Click here to watch a video on Article 29, Responsibility
Article 29: (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Along with rights, come responsibilities. Even in our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we are granted rights and freedoms alongside responsibilities. According the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have the responsibility to a community that allow the free and full development of one’s personality is possible, knowing your rights, and educating other of their rights is part of this responsibility. How much different could the world be if there were more boys like the boy in the video who took it upon himself to responsibly educate others of their rights? Sri-Lanka is not a community in where the free and full development of one’s personality is possible. Sri-Lanka remains an ill-equipped environment for their free and full development of Tamil’s personalities.
Secondly, everyone has a right to know their rights, and exercise their rights as long as the rights and freedoms of others are not infringed upon. You can only exercise your rights as long as it does not infringe upon anyone else, public order and the general welfare are to taken into account. However, in Sri-Lanka, the rights and freedoms of the majority Sinhalese-Buddhists are protected at the cost of the Tamil’s rights and freedoms.
Credits:
Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada, Evelyn Kallen (2003)
Social Inequality and Social Injustice: A Human Rights Perspective, Evelyn Kallen (2004)
Tags: Speak Out
