Many people in this world do not have the slight freedom of simply choosing what they would like to eat tonight. People in this world could be restricted by their government, their religion, their believes, their families or even their parents. And also sometimes people are imprisoned because of their political, religion, ethnic origin, sex, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, sexual orientation and so on. But what I believe is that everyone has the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas without fear or interference. That right of freedom is important for the personal development and digity of every individual and is vital for the fulfillment of other human rights. Every human being should have their right to seek what they please for themselves and do what they want to their own life.

__Case 1:__ Eight Student at Tehran's Amir Kabri University in Iran, detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. This latest series of arbitrary arrests and repressive measures are particularly directed against students, members of Iran's religious and ethnic minority communities, trade unionists and women's rights activists. In a statement issued on 12 March, the Tehran-based Center for Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) condemned these arrests and urged that the students banned from attending university for exercising their rights be permitted to return to their classes and for a climate conducive to study to be brought to universities. The CHRD established by Iranian human rights activists, including Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, was itself closed down by the Iranian authorities in December 2008.
 * March 18, 2009 an article about;**

__Case 2:__ JOSEF Fritzl admitted to rape, incest, sequestration and coercion facing 15 year of prison term but not guilty to a murder charge which carries life sentence, also not guilty to charge of enslavement.Josef Fritzl used his daughter as his 'toy', imprisoning her in an underground bunker for 24 years and forcing her to bear seven children. he held his daughter captive in a narrow cellar with no hot water, no heating, not fresh air or sunlight. And his daughter simply explain the process as "He came to the cellar. Lights out. Rape. Lights on,". He also threaten Elisabeth Fritzl (his daughter) and the children that they would be gassed if they tried to escape.
 * On March 17, 2009 an article about;**

__Case 3:__ Many South African lesbians have been raped by men trying to cure their sex orientation,also known as 'corrective rape', and this has become one of the most common hate crimes againist gay women in the country. South African women face a staffering risk of rape in the country as it becomes the country with one of the highest crime rates. 500,000 rapes were committed each yea but of every 25 men brought to trail for rape, only one is convicted. Zanele Twala, the head of Action Aid South African said that "So-called 'corrective' rape is yet another grotesque manifestation of violence against women, the most widespread human rights violation in the world today," as she comments on the report that Almost half of South African women will be raped in their lifetime.
 * March 16, 2009 an article about;**

The cases stated above are not only what is happening to the 'less-common' people of the world, a vast amount of human beings are being outcast and discriminated by the rest of the 'common' people of the world. The discrimination of basic Human Rights and the restriction of freedom of expression is the most common daily crime. I believe that it is not possible for us to completely stop this act but it is essential to start combating this disgusting and intolerable issues in any way possible. But yet some people still do not believe in the fact that these people are treated badly for no particular reason. Some believe that: Even though we are in the 21st Century many old traditional believes and past superior believes still exist, and therefore the discrimination will continue. I believe that all man are created equal and therefore they should be given equal rights and the freedom to make choices of their old life and not be restricted or interfered.
 * 1) These people that are discriminated and offended brought it upon themselves,
 * 2) That they do not have the rights of freedom and that they have to do what they have to do due to their religion,
 * 3) Some people believes that their are more superior than those people that has been attacked or discriminated and therefor it does not matter,

March 31st 2009
UN: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

On December 10th 1948 the GA of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human rights. The Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." But even though so many of the clauses stated on the declaration have still not been met, many countries or religious society bend the rules on the Declaration or simply ignore it saying that the UN have no right to decide on their path of life and how they lead their people.

A few main articles on the Declarations are:

//Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person

Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.//

But even though the Declaration exist the articles are not strongly enforced enough and many people simply do not care about anybody else's life other himself therefore many of this articles are not met and if they are violated the person committing the crime is not punished. Even though the UN had tried many times to re-enforced these rules or severely punish the people who violated the Declaration, the crime committed against basic human rights are still constantly occurring in this world.

