342 PART FOuR • POliCymAking
In many countries throughout the world, human
rights are not protected. In some nations, people
are imprisoned, tortured, or killed because they
oppose the current regime. In other nations, cer-
tain ethnic or racial groups are oppressed by the
majority population.Why Should You Care? The defense of human
rights is unlikely to put a single dollar in your
pocket, so why get involved? The strongest reason
for involving yourself with human rights issues in
other countries is simple moral altruism—unselfish
regard for the welfare of others.
A broader consideration, however, is that
human rights abuses are often associated with
the kind of dictatorial regimes that are likely to
provoke wars. To the extent that the people of the
world can create a climate in which human rights
abuses are unacceptable, they may also create an
atmosphere in which national leaders believe that
they must display peaceful conduct generally. This,
in turn, might reduce the frequency of wars, some
of which could involve the United States. And wars
always have costs—in the form of dollars, and in the
form of American lives.What Can You Do? How can you work for the
improvement of human rights in other nations?
One way is to join an organization that attempts
to keep watch over human rights violations. (Two
such organizations are listed at the end of this fea-
ture.) By publicizing human rights violations, such
groups try to pressure nations into changing their
practices. Sometimes, these organizations are able
to apply enough pressure and cause enough embar-
rassment that victims may be freed from prison or
allowed to emigrate.
Another way to work for human rights is to
keep informed about the state of affairs in other
nations and to write personally to governments
that violate human rights or to their embassies,
asking them to cease these violations.making a difference
WORking FOR HumAn RigHTS
If you want to receive general information about the
position of the United States on human rights violations,
you can contact the State Department:Department’s Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and LaborTo find the bureau’s page online, enter “state human
rights” into a search engine.
Amnesty International U.S.A. and the American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC) are well known
for their watchdog efforts in countries that violate
human rights for political reasons. To find Amnesty
International, you can search on “amnestyusa.” For the
AFSC, type “afsc” into a search engine.These Amnesty international activists
are protesting alleged human rights abuses. What do you
think they want President Barack Obama to do? (Win McNamee/
Getty Images)Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.