I hear very little about people's responsibilities however. Rights always bring responsibilities but I find that they seldom are discussed together. We have Human Rights Commissions, but no Human Responsibilities Commissions. Lots of protestors demand human rights, but very few protest the lack of personal responsibility that should be exercised along with those rights.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrines certain rights in our constitution. Interestingly, immigrants who become Canadian citizens are taught about both their rights as Canadians AND their responsibilities as Canadians. (Those of us who are born Canadians are never given that training!) For instance, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website helpfully points out that our right to vote is not much use if we ignore our responsibility to vote. Similarly, our right to a fair trial comes with a responsibility to obey Canada's laws. Rights are always connected to responsibilities.
The focus on human rights can result in good outcomes, but it becomes unbalanced without any consideration of responsibility. A system of rights can only work when everyone understands their responsibility to honour the rights of others. Once a person starts thinking that their own rights trump everone else's rights, the system starts to breaks down.
One example:
In November 2007, a group of school children north of Toronto filed a human rights complaint demanding their school inspect every child's lunch bag for foods that cause them severe allergies. It caused a lot of media attention, and lots of letters to the editors. Fascinating that these students previously had the unusual priviledge of lunch bag inspections, which were stopped because the school board was trying to make their practices standard across the region. It was a loss of this special priviledge that caused the students to complain. From the National Post article:
Jane Farrell, a spokeswoman for Edmonton Public Schools, was surprised when told about the proposed lunch-bag inspections.
"I've never heard of anything like this," she said. "If it's a peanut-free school, it's a peanut-free school and parents are respectful of that. I've never heard of anyone deliberately violating that. Inspecting lunches? That's a new one."
I find it fascinating that the Human Rights tribunal, which was created to ensure everyone is treated equal, is now being used to provide a few people with preferential treatment. The complainants provided no evidence that the lack of these lunch-bag inspections has increased the prevalence of peanuts in the school, as the school policy prohibiting peanuts has remained unchanged. There was also no mention of any responsibilities of students who have a peanut allergy, such as having an Epi-Pen handy. And predictably, no consideration of the rights to "lunch-bag privacy" for the vast majority of the student population.
The time may have arrived for us to stop emphasizing human rights and instead refocus our society on human responsibility.
