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Compare and contrast the domestic implementation mechanism of Human rights between Bangladesh and USA
Abstract
In the following report we will be looking into domestic implementation of human rights in Bangladesh and USA. There will be compare and contrast between the countries. But the number of contrast more than compare, as Bangladesh being a 3rd world country is incapable off fulfilling all the deeds in the international human right instruments.
Bangladesh has high corruptions and a high illiteracy rate. Thus most people are unaware of the implementation of human rights and others who have the knowledge cannot do much for the immense influence of corruption.
While in USA the literacy rate is high and corruption level is low. The domestic implementations of human rights are thus easier in the US. But as USA is such a huge country the implementations differs from states to states. Human right is applied for all as much as equally possible.
Introduction:
“International human rights law refers to the body of international law designed to promote and protect human rights at the international, regional and domestic levels”, according to the Wikipedia. These are basically treaties that provide everyone an assurance about fairness in life. Human rights are of broad application to many laws, among them we will find women rights, right of a child and labor, right to food, housing and education, freedom of religion and believe and even right to leisure. In total there are thirty rights that people are entitled to according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
However in USA the system followed is called The American Convention on Human Rights. The rights mentioned are more or less like the UDHR.
Main Body:
The followings are few treaties of Human Rights. We will see whether they are implied in Bangladesh and USA.
1. The Right to Nationality: All have right to belong to a nation.
All over the world everyone has the right to belong to a nation. All the people living in USA are not Americans but are of some nation. Also all the people in Bangladesh are not Bangladeshis but they are of some nation. Bangladesh gives recognition to all countries except Israel.
2. Right to Life: Everyone has the right to live in freedom and safety.
Everyone has the right to life; as in they have the freedom of choice and safety. For Bangladesh the people have the freedom of choice but not the proper strikes. There are regular strikes that hamper the safety of everyone’s daily lifestyle.
In USA the success of implementation of the right to life also depends on from state to state. There are many states where safety is really low, example Los Angeles<href=”#_ftn1″ name=”_ftnref1″ title=””>[1].
3. No Slavery: It means that nobody is allowed to have slaves.
This is implemented fully in both Bangladesh and USA. Nobody can make use of free labor. Everybody gets paid for their work and labor. However there are domestic workers in Bangladesh and some of these workers are often exploited. Some of these are workers are beaten; the workers have the right to sue against the employer but most do not have the knowledge that it can be done. Therefore even without any slavery people need other rights protecting them. In USA the domestic workers are a lot more expensive and thus most people in the USA do their own household chores.
4. No Torture: It means that nobody has the right to hurt us or harm us.
There are punishments for those who will torture others or hurt other. In USA it is
easier to implement this right. For example it a parent is hurting a child in the USA, the child can simply call the social service and be shifted under foster care. But in Bangladesh it is almost impossible for a child to do that.
Adults usually go to the police when tortured. In Bangladesh most police are least bothered with these issues or cases. While in the USA they look into the matters.
However a the torturer also has a right to defend him/herself if put into a trial. In the USA a torturer can get away as long as he/she can prove him/her not guilty.
5. Don’t Discriminate: These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.
No one should be set aside because he/she is different. People should not be discriminated due to race or religion. In Bangladesh the discrimination exist among people of different classes (living different standard of living). Even in the USA we find discrimination existing. Even though they try to keep the discrimination to a lesser level, we can see people being discriminated due to race and religion. The discrimination in US increased after the event of 9/11.
However the one being victimized may otherwise sue against the discriminator but how fair will that judgment be is also in question.
6. The Right to Trial: If submitted to a trial it must be held publicly.
In USA recently many trials has been done not publicly. This is a violation of the human treaty and also done by the government which sent out a bad message. In Bangladesh there are also few trials that had been done privately but it is expected due to all the corruption in Bangladesh.
7. The Right to Education: Primary education should be free.
Bangladesh has a low literacy rate. For a 3rd world country with a high birth rate it is very hard for the government to provide every child the primary education. Small private social service firms do have small projects to educate the youngsters but that is not enough for the whole nation.
While in the USA the primary education is must. Maybe the quality of private schools are not good but they do provide the minimum level of education needed for survival and a job.
8. Worker’s Right: Every adult has the right to a job, a fair wage and join a trade union.
Every adult has the right to work. For Bangladesh this does not implement as Bangladesh do not have sufficient jobs for everyone. Thus most are doing low paid odd jobs. Also the salary paid jobs are of low wage as the market demand for jobs are high.
The number of jobs is the USA is not sufficient as well, but the salary paid jobs and odd jobs have a fair wage.
