Monday, November 8, 2010

Islam and Human Rights - few links

A great place to start is the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights. This was seen (by some) as an alternative to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Of course it does not speak for all of Islam, and it does not speak for everyone in a Member state, but it provides some insight on the issue.

It has a decent wikipedia page for background, but the full text of the Cairo Declaration is here:
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/cairodeclaration.html
It affirms at the outset that it is a Document on Human Rights in Islam that will serve as a guide for Member states in all aspects of life.

Moving on from the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, Ayatollah Khomeinei states that the basic fundamental rights are: the right to live, the right to be free, the right to benefit from justice, the right to welfare.
www.iranchamber.com/history/akhamenei/works/human_right_islam.pdf (see page 7)

Lastly, I'd like to link to this site, which uses a great deal of scripture and Quran references to develop the author's positions on human rights, and it is a good summary.
http://www.islam101.com/rights/hrM4.htm
Of particular note for this week is the Rights of Enemy Combatants, as we will be discussing war.

Cheers!

2 comments:

  1. My Aunt (who taught English at the University of Tehran) thought it interesting to point out

    http://www.ut.ac.ir/en/contents/Research-Centers/CWS/Center.for.Women%E2%80%99s.Studies.(CWS).html

    http://www.ut.ac.ir/en/contents/Research-Centers/Human-Rights/Center.for.Human.Rights.Studies.html

    I thought these interesting because as Americans we have very little contact with Iran and indeed view them behind a wall much like we did the Soviet Union. It was weird reading that the United Nations Development Program was working with their recently established Center for Human Rights.

    It seemed to me that a country like Iran which visibly gasses protesters wouldn't necessarily have a Human Rights program at it's central university.

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  2. Oh, and yes I called them to make sure the numbers worked. No, I don't speak Farsi, so it could have been the wrong department. :o)

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