Article 25 of the Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.’ This therefore suggests that every man, woman and child has the unquestionable human right to the highest degree of physical and mental health, regardless of age, sex, class, race, nationality or political preference. (http://www.pdhre.org/rights/health.html) These ideals relate to the notion that human rights are universal and inalienable. However, this particular aspiration is far, far away from the truth. The reality is that throughout the world, millions of people are subject to atrocious standards of living and disastrous conditions of health.
Throughout his text ‘Pathologies of Power,’ Paul Farmer attempts to determine a definition for suffering, violence and misery. These are factors that dominate the lives of many people. Suffering is an everyday part of the poor’s existence, and this is something that Paul Farmer wishes to address. For the poor people of the world, everyday life seems like a war. (Farmer, P. ‘Pathologies of Power,’ 28) Life for them is a constant fight for survival in a world that is relentless, unforgiving and merciless. In the opening passages of his book, Paul Farmer questions several aspects revolving around the suffering of the poor. Aids, political violence and the monotony of inescapable difficulties are themes that poor people contend, or compete with everyday. The ultimate prize in this deadly competition is their life and that of their families.
How then do human rights relate to health and the poor? In the Western world, we make powerful claims to our rights. We are fortunate enough to live in a society where such rights are a fundamental feature of our existence. We are fortunate enough to live in a world where there are facilities that promote and simultaneously protect our claim to human rights. This is the result of our heritage. Such rights are ours without question. The story is very different for those unfortunate souls who are not part of ‘our’ culture. For the poor and the forgotten, human rights are a distant dream, a feeble aspiration, and an unattainable desire. The world’s poor are not as fortunate as us to make a claim to human rights. They do not have the same institutions that provide us with rights. The provisions of the various international conventions seem to be out of reach for the poor. As a result, talk of the universality and inalienability of human rights is nothing more than meager. They effectively have no rights. Consequently, they have no claim to adequate health care, and they have no right to aspire to higher standards of living like we do.
According to Farmer, the ‘task of understanding suffering in a global context is urgent and feasible if we are to protect human rights.’ (Farmer, 42) In other words, the answer to alleviating the suffering of poor people worldwide may be discovered in such protection. Unfortunately, the fact that government and other powerful institutions all over the world continue to violate and disregard human rights, results in the continuation of the suffering of the poor. In today’s world ‘the poor are more likely to suffer and less likely to have their suffering noticed’ (Farmer, 50) by the international community. Instead, what has emerged is the construction of a wall between the rich and the poor that essentially hides the realities of poverty from other powerful, and oblivious, nations. (Farmer, 50) As illustrated by Farmer in ‘Pathologies of Power’ this wall is being constructed so that ‘poverty does not annoy the powerful’ and so that ‘the poor are obliged to die in the silence of history.’ (Farmer, 50)
‘The knowledge of suffering cannot be conveyed in pure facts, figures and reporting’s that objectify the suffering of countless persons. The horror of poverty is not is immensity but the faces of the anonymous victims who have little voice, let alone rights, in history.’ (Chopp, 1986, p 2)
To whom do human rights belong? Do human rights belong to all human beings or are they the privilege of those born in societies that acknowledge them?
‘The knowledge of suffering cannot be conveyed in pure facts, figures and reporting’s that objectify the suffering of countless persons. The horror of poverty is not is immensity but the faces of the anonymous victims who have little voice, let alone rights, in history.’ (Chopp, 1986, p 2)
To whom do human rights belong? Do human rights belong to all human beings or are they the privilege of those born in societies that acknowledge them?
1 comment:
Adrian brings up an interesting and important point about the inequality of healthcare and the atrocious standards of living for the poor and displaced individuals of the world. In the Western world, we are fortunate enough to live in a society that provides efficient health care benefits and certain fundamental rights. Many of us take for granted these rights because they come naturally for us. Yet it is important to understand that for the poor, their story is quite different. Human rights, for the poverty-stricken, are a distant and unattainable goal because these individuals do not have the same medical institutions and governmental policies that provide us with these necessary and fundamental rights. Therefore it is important that those less fortunate receive aid and assistance from nations that are more prosperous and well equipped. It is time for us to come together and initiate change so that every individual worldwide can receive the rights they are entitled to.
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