The trade unions <href=”#_ftn2″ name=”_ftnref2″ title=””>[2]also play a huge role in the domestic implementation of human rights as they negotiate about fair wages for the employees. In USA the power of trade union is a lot more effective than of Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi trade union are weak and mostly run by the white collar group. Thus the negotiation is not done properly.
The USA trade union <href=”#_ftn3″ name=”_ftnref3″ title=””>[3]was very popular but now for the past two decades the popularity had been going down.
9. Social Security: We all should have the right to affordable lifestyle.
The Bangladeshi governments do not provide a social security to the nation. The inflation is always high. Everything cost a lot and to maintain a certain living standard is difficult.
The US nation does provide with social security but accessing the social security is hard. Also getting the permit of social security from the US government is hard. The only social security that USA is successful in managing is the primary education and the benefits for the elderly.
Both the nations are partially implementing this treaty of the human right. Bangladesh less than USA.
10. Food and Shelter for All: We all have a right to good life.
All should be equal among the people of the nation. Everyone deserves a shot at proper life with food and shelter.
In Bangladesh we find so many beggars for this reason. Bangladesh is not able to domestically implement this human right successfully. The over population and poverty is a is a result of this.
In USA they are much successful in this domestic implementation of this human right. The implementation does differ from place to place (as in states). For example New York has a higher poverty than Taxes or Maryland. For US the implementation are applied to each state differently.
11. The Right to Democracy: We all have the right to elect our leader and government.
In both the nation the people have a free rein oven who he/she wants to vote. Both USA and Bangladesh are successful in achieving this.
12. Marriage and Family: Every grown up has the right to marry and a family if they want to.
Sadly for Bangladesh<href=”#_ftn4″ name=”_ftnref4″ title=””>[4] marring for a woman is usually compulsory. And if a woman is unmarried for too long people start to look down on the girl. Also the freedom of choice is missing as the girl is usually not allowed to pick her own husband. These cases are most common in the rural areas of Bangladesh. Therefore Bangladesh is unsuccessful in implementation of human rights to marriage and family.
For USA it again depends from state to state. In Taxes the women marry early and are expected to marry early. And also in some places monogamy is socially accepted<href=”#_ftn5″ name=”_ftnref5″ title=””>[5]. These exceptions are few where USA was not successful in domestic implementation of marriage and family.
13. Freedom of Expression: We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.
In Bangladesh people do have the freedom of expression, but they lack in the social security. Therefore one is allowed to speak out one’s mind but the consequences that comes with it almost always unavoidable. You might often raise an awareness among the nation but be murdered later for creating problems for the government or the opposing party. Meaning that to implement one human right another is being violated.
In USA the implementation of freedom of speech is better than of Bangladesh. One is allowed to express oneself anyway he/she likes. In USA everyone get the equal right to express one’s ideas.
14. Copyright: Copyright is a special law that protects one’s own artistic creations and writings.
Bangladesh is filled and running with shadow market. These shadow markets have copied goods on every different types of products available. The most accepted pirated goods are CDs and books. Most of these are sold without the permission of the owner’s or the organization’s wills and knowledge.
USA is more successful in domestic implementation of copyright. When pirated goods sellers are found they are most heavily punished. There are piracy in USA but the amount is really small. And most are afraid of using or selling pirated products due to the laws implied.
15. No One Can Take Away Your Human Rights.
Conclusion:
In Bangladesh most of the human rights are not implemented as there are too much corruption in the economy. Not to mention the population is also too large for the government to control and take care off. These things that are keeping Bangladesh from applying all the human rights to the betterment of the nation.
For USA the implementation are better than in Bangladesh but that depends from states to states. The more crowded states are in worse conditions than the other less populated states.
Therefore we can assume that even USA crumbles when the population is large and hard to manage and imply human rights.
<href=”#_ftnref1″ name=”_ftn1″ title=””>[1] Safety trips to move around LA http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/California/Los_Angeles-753836/Warnings_or_Dangers-Los_Angeles-TG-C-1.html
<href=”#_ftnref2″ name=”_ftn2″ title=””>[2] To know more about trade unions in Bangladesh http://jatiyosramikjote.org/tubook.pdf
<href=”#_ftnref3″ name=”_ftn3″ title=””>[3] To know more about USA trade union see <href=”#Popularity”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States#Popularity
<href=”#_ftnref4″ name=”_ftn4″ title=””>[4] To know more about domestic implementation of human rights in Bangladesh visit http://www.askbd.org/web/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/MIA-Bangladesh.pdf
<href=”#_ftnref5″ name=”_ftn5″ title=””>[5] A movie called the 19th Wife represents the monogamy culture in the US society.