Kindred And Bartolomeo De Las Casas

Human Rights Essay More than one-third of governments arrested people simply because they were exercising their freedoms and rights in 2014. The violation of human rights- the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled to-is not a new phenomenon. These violations are usually performed by powerful authorities, such as the government or military groups. Individuals, however, have the power to stop these forces. Hence, people have an obligation to fight for and protect the freedom of others or to prevent the violation of human rights.
Dana, from the novel Kindred and Bartolomeo De Las Casas, a Spaniard from Christopher Columbus’ time, took action to fight for the freedom of slaves to prevent the violation of human rights.

With a positive mindset and powerful thoughts such as ¨I had said I couldn’t do anything to change history. Yet, if history could be changed, this book in the hands of a white man-even a sympathetic white man-might be the thing to change it.”(Kindred pg 142), Dana fights to convince Rufus to cease his use of slaves. Upon his death, Rufus frees a majority of his slaves. Thus, an individual made a minor impact to protect the freedom of the slaves. Bartolome de las Casas was a Spaniard and one of the early settlers of the new world. He carefully observed how the Spaniards treated the natives granted to them through the encomienda system, a rule that gave a number of natives to Spaniards to be used for labor, but in return, they had to protect the natives. With no one to enforce this rule, the Spaniards abused and tortured the natives and "...[they] forced their way into Native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as

Sometimes, it is necessary to fight for individual freedom, as demonstrated in Tears of Autumn. Hana Omiya, a young Japanese woman, agrees to marry a stranger in America in order to escape the oppression of women in her country and wasn’t alone because “there were many Japanese emigrating to America these days, and Hana had heard of the picture brides who went with nothing more than an exchange of photographs to bind them to a strange man.” (Tears of Autumn.) The change guaranteed more freedom for Hana, even though she left her family and home behind. EU: Lackluster Commitment to Rights Protection, an article from the Human Rights Watch website, points out the struggle that Europeans face and the little protection asylum seekers receive. Many Europeans try to flee because “Europe is still a place of exclusion, discrimination and suffering for so many [and] until EU leaders are prepared to consistently act in accordance with the Union’s state values, that picture isn’t going to change.” (EU: Lackluster Commitment to Rights Protection.) Instead of finding ways to enforce human rights, the European Union puts more effort into enforcing “border enforcement and preventing departures.” (EU: Lackluster Commitment to Rights Protection.) A similar article from the same website, New US Policy of little help to Central American families who live in