Human Rights Abroad
Each and every person who is born into the universe comes in with a collection of rights to hone and defend themselves from oppression with. However, there are far too many case scenarios where these rights are attempted to be suppressed by other outside forces or organizations of people who think they are superior in some way to these rights. There is a large variance of extremity Sometimes, this can lead to happenings so extreme, such as the Holocaust. This is an issue that can be seen all around the world; from here in the United States to countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, anywhere you can imagine. That being said, you can also see humans banding together all around the world trying to defend their rights from those who wish to take them. These communities of people create what we call social movements. One social movement outside of the United States, for example, is the Hirak Protest movement in Algeria.
The original Hirak Protest movement was a protest to keep Abdelaziz Bouteflika from a fifth term by protesting his candidacy. The people wanted to sort of refresh the government of the ruling clans called “le pouvoir”, or “the power” in English. The ultimate goal, that was somewhat accomplished, was to have a more democratic government. It comprised of a series of nonviolent protests that, according to an article I found, was a notable point of pride for Algeria. It began in February of 2019. Hundreds of thousands of citizens would take to the streets and march every Friday up until the beginning of the pandemic. Similarly, to the outcome of our recent peaceful protesting here in the United States, authorities in Algeria did not tolerate the protestors for any extended period of time. Many, many Algerian citizens were prosecuted for taking part in the protest. Even posting peacefully about the protest was reason enough for authorities to arrest an individual and, therefore, hinder any progress made toward its goals.
From my current point in life, I cannot say that I necessarily relate to these people. Living in the United States, I am already living under a democratic government. Perhaps on a much smaller scale have I experienced a similar concept, but it was a parent-child relation. The only reason I can sort of relate it to the Hirak Protestors is because I was already over the age of 18. Not really any sort of significant or actual rights violation. The issue in Algeria is much more significant, as it actually threatens their freedom. Anyway, there is always room for improvement in work that advocates for human rights. In this case, a big thing they could do would be to get more of the bigger seeming activists released from prison. Being able to actually connect with their community will allow for more effective pursuing of goals. It would also be largely beneficial to have the talons on their social media released. If the people could post to social media without the threat of prosecution, perhaps more people would feel inclined to post. The information would also be more effectively and widely spread.
There are many other issues regarding human rights around the world as well. I encourage you to do a quick search on it. There are many resources that can feed you information about these movements on the web as well as social media. In this post, I have provided the links to two sites that I have used where you can see these movements, including the Hirak Protests in Algeria.
