Violation Of Human Rights During The Middle Ages

For centuries, human rights were less considered by those people who are more fortunate than the others, especially during the Middle Ages. In a manner and way of speaking, more fortunate in terms of money, estate and even power; while for those people of whom we can consider to be less fortunate, are degraded and underestimated. They were scarcely taken care of and even sometimes ‘used’ by those people who have all the time and power in the world (Brett, 1998). They became slaves and did a pile of tasks that were even inhumane in nature for they have to follow their ‘masters’, or else they will get what they deem to deserve because they disobeyed such orders. As such, this cruelty still continued even when “the poor had the right to be supported …show more content…
For those countries who wanted to remain ‘traditional’ by this sense, they kept the idea to be bounded by their own hierarchy and even by the Caste System. Thus, what exactly are human rights and when can we exactly say that I have these rights as a human? Would you consider human rights to be jus cogens in nature? These are indeed empirical matters to be discussed. According to the United Nations Human Rights, human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination and these rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Furthermore, universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, general principles or practices and other sources of the international law. International human rights …show more content…
It even touched the conscience of humankind binding the international community ‘as a whole’. I can only envision what human rights would be like after it will become jus cogens. Every state will start recognizing the inherent rights of their people and even second and third generation rights will be developed and protected more. The scenario is indeed very idealistic yet fulfilling. On the other side of the coin, maintaining status quo would mean respect for state sovereignty and conservation of traditions and values. State sovereignty is very well respected in the international community, which is why there are separate treaties for specific human rights in order for the states to freely decide what specific human rights they will propagate and leave out. Royal C. Gardner’s article Respecting Sovereignty in 2002 profoundly explained the necessity of recognizing and respecting sovereignty of every state:
It was never a question if a state was ‘free’, because in the eyes of the international community, it is; but it is still a subject to international customs and accepted practices. In a way of speaking, the way how the state conducts itself matters and the essence of recognizing sovereignty is between the state and the international community as a