WHY HUMAN RIGHTS MATTER: WHY MANY GOVERNMENTS THINK THEY DON'T

Clearly, human rights is a universally support concept that is sought out throughout the world by people under government suppression. Everyone should have the right of freedom and be protected from crimes against humanity. In western society our idea of human rights is being able to have paid vacation, which is considered a luxury for the majority of people who live in the developing world. Things as simple as clean water, food, and shelter are scarce and limited to those in the developing world.

Many governments throughout the world rather gain economically rather than provide for their populations in need of basic human necessities. Not to mention the business that get from the overwhelmingly powerful multinational corporations that seek cheap labor and the natural resources of countries that are not developed. Not to mention many of these countries leaders would rather gain personally rather than spread their wealth to benefit the population of their country. Time after time MNCs and western governments enter a developing country promising modernization and jobs, when in reality the money is only seen by a select few.

Another example of why many governments do not think human rights matter is ethnic cleansing by religiously driven dictators. Acts of genocide committed in Bosnia and Darfur are results of ethnic cleansing and atrocious acts of genocide. In the eyes of the government these acts are meant to better the country, to “cleanse” or a way to fix the deeply seeded economic problems of that particular country.

All together governments whether rich or poor are driven by money and power. Human rights issues clash with economic gain by greedy government leaders, and powerful multinational corporations. Not to mention if more developing countries were modernized, educated, and provided for the people would demand higher wages, more freedoms, and rights. This would not benefit the powerful leaders and corporations of the world. Unfortunately money triumphs over basic human rights especially in the developing world, making it very difficult to convince governments to bring modernization and freedom to their people.