Reflection on the Definition of Human Rights
Faculty and/or students can use the following questions for class discussion or writing assignments.
1. Do you think it is the UN's job to make statements about human rights or should it be the responsibility of individual governments? Why/why not?
2. Is it really reasonable to try to give the same rights to everyone in the world? Why/why not?
3. Which of the human rights do you personally think is the most important?
4. How many human rights do you think are fully observed in your country? In the world?
5. Which countries do you think have a particularly bad record on human rights?
6. Some people think that they can influence another country's internal politics by boycotting its products or not visiting it as a tourist. How effective do you think this kind of action is?
7. If you know that a country still applies the death penalty, would it influence you in any way regarding visiting it or buying its exports?
8. Why do you think it is so difficult to apply/comply with the basic human rights?
9. Do you think that a state which ignores human rights in order to, for example, fight terrorism, devalues its moral status? Can you think of any examples?
Limits to Human Rights
10. Should the right to free speech be unconditional?
11. What about people who say things which have the objective of reducing the human rights of others? Racist propaganda? Fascist propaganda? Attempts to get one person to kill another?
12. Should the right of association be unconditional?
13. What about terrorist organizations? What about political parties which explicitly support terrorist organizations?
Adapted from http://teflpedia.com/Human_rights_conversation_questions
Faculty and/or students can use the following questions for class discussion or writing assignments.
1. Do you think it is the UN's job to make statements about human rights or should it be the responsibility of individual governments? Why/why not?
2. Is it really reasonable to try to give the same rights to everyone in the world? Why/why not?
3. Which of the human rights do you personally think is the most important?
4. How many human rights do you think are fully observed in your country? In the world?
5. Which countries do you think have a particularly bad record on human rights?
6. Some people think that they can influence another country's internal politics by boycotting its products or not visiting it as a tourist. How effective do you think this kind of action is?
7. If you know that a country still applies the death penalty, would it influence you in any way regarding visiting it or buying its exports?
8. Why do you think it is so difficult to apply/comply with the basic human rights?
9. Do you think that a state which ignores human rights in order to, for example, fight terrorism, devalues its moral status? Can you think of any examples?
Limits to Human Rights
10. Should the right to free speech be unconditional?
11. What about people who say things which have the objective of reducing the human rights of others? Racist propaganda? Fascist propaganda? Attempts to get one person to kill another?
12. Should the right of association be unconditional?
13. What about terrorist organizations? What about political parties which explicitly support terrorist organizations?
Adapted from http://teflpedia.com/Human_rights_conversation_questions