“I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, (and) receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.”

Woody Allen, playwright

What is Allen saying? Summarize this in your own words.

Do you feel that you live this statement or that we as a society live this statement?

What do you “jealously guard”? What’s important to you?

How do you respond to new information or ideas?

World Human Rights TopicsWorld Human Rights Topics

England

China

United States

Russia

Saudi Arabia

PakistanAfrica

Russia: Freedom of SpeechThe television station, TV-6, has been a persistent critic of Russian

government policy, especially over the war in Chechnya. It abruptly ended transmissions on Monday, prompting claims that free speech in Russia is under attack. TV-6 director Yeveny Kiselyov said "Russia is heading towards an authoritarian and totalitarian regime."

BBC News Talking Point 28 January 2002

On the 7th of October Anna Politkovskaya was found dead in her apartment in the center of Moscow, Russia. Anna Politkovskaya was a famous journalist who has dedicated her professional career and most of her life to reveal genocide committed against Chechens by Russia and to fight for their human rights… Her murder shocked everyone - ordinary Russians who read her articles and the European community which saw in her murder lack of freedom of speech in Russia. Indeed there are 13 journalists killed or murdered on the Russian territory from the beginning of 2006.

Voice of Youth Forums, 9 October 2006

The World

China: Reproductive Freedom“China's one-child policy, which the government started

implementing in 1979, is widely unpopular inside the country. In the West, it has been criticized for being prone to abuses, with local officials using coercion and forced abortions to enforce their state-mandated family-planning quotas.

But despite popular hostility, the government credits the policy for controlling growth of China's already huge population and says it would have at least 300 million more people today if it were not for the measure.”

Asia Times, March 21 2006

The World

Saudi Arabia: Women’s Rights“Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about democracy in the Arab world --

most of it coming from President Bush, who has called on one Middle Eastern government after another to give more power to their own people.

Men and women do almost nothing together in Saudi Arabia -- at least not in public. For instance, events like a soccer match are strictly for men. It's a country where culture and religion make women live mostly restricted segregated lives. In public, there are separate sections where they eat, where they work, and where they pray. There is also segregation inside their own homes.

Gaining that freedom will be difficult. Social attitudes here are deeply ingrained. Muslim clerics preach that “women’s rights” is a western idea the United States is trying to impose. And they enforce a strict social code that determines everything -- from the kind of clothing women may wear to whether they can drive.

CBS News, March 24 2005The World

Africa - Sudan: Genocide“The United Nations Security Council has approved a

26,000-strong peacekeeping force to replace the 7,000 African Union (AU) observer mission struggling to protect civilians in Sudan's western province of Darfur…

…more than 2m people are living in camps after fleeing more than four years of fighting in the region and they are vulnerable without peacekeepers.

The conflict began in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, saying the region was being neglected by Khartoum. The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs.

BBC News, 15 November 2007The World

United States: Healthcare“The U.S. health care system — touted as providing the best medical care

in the world — is becoming more precarious to most Americans, who are rattled by rising costs, questions about quality and fears about the future. If you can afford it, it's the best health care system in the world, but, increasingly, people aren't able to afford it," says Clyde Bishop, a retired research scientist in Wilmington, Del.

…Even with such efforts, most economists predict that health care spending will continue to grow faster than the economy — and far faster than wages.

Already, the average yearly cost of the most popular type of insurance plan offered by employers hit $11,765 this year, with the average employee paying $3,226 of that total, a Kaiser Family Foundation study shows. Average premiums have risen 87% since 2000, while workers' earnings have risen 20%.

Nationally, nearly 16% of the population, or 46.6 million, are uninsured, according to recent Census estimates.

USA Today, October 15 2006The World

U.K - England: Privacy“CCTV, or closed-circuit television…has become popular and

widespread, with the result that Britons are by far the most watched people on earth, with one camera for every 14 people, according to recent estimates.

More than 4 million cameras observe all aspects of life, from town centers to transport systems, office towers to banks, commercial zones to residential areas, restaurants, bars, and even churches..

Many cameras are hidden or not signposted, in breach of regulations. Several cases of abuse have been documented, raising fears of snooping or worse.

Civil liberty groups complain that the intrusive lens scanning for suspicious characters contravenes that pillar of civil society - the presumption of innocence.

CS Monitor, February 6 2004

The World

Pakistan: Election Rights “ Pakistan's opposition leader Nawaz Sharif won't work with

President Pervez Musharraf if his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party wins next month's general election, a party spokesman said.

``Musharraf has completely failed his people on all fronts,'' Siddique-ul-Farooq said in a telephone interview from Sharif's hometown, Lahore, yesterday. ``Musharraf's future will be determined if free and fair elections are held.''

Musharraf has pledged the Feb. 18 elections will be fair and has vowed to quit if opposition parties secure enough seats in the 342-member Parliament to remove him from power.

Bhutto, the main opposition leader, was murdered Dec. 27 in a gun and bomb attack on her motorcade after a campaign rally. The assassination triggered nationwide rioting and led the government to delay the election from Jan. 8 until Feb. 18.

Bloomberg, January 29, 2008The World