Essay About Human Rights

As Chief Joseph once said, "The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it." However, many people throughout history and the present day have had these rights taken from them unfairly. Human rights can be given to everyone if people stand up for them and help others escape from unfair conditions and have already been actualized for everyone in other nations.

A clear reason why human rights can be actualized for everyone can be seen in other countries, where everyone has these simple rights. For example, in her speech at Washington, Josephine Baker says that in France “I could go into any restaurant I wanted to, and I didn’t have to go to a colored toilet either” (19-21). After she fled America, Baker

An example of this is seen in Elie Wiesel’s Night, where his family’s maid visits them in the ghetto: “Sobbing, she begged us to come with her...where she had prepared a safe shelter” (20). Maria, the maid, is willing to risk her own human right of freedom, if she is caught, and her life to give the Wiesel family their rights back. This proves that human rights can be given to everyone because the people who have their rights are willing to give them up to assist those who are suffering until the suffering have the rights they deserve as human beings. Another instance where someone risking themselves to help someone else is seen when the French girl helps Elie after he is beaten, saying "Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now" (Wiesel 53). She keeps Elie from doing something that might cost him the rest of his human rights and encourages him to keep his anger inside. If people help others to realize the consequences of their actions that might lead to their loss of human rights, then human rights can continue to be given to everyone in the world.

By helping people escape from conditions where their fundamental rights have been trampled upon and standing up for them can we start to actualize human rights for all people, and the results can be seen in many other countries, namely France. Many people take