Nurture Human Rights and Human Lives
Human rights are norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal, and social abuses. Rights focus on a freedom, protection, status, or benefit for the rightholders. But, President Duterte said in his SONA or State of the Nation Adress that the concern of his critics on the drug war, which has taken more than 4,200 lives, is "human rights" while his is "human lives." "Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives. The lives of our youth are being wasted and families are destroyed, and all because of the chemicals called shabu, cocaine, cannabis, and heroine." This statement is very unusual, Mr. President isn't aware that when the rights are violated, the lives of people also violated, human lives is part of human rights; rights to live.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. All human rights are universal, interdependent, indivisible and interrelated. Sexual orientation and gender identity are integral to every person’s dignity and humanity and must not be the basis for discrimination or abuse". (Yogyakarta Principles) But at this moment there are many people still ignored these kind of things and there are some human rights violation that was happening recently. These violations are often compounded by experiences of other forms of violence,hatred, discrimination and exclusion, such as those based on race, age, religion, disability, or economic, social or other status. Many people who still hard headed, don't have any respect to their fellow man and the rights of others to live peacefully and quitely. And those people who are at higher levels are more entitled to live peacefully, more respected by others because of their status in life, and those people who are in the low level just ignore or neglect their rights and they are considered as poor or stupid people.
A person can protect only the human lives if his concern in human rights. The protection and promotion of human rights is a fight for the preservation of a dignified human life for all. This demonstrates that there is in fact no distinction between human rights and human lives. And if the person is not concern to human rights, it is useless to save human lives if he/she does not have human rights; he/she has no right to decide what he/she wants to do, he/she has no right to protect himself/herself from others and he/she has no right to be free. Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. Human life is very important and no one can take it, the right of everyone to live no one can simply deny life for any reason.
