Human Rights and Social Advocacy: Balancing Rights and Obligations

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of human rights and social advocacy within the Australian context. It begins by defining human rights and discussing their significance, emphasizing the rights granted to various social groups in Australia, while also acknowledging the absence of a specific human rights bill. The essay then delves into the obligations associated with these rights, highlighting the principle of respecting the rights of others and the importance of adhering to legal and moral orders. The core argument revolves around the necessity of balancing rights and obligations, particularly in Australia, where the author contends that obligations are sometimes overlooked. The essay uses examples of discrimination to illustrate the consequences of prioritizing rights without considering responsibilities, calling for clearer and more comprehensive articulation of individual obligations, and concludes by reiterating the need for a balanced approach to human rights and social advocacy to prevent unjust situations.

Human Rights &
Social Advocacy
Running Head: HUMAN RIGHTS & SOCIAL ADVOCACY 0
Student’s Name

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion on Human Rights...........................................................................................................2
Discussion on Obligations...............................................................................................................3
Balancing Rights and obligations....................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
There are certain rights, which are believed to belong to every person. These rights are
basic entitlements and freedoms and known as human rights. These rights apply to everyone
irrespective of beliefs, cast, place of origin and other characteristics and are based on shared
values such as respect, independence, dignity, and fairness (Ohchr.org, 2019). Different nations
have different legislation, regulations, and policies that ensure the availability of these rights to
citizens. Human rights are important as they provide a guarantee of life, equality, liberty, and
security. Nevertheless, many of the times people use these rights for adverse purpose or an
irresponsible manner. In the presented report, the focus will be made on human rights as well as
to responsibilities associated with the same and a standard balance that should be there between
rights and responsibilities.
Discussion on Human Rights
In Australia, different social groups are granted different human rights. However, similar
to other nations, Australia does not have any bill of human rights. In addition to this, human
rights are not generally protected under the constitution of this nation. Only five individual rights
are granted under constitution of Australia, namely right to vote, right to get protection against
unfair acquisition of property, right to trial by jury, right to freedom of religion and right to
prohibit discrimination based on the state of residency (Korff, 2019). Now in order to availability
of human rights in Australia, this is to state that the same has signed seven international treaties
related to human rights and now citizens of Australia are granted rights mentioned under these
treaties. Various federal, as well as state laws, further ratify these rights. For instance, the Age

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Discrimination Act 1992 gives the right to people that they may initiate an action against an act
of discrimination based on their age.
One of the most significant treaties signed by Australia is The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR) (Humanrights.gov.au, 2019). This document identifies many basic
human rights and contains 30 articles in total. By the virtue of this document, Australian citizens
have many basic rights such as the right to life, Right to Privacy, Right to Nationality, Right to
own property and many others. In addition to these rights, freedoms are also available to citizens
including Freedom from slavery, Freedom from discrimination, Freedom from torture, Freedom
of religion, Freedom of association and so on. Article 30 of UDHR confirms that all of these
rights are absolute and available to every man, woman, and child (Manosh, 2019). In this
manner, people are entitled to practice their religion, to be free from discrimination and to
express their thoughts. In conjunction with this, Australia also signed seven other human right
treaties that confirm Civil and political rights of citizens, rights of the child, rights of disable
persons and prevent discrimination against women and people’s race.
Discussion on Obligations
This would be wrong to state that Human Rights only comes with entitlements, as some
obligations are also attached to the same. These obligations are certain things that people need to
carry in their mind and to comply with while using these rights. These rights work on a
fundamental principle that one deserves dignity for him/her and owe respect towards others.
Rights cannot assume to be there without responsibilities. The very first human duty is in respect
to other individuals that states people should respect the rights of others. Many of the time, there
are clashes between the rights of two individuals. For instance, freedom of speech should not

