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This week: Why Your Rights Matter Edited by: Kit of House Lannister  
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets out the rights we are born with. Yet, there are people who feel that rights need to be earned.
This week's Spiritual Newsletter discusses why we should protect our rights.
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A member of the British Royal Family recently stated that animals don't have rights. Princess Michael of Kent argued that rights need to be earned. She said, “Today we are always hearing about animal rights. I’m a great animal lover and I’m involved in a lot of conservation, but animals don’t have rights. They don’t have bank accounts. They don’t vote.” She continued, “We have obligation. We have obligation to animals, but to say they have rights? They don’t have rights. You only have rights if you pay your taxes. You earn your rights.’
You earn your rights. That is quite a problematic statement. Whilst there is a debate over animal rights – and I am one of those people who do feel that animals should have certain rights – tying rights in general to paying one's taxes (or having a bank account, or voting), would have an impact on our own species.
One of the most obvious examples is that of children. Children don't pay tax. Their parents probably do, but any money a child has is given to them, either by their parents, other family members, friends, and so on. This means that when they go to a shop and pay for items subject to VAT, they are not paying that tax with money they have earned (unless they earned it through washing their mum or dad's car, by mowing the lawn, etc.).
The taxes that people are referring to in these kinds of debate generally don't include VAT anyway. It's income tax that concerns people the most. That is what people mean by complaining about their hard-earned money being spent on things (or people) they don't agree with. So, let's focus on income tax.
Children don't tend to pay income tax. Not until they enter the world of work. Do children, then, not have rights? Shouldn't children have rights? I am certain that most people would agree with me that of course children do, and should, have rights.
What about those who were born with a disability or health problem that prevents them from working and, therefore, from paying income tax?
If we agree that you have rights if you were born with a disability or health problem that prevents you from working (and I do believe that), the next simple step is to say that you have rights when you fall ill or have to live with a disability later in life. In such a scenario, you don't suddenly lose your rights.
The same goes for people who find themselves unemployed. Unemployment can happen to anyone. It would be silly to think that if someone lost their job in May, they had rights up until their final day at work, and lose their rights the day after. Only to gain them back when they get another job.
And what if a person does work, but doesn't earn enough to have to pay taxes?
It is equally silly to believe that people shouldn't have rights because they don't have a bank account, or if they don't vote. Here in the UK there are people without bank accounts, and I personally know several people who don't vote, because they genuinely don't know who to vote for. They feel that whoever you vote for, you just end up with the same agenda being followed.
I would argue that rights are something you're born with. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights agrees. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is important. It gives us all the right to education, the right to a decent standard of living, freedom of slavery, freedom of torture, the right to a fair, public trial, and the presumption of innocence. Article 18 states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
It has not always been that way. Slavery did happen. People have been persecuted for their beliefs. In some parts of the world, they still are.
That is why it is important to protect our rights. Princess Michael of Kent may have simply made a throwaway comment, but in the UK there have been talks about withdrawing from the British Human Rights Act, which is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to replace it with a Bill of Rights that ties rights to responsibilities.
To some, this may seem like a good idea. My concern, however, is... what if a person, through no fault of their own, cannot meet those responsibilities?
We shouldn't divide people into the worthy and the unworthy, especially not when it comes to basic human rights. To do so, is to enter frightening territory.
After all, Jesus said, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
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Spiritual: October 07, 2015 Issue [#7258]
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