Human Rights and Social Advocacy

Running head: HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Human Rights and Social Advocacy
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1HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
The constitutions of the majority of the countries of the world have provisions for
various kinds of rights so as to offer the kind of opportunities to the individuals through
which they can maximum their potentials (Cole, 2015). Keck and Sikkink (2014) are of the
viewpoint that the human rights are the norms or the principles which describe a certain
standard of human behavior and are regulated by the legal as well as the governmental
authorities of a nation. More importantly, recently it is seen that apart from the ones provided
by the national governments of the various nations like the right to vote, freedom of speech,
freedom of religion and others, the United Nations has also provided diverse kind of rights to
the people (Farmer, 2017). In this regard, the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”
(1948) of the UN is an important one. This essay will explore the notions of rights and
obligations in the particular context of the Australian nation.
As opined by Shelton (2015), the unique feature of the “Human rights in Australia”
is the fact that unlike the rights offered to the people in the other nations of the world, the
rights in the nation of Australia have been formulated under “Australian Parliamentary
democracy”. More importantly, these rights have not been formulated through stand-alone or
abstract bills but through specific regulations related to the context (Wilkinson, 2016). In this
regard, the “freedom from discrimination” was formulated through the Anti-
Discrimination Act of the nation to safeguard the aboriginals and other minority sections of
the people against the prevalent discrimination in the nation (Humanrights.gov.au, 2018).
Some of the other important rights which the constitution of the nation are freedom of
association, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, right to vote and others
(Humanrights.gov.au, 2018). Nonet, Selznick and Kagan (2017) are of the viewpoint that the
primary focus of these rights is to offer the kind of opportunities to the citizens, which will
help these individuals to lead their lives in a normal manner and also to fulfill their basic
psychosocial needs.

2HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ADVOCACY
Freeman (2017) uphold the viewpoint that although the constitution has given
provisions for various kinds of rights which the citizens have access to and can enjoy at any
point of time, however, they come with various checks and balances. For example, it is seen
that the citizens in order to enjoy the rights provided by the constitution needs to perform
their fundamental duties in an effective manner (Johnston, 2016). In this regard it needs to
be mentioned that some of the most important duties that the Australian citizens need to
perform are the obligation to obey the law and order of the nation, the obligation to
defend the nation when the situation arises, obligation to vote in the various federal and
general elections and also in the various referendums and others (Homeaffairs.gov.au,
2018). Keck and Sikkink (2014) are of the viewpoint that the citizens of the nation in order to
enjoy the rights provided by the constitution of the nation needs to perform the duties that the
constitution demands from them. Thus, it can be said that the rights come with the obligation
to fulfill the duties and without them there can be no rights and to a great extent these two
key players have been able to balance each other.
As stated by Androff (2015), the individuals while exercising their basic rights also
needs to ensure the fact it is not infringing on the rights or the freedom exercised by the other
people. For example, it is often seen that the individuals while exercising one right offered to
them often infringe the other rights offered to the other individuals. In this regard, it needs to
be said that the individuals while exercising their right to freedom of expression often end
up infringing the right to privacy of the other citizens of the nation (Wilkinson, 2016). More
importantly, this also becomes clear when the context of the freedom of religion is taken into
consideration. One of the most important rights that the constitution offers to the citizens of
the nation is the right to exercise the kind of religion that they want. However, it is seen that
the people rather than pursuing their own religion in the manner which the precepts of the
concerned religion demands them to often try to defame the other religions (Shelton, 2015).