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prevent the right to privacy of others. In such situations, it becomes the duty of individuals to
respect other’s right in addition to the protection of his/her own rights. Different instruments that
confirm human rights also outline the duty of individuals with respect to these rights.
An individual does not live in isolation. For instance, Article 29 of UDHR states that
every individual has duties towards the community where the development of his/her personality
is possible (Un.org, 2019). It means an individual has liability to the society he/she lives in. They
are required to understand that the rights of another individual limit their rights. In other words,
this is to state that while using own rights, one should not make any interruption with the right of
others. To discuss these duties further, this is to state that to follow the law in a prescribed
manner is another duty of individuals. People may only demand rights when he/she fulfills their
duties. It is also the duty of the individual to obey social and moral orders adopted by the
community.
Balancing Rights and obligations
After understanding human rights and responsibilities, it is far clear that balance between
two is a mandatory thing. People cannot use their human rights without considering any other
fact. It is well known that human rights are protected in a better way when people understand
their duties to each other and to the national and international community. A world where
everyone demands rights but is not ready to take responsibility can create an unjust situation
(Sameen, 2016). In Australia, the Australian Human Right Commission (AHRC) is there that
creates and ensures a balance between the rights and obligation of people with respect to their
human rights. However some of the obligations of individuals in respect to use of human rights
are mentioned in UDHR that also been confirmed by AHRC, nevertheless, more efforts are

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required in this direction. Government, legislation, policies are the same for each other and in
such a situation, protecting the right of only a few people is an unfair situation.
Many human rights are granted to Australian citizens but provisions of obligations are
still unclear. Imagine a situation where only human rights are granted to people and their
responsibilities are not stated. People are likely to ignore the laws of the nation and to demand
their rights in an absolute manner. The situation can understand better with the help of an
example. Many of the times, religious group discriminate among people based on their sex and
religion. For instance, Christian businesses often make discrimination among their clients and
customers based on their religion and sex. Although they do so in order to protect their religious
right yet by doing so they breach the right of others i.e. the human right of not be to be
discriminated based on gender and race. No party can be held wrong in such a situation as both
of them ask for their human rights in an absolute manner. This is just a situation and other
similar cases can also be there where individuals breach laws or rights of others in order to seek
and practice their human rights. If addition to these rights, duties, and obligations would be there
then people of Australia will be able to understand the limit up to they can use their rights and
the manner in which they do so.
Ethics is a factor that is required to have a look upon here because the situation proves
worse when no clear law is there. In Australia, the religious right is an exception of
discrimination and therefore Christian schools make discrimination among students and teacher
(Karp, 2018). However, in the cases where exceptions are not there, people should know their
obligations towards the rights of others. In addition to this, many of the times, people breach
rules of community while exercising their human rights. This is just another unfair situation.

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Human Rights is a necessity but people must have obligations too, which is required to be
developed in contemporary Australia.
Conclusion
In a conclusive way, this is to state that in Australia, a good level of human rights is
granted to citizens. Obligations are equally important that should be there in addition to rights for
preventing unfair and unjust use of human rights. In the presented report, the focus was made on
the need for the balance between human rights and obligations. To conclude this report this is to
state that in comparison to human rights, obligations are missing somewhere in Australia and
therefore people often breach other’s right and breach law of the nation. Some duties are
mentioned under article 29 of UDHR but the same needs to be clearer, wider, and explained.

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References
Age Discrimination Act 1992
Humanrights.gov.au. (2019) What are human rights? Retrieved from:
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/what-are-human-rights
Karp, P. (2018). Marriage equality campaign seeks abolition of religious rights to discriminate.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/14/marriage-
equality-campaign-seeks-abolition-of-religious-rights-to-discriminate
Korff, J. (2019) Human rights are not protected in Australia. Retrieved from:
https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/law/human-rights-are-not-protected-in-
australia
Manosh, W. (2019) So Many Humans, Too Few Rights. IN: AuthorHouse.
Ohchr.org. (2019) What are human rights?
https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/pages/whatarehumanrights.aspx
Sameen, L. (2016) Human Rights And Human Responsibilities: A Necessary Balance. Retrieved
from: https://atlascorps.org/human-rights-and-human-responsibilities-a-necessary-
balance/s
Un.org. (2019) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from:
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html