Twenty years ago one of the world’s most recognized symbols of government repression, The Berlin Wall, came down. November 9th, 1989, is remembered as the day that East Berliners took back their right to freedom of movement by storming the barricade (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13). What has changed in the last two decades- do other similar walls exist today? Do you have a story about the Berlin Wall or a memory of defending your right to free movement?

The ethic of human rights is that all people, by virtue of being human and nothing more, are entitled to basic rights and liberties. As outlined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), there are at least thirty moral obligations each person owes to the rest of humanity and vice versa. Yet, the UDHR was adopted less than a century ago, and was promoted for the most part by Western nations, especially the United States. With such a short and localized history, how are we to accept that this ethic ought to be adopted universally, for all people and all time? Contemporary critics of the doctrine of human rights have argued that it is vague, that it undermines more traditional value systems, and that it is logically incoherent. Slavoj Žižek has written several articles on the subject, including ”Human Rights and Its Discontents.” Charles Blattberg wrote an article entitled “The Ironic Tragedy of Human Rights.” What justifies our acceptance of human rights? If we agree that we all ought to act in accordance with the UDHR, what reason can we give? In contrast to most moral traditions, human rights is not justified in terms of religion, a political body, or an economic system. Some would argue it is not justified at all. So what is the reason for accepting it? What is your reason?

A teen in Cobb County, GA withdrew from his high-school after being told to dress “more manly.” Read the story here. The school says his mode of dress disrupted class. He says he won’t attend where he’s not allowed to express himself. Does the student have a right to dress however he wants? Is the school’s response smart policy or gender discrimination? Should the school have taken a position on the matter at all? If so, what do you think it should have been?

“If we abandon the liberties we cherish, the terrorists will have won.”

-Senator Chuck Hagel, R-NE, September 12, 2001

The events of September 11, 2001, have had a direct impact on the relationship between the government of the United States and its citizens. The most basic civil rights are civil liberties; those rights that protect people from their own government. Civil liberties protected in the United States include the right to due process, the right to free speech and assembly, the right to privacy, and the right to equal protection under the law. One of the many tragedies of 9/11 has been the government’s widespread disavowal of these civil liberties. The Bill of Rights, the founding document of the U.S. government which speaks most directly to the issues of civil liberties and human rights, has been shuttered for nearly a decade now by the USA Patriot Act, passed one month after 9/11. Those rights which went unquestioned at the close of the 20th century have since been jeopardized with practices such as unreasonable search and seizure, government spying, closure of government proceedings and documents, and the encouragement of pointing fingers. Where they have taken place, these practices have largely been justified with reference to the USA Patriot Act, some of the provisions of which will expire at the end of this year. Both Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union have active campaigns for turning this into an opportunity for a revision of the Act in its entirety.

September 11 is now a national holiday called “Patriot Day;” let us not forget that true regard for one’s country means the preservation and defense of the rights we call civil liberties.