The UN does not have a Human Rights Committee therefore most of the Human Rights issues are debated in the GA itself however THIMUN have created a Human Rights Committee which focused mainly on Human Rights issues such as: I have recently attained the THIMUN-Singapore Human Rights Committee and with the additional knowledge that I have found out about the history of how the UN tried to combat issues that rise against Freedom of Expression and Human Rights I felt that it would be arrogant of us to not try and understand this issue. I feel that this issue is one that is facing all of us, human beings, as a whole and the discrimination and unfairness in between us is the main cause of many conflicts that had happened in this global community. But even though so I realize that this issue is rather broad and it can stretch out into many different directions. If this issues was to be debated in Westlake MUN I feel that the issues should be minimize into a simpler and more detail direction. Personally I feel that if this topic or a topic similar to this issue was to be debated in the GA there would be many different opinions suggest and implied by many different countries with different religious believes and would create a rather fun yet slight provoking debate. Thought it would end up with a life lesson that could be taught to many delegates about the real world and how many people are treated outside of the "Safety boundaries" that we live in. I would love for this issue to be debated as when I was debating about the question of homosexual rights in THIMUN Singapore, I understood many opinions and learnt about them even thought I have never heard about them in my entire life and I realize how sensitive and how humongous this issue actually is. I believe that a human right issue would create a very productive debate and also give a very meaning life lesson to delegates.
 * Question of government using torture
 * Question of rights of environmental refugees
 * Question of homosexual rights
 * Question of Genocide Denial
 * The implementation of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People
 * The implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc.

April 12th 2009
The History of the freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

The idea of Freedom of Expression has started ever since humans existed in this world and debatably even before that. We are all familiar to the term, alpha-male, which defines the male in power of a pact, society or group of beings, may that be human or animals. This term explains how back in ancient times that the idea of the male being more important, more superior and that they have a different standards have already existed. History shows us, that humans also want to be more special, higher in the hierarchy and also have more power. In ancient Greek, women are not allowed to watch the Olympic games; In Shakespearean time, women are not allowed to act in plays; in the just a few decades ago, colored people do not have the same rights as the white people; women cannot vote, colored beings cannot vote either. We all know that despite the fact many teachings, many religion taught was that everyone is equal, we do not act that way or behave in that manner. The United Nations have been working on this issues ever since it was created, and even before that, the League of Nations have also tried to find ultimate equality between societies. But regardless of the huge effort and long history that a relatively large group of people have tried to fight for the equality of humans and for the equality of rights, this issues remains standing still right in the middle of our society. And sometimes I can't help but wonder, why is it that people will not comprise for the bigger picture.

Have we not be taught that we should treat each other nicely? Have we not seen what the idea of superiority have causes? Are there not laws the UN created to make sure that all human beings have the freedom of expression, freedom of speech and equal rights? Why is it still so hard for some people to understand that it is a law, and that we should obey it.

From the start of time till now, presently, 2009 we still fight for this one common issue. One that never had been full resolved. Again and Again have the UN tried to emphasize the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, again and again have the Office of the United Nations Higher Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) tried to assist government into doing the right things, and the UN Human Rights Council tries to combat the issues of inequality; but still we fail.

The UN has created whole list of organizations, cooperation, operations and there is another list of NGOs that is related to the Human Rights Issues. Some of this operations and organizations started even from the 1948 and are still present and running at this moment, all of this operations and organizations have **one** ultimate goal, and that is to emphasize the basic and fundamental equality between the human race.

Citation: Freedom Of Expression, Amnesty International __http://www.zend2.com/browse.php?u=Oi8vYW1uZXN0eS5vcmcvZW4vZnJlZWRvbS1vZi1leHByZXNzaW9u&b=13__ Student in Iran face repression and arrest, Amnesty International __http://www.zend2.com/browse.php?u=Oi8vd3d3LmFtbmVzdHkub3JnL2VuL25ld3MtYW5kLXVwZGF0ZXMvbmV3cy9zdHVkZW50cy1pcmFuLWZhY2UtcmVwcmVzc2lvbi1hcnJlc3QtM jAwOTAzMTg%3D&b=13__ He used his daughter as toy, The Strait Times __http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_351155.html__ Lesbians raped as cure, The Strait Times __http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_350791.html?vgnmr=1__ The Universal Declaration of Huamn Rights, United Nations __http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html__ Freedom of Speech, Wikipedia __http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech#Origins_and_academic_freedom__ Freedom of Expression: The First Amendment __http://www.lectlaw.com/files/con01.htm__ Office of the United Nations Higher Commissioin for Human Rights __http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/WhatWeDo.aspx__ UN Human Rights Council: List of Operations __http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/list/list.pdf__