Post #5
Human rights in Uruguay
Today, Uruguay is known as a democratic and stable country where its population enjoys many protections and human rights. The government has signed and ratified most international human rights treaties. Protected rights in Uruguay include:
- Right to life—there is no death penalty.
- Freedom of expression—includes freedom of the press.
- Freedom of religion—the state does not support any particular religion.
- Electoral rights—Uruguay is an electoral democratic republic. Citizens are able to participate in popular referenda as a method of direct democracy.
- Freedom from torture and inhumane treatment—overcrowding and conditions in prisons have been seen as inhumane. Uruguay has implemented legislation to address these issues.
- Women’s rights—women have equal treatment by law.
- LGBT rights—marriage, adoption, and serving in the military are all legal for members of the LGBT community. Discrimination is illegal.
- Indigenous peoples’ rights—the government has yet to recognize the indigenous Charrúa people, who have reemerged after going ‘extinct’ early in the country’s history.
Climate change and human rights
When people fear climate change, usually it is concerning themselves, their own future well-being, or the futures of their own children or grandchildren. However, there has not been a large, global discussion about the effect on the livelihoods of entire cultures and the human rights of indigenous peoples. As the seas rise, ice caps melt, animal populations diminish and forests cut to ruin (amongst many other tragedies) the indigenous people who live in harmony and in balance with nature are thrown into chaos and often catastrophic loss. Dr. Lindsey describes this in her TED Talk. She speaks of her own Hawaiian culture, in which her elders slowly submitted to encroaching Westerners in order to survive. They once lived in consonance with nature with intimate knowledge of the seas, the winds, and the stars—a connection shared by many other indigenous cultures, such as the Cheslatta-Carrier Nation. Another example is the Inuit people, which Cloutier speaks on in Moral Ground. She states that climate change is eliminating food supplies, introducing new species that have no name in the Inuit language, and posing serious dangers to hunters as streams flood and turn into rivers.
Endangered cultures
Endangered cultures are indigenous societies at risk of extinction. When the youth no longer learns and uses the native language, that way of seeing the world which only that language can communicate dies, and the monotonous monolith of more powerful cultures takes hold. Wade Davis spoke of this increasingly narrowing ethnosphere—the total of humanities hopes, dreams, intuitions and intelligence. He described the decline of cultural diversity—in which understandings of the world are casualties in light of homogeneity. As a photographer and anthropologist working with National Geographic, he witnessed the diverse and remote cultures of the world at risk of disappearing. He talks of the relationships indigenous people have with nature, of how they see the world in a completely different understanding and that must be preserved. I agree with his argument that the world deserves to exist in a diverse way—and I also agree with his statement that politicians will not be moved to action. However, I am not certain that through stories the world will be able to save these societies as the machine of capitalism and individual greed will continue to take precedence over the preservation of indigenous societies.
Eurocentrism
According to Noor, eurocentrism is “the tendency of individuals and cultures to view themselves as well as the environment around them from the perspective of their own culture, values, and beliefs” (Dealing with Human Rights, 54). Noor argues that the world must accept its people as diverse, multicultural, and multiracial. He describes how the powerful try to promote their own cultures and create conflict with other cultural systems while ignoring basic human rights and dignity.
South America 