Prime Time 5, Coursebook mit Audio-CD

Text: Dignity for all? 1 Reading: The concept of dignity a) Read these texts, identify the rights mentioned and write them in the title space provided. b) How is the dignity of people violated according to these texts? c) Which rights would you miss most if the state/your parents/your school suddenly decided that you could no longer have them? Example: “I wouldn’t want to lose the right to privacy by a government spying on my computer use.” 13–16 Ask a group of children what they feel like doing at the weekend, and “going to the cinema” or “going to the shops” would be typical replies. But “working as a slave”? In 2007, British police freed a group of Romanian children who had been smuggled into the country as slaves. Some of them were as young as four and had been recruited for pick-pocketing in London. It may be difficult for many people in the UK or the US to imagine slavery in their own countries – to most this is a problem found only in Africa or Asia –, but it is still a reality. The Romanian children are just one example of modern slavery in the western world, a problemmany are happy to ignore. 1 Slavery goes against human dignity. But dignity for all – as the basis for the right to freedom – is a relatively new concept. In ancient Egypt or Rome and during the Middle Ages, people were used to seeing slavery. Then, in 18 th century Europe and America, the ideas of dignity and democracy started to spread. Even then, however, only white male landowners enjoyed rights like voting or receiving an education. 2 In authoritarian societies, the individual and human dignity have little meaning. Basic rights like free speech or the freedom to protest do not exist. There is no need for the dictator to tolerate more than one opinion because there is only one opinion: the dictator’s. He and his secret police know how to make their system work – if necessary by force. 3 Many people cannot imagine losing rights which have already been won. Perhaps they should be more interested in keeping them. After terrorists attacked the US on 11 September 2001, the US Congress passed President Bush’s Patriot Act. The act cut deeply into privacy rights and gave the police, FBI and CIA easier access to personal information. Human rights activists were the first to protest the loss of privacy, one of the most basic aspects of personal dignity. Instead of protesting, however, most Americans decided to accept the Patriot Act: they were more afraid of terror attacks than losing their rights. 4 88 Human rights 7 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv