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Show 1 A II ii n n n- By Tamara J. Ostler Staff writer of The Signpost This is Human Rights Week, a recognition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed by the U.N. over 40 years ago. This proclamation was accepted as a basis for protection and guidance for all people by the international community. However, many problems still occur inspite of it. People are still treated unfairly and inhumanely all over the world. Human rights violations are a pressing problem even in the U.S. There are serious issues that affect this nations citizens and are indeed violations to this amended resolution.Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, re-ceiveand impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Despite the First Amendment and Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights, many fundamentalist groups are determined to press their values and beliefs on the rest of the population, narrowing the range of public discourse. Approximately 80 books have been banned recently in various libraries and public schools across the U.S. A book titled World Report 1988 Information, Article 19 Freedom and Censorship says that freedom of expression did not do too well during the 1980' s. Banning books used as educational tools is spreading. Where almost no law cases existed a decade ago, the numbers are increasing today. Christian fundamentalist groups are banning books they feel promote feminism, pacifism, sex, divorce, emotional effects of death, and themes they regard as "anti-Christian."In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court did rule that school boards violate a student's First Amendment rights when they proceed to ban books from school libraries. According to the news letter "Intellectual Freedom," one Tennessee school board tried to ban The Wizard of Oz and Rumplestiltskin. Although the objection of Rumplestiltskin is not known, radical Christian groups objected to The Wizard of OZ because it depicts courage, intelligence and compassion as personally developed traits. The two most frequently banned books in America are J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five. Classics such as S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and That was Then, This is Now were objected to by a Milwaukee school board because of the characters came from broken homes and were involved with drugs and alcohol. Authors such as Dr. Seuss and Mark Twain have been banned, not to mention Stephen King and John Steinbeck. Several Christian fundamentalists objected to Cinderella, and Shakespeare's Macbeth because they mentioned witchcraft and magic. Article 19, and the First Amendment of the Constitution, guarantees the right of "freedom of opinion and expression." Article 19 is suppose to ensure and guarantee that these rights are recognized and respected by all governments of all countries. These rights are violated because censorship is practiced by the government and individuals in many different ways. Every day, writers are attacked or imprisoned around the world. In America, newspapers, periodicals, and books, are seized or banned. Censorship is a complex issue that affects both the creators and their audience.According to World Report ... Information Freedom and Censorship, information is not just a luxury, but a life saving necessity. Expression and information are two important factors for a functioning democratic society. Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well being of himself and of his family, including food,, clothing housing and medical care, and necessary social services and the right to security in theevent of...circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to specific care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. In 1989, the U.N. General Assembly approved an international campaign to improve children's rights. The Assembly's goal was to improve economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of child ren. Since there is a growing number of suffering children in this country, it was important for the U.S. to ratify this campaign. According to the World Summit for Children, in 1989, over 12 million children lived in poverty in the U.S. One half of all pre-school children had mothers who worked outside the home, and Congress failed to enact a comprehensive program that would respond to the ..1-J jiijl .i. j i i j nuniw iiiiwwii ,.wiini)i in n pi Jin w II 1 1 mi ii I III n ; jswiBiiff - -! M !,! e$ ,. - 8t (BBS - f i J THESE BOOKS ARE AMONG those ing such themes as divorce, sex, needs of those children. The result, an inadequate amount of available licensed day care centers. A study by the General Assembly shows that America, and South Africa are the only two industrialized nations not providing health Insurance for their children. This leaves 12 million American children without proper health care. On any given night in the U.S., you can find approximately 100,000 homeless children, not including runaways or children thrown out by their parents. With modern technology and advancement in medicine, there is still a problem with child mortality in this country. Although it is not as severe as some countries, the U. S. ranks 22nd in the mortality rate. There are approximately 46,000 children under the age of five that die each year in the U.S. So how are Utah's children doing? "Utah does not care about its children," said Lynne Tempest, a writer of recent editorial in Network magazine. That opinion was based on the fact that Governor Bangerter refused to appropriate $9.7 million on the already "underfunded" health and human services programs which would fund child care centers in schools, give tax credits to employers providing child care assistance, nurses in public schools and parenting classes in public schools. Utah's number of pre-school children doubles the national average. One hundred-sixty thousand children, under 13 need, but do not receive, quality day care. During a three month period in 1989, more than half the people served in the Salt Lake homeless shelter were children. During 1990, there were 4,635 homeless children in Utah, and 577 of those were found in Ogden. . . I- .it TOtKV. LLL MARK RANDALL THE SIGNPOST named by various groups to be banned or censored for promot-feminism, and Immorality. Recent studies show that during the past seven years, the number of reported child sexual abuse cases, in Utah, increased 600-700 percent. There were 7,782 confirmed child abuse cases in 1989 and 2,000 of those were confirmed sexual assaults. A Weber County social worker said that in cases of child abuse and neglect, the parents rights far out-weigh the child's. There must be proof of "eminent" danger before removing a child from the home. However, the definition of "eminent danger" is not specified in Utah's policy. Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The United States is the only Western industrial nation which still uses capital punishment. It justifies the use as a means of protecting social order. A South Carolina Republican, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says that the death penalty is an effective deterrent of crime in America. He says that if we associate the penalty with the crime, society is more aware of their consequences and will avoid such conduct. The American Sociological Review, the FBI and Amnesty International say the death penalty has no effect on the deterrence of crime in America. The American Sociological Review said that you are more likely to be murdered in a state with capital punishment than one without. One Amnesty International publications says that the death penalty does not guarantee a safer society. In fact, they claim security is threatened when governments use violence against violence. During 1988 crime rates rose in states with capital punishment 7.05 percent. Crime in other states dropped 4.72 percent. ' 0 matt W According to an Amnesty International report, approximately 20,000 murders occur every year and only 150 of those convicted are sent to Death Row. They say "It is simply irrelevant to execute a" handful of neonle. All the death penalty really is is the symbolic human sacrifice of a tiny handful of people. It has nothing to do with protecting society." States still using capital pun;r ishment are Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Utah, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia. The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story from Baltimore which two Baltimore lawyers quoted former Justice William Brennan as saying "Takine life is God's work, not man's.'" Brennan compares electrocution as the contemporary equivalent to burning people at the staice. When considering the deatfi penalty as a final alternative to punishment, research shows that the costs of execution far out weigh the benefits. According to the Miami Herald, life in prison, without parole, is one-sixth the cost of a prisoner on death row wnois---actuallv executed. Dave Von Drehle of the Miami Herald says that housing a death role prisoner costs $108,000. Execution costs almost six times more than it would to keep a prisoner for life, without parole. In Florida, the execution of a criminal is approximately $3.2-million.The death penalty, according to Amnesty International, is a form of torture much like those used in South Korea and South Africa. The difference is the U. S. doesn't use this punishment for obtaining information - it's goal is death, and if an innocent person is executed, the result is irreversible, and an innocent person can never be brought back. jr |