Elie Wiesel: The Actualization Of Human Rights

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference” (Wiesel interview with US Media, 1986). This is a quote from Elie Wiesel a Romanian, Jewish man who grew up in the holocaust. During his life time Wiesel was a major human rights activist. Human rights are principles that belong to every person on this earth. In thought Human Rights are a beautiful idea but, in all reality, they cannot be actualized for every person. Take World War II for instance where an entire race of people was enslaved and killed off, and in the 1950s, blacks were terrified to go to a coffee shop because of their skin color. Their rights were taken away because of something that were out of their control.
Human Rights cannot be actualized for every person because

Throughout history many races have been treated like inferiors by others such as the Irish salves that first came over to the Americas and the Chinese when the Mongolians took over. But the most well-known was the civil rights movement. If a person was black during this time, there was a chance that you could get beat up or damage to your belongings like such that happened to Josephine Backer. Baker describes a traumatic experience as a child, Josephine conveys, “When I was child and they burned me out of my home, I was frightened, and I ran away” (Baker 10). She was just a kid with a different skin color. People treated her like the scum of the earth because of the color of her skin. She came back to America in her later years. She had gone to get a cup of coffee but was refused because she was black, and she would not stand for this. After the store retaliated, she described this as, “…so then they thought they could smear me, and the best way to that was to call me a Communist” (Baker 51-52). That word dreaded in those days. The movement was taking place in the Cold war and back then to call someone a Communist was terribly offensive and meant that they would be watched for months. She was a Communist just because she was black and would not stand for the injustice done to her. Nobody should be treated that way no matter your

They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood “(UDHR). Surely everyone will follow these laws placed after World War II, Right? While there are laws in place to protect our basic human rights, some humans do not follow them. As previously mentioned, the Civil Rights movement or in current time the slaves and citizens in North Korea, both which happened after the laws were placed. Just because law is set in place doesn’t make people follow it.
“The basic rights that belong to every person” describes Human Rights. Examples such as the Civil Rights movement, World War II, and even North Korea, show that human right cannot be actualized for every person. A law set in place to protect these rights does not mean that everyone will follow it. Human Rights can only be actualized if everyone respects them and follows