What Made Canada a Leader in Human Rights

What made Canada a world leader in Human Rights? Experiences memory of the Holocaust and the horrors of discrimination had shaped Canada’s role as a world leader in human rights. Canada had done numerous measures to eliminate racial discrimination and as well as giving Canadians equal rights they deserve. Such as drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ontario Human rights code, Canadian Human rights Act, and as well as the Canadian Charter of rights.First, Canada’s participation and corporation in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is influential and significant, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a major milestone in the history of human rights, and many policies made by different countries are based on the declaration, such as the Canadian Charter of Rights.
John Peters Humphrey, a Canadian was appointed to by the United Nations to be the principle drafter of the International Bill of Rights, which would eventually become the UN Declaration of Human Rights.He was also appointed as the Director of Human rights at the time representing 19 nations ranging from Australia to Yugoslavia, his work had definitely played an important role in drafting the Declaration. The declaration stated clearly that everybody has the equal rights, to be treated with dignity, and that nobody should be subject for torture in contrast of the treatment the Jews got from the Nazi Party. And many other rights such as right to life, liberty, and security, right to education, right to participate with cultural life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion.Without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the whole world would be very different, for example racial discrimination would’ve been still here, meaning that another holocaust could still be possible. Therefore Canada’s participation was rather important. Next, The Ontario Human Rights Code introduced in in 1962 was policy introduced to Ontario by the Federal Government of Canada to further more protect and to comply with the declaration of Human Rights.
This proves that Canada is committed to protect and respect the declaration of human rights. It was written in six parts, each dealing with one form or discrimination. Generally, it deals with work place discrimination and racial discrimination. Such as in Part one, it states that symbols, signs, emblems or any form of logo should not to published or displayed with intentions to discriminate people, an obvious response to the Swastika made by the Nazi Party.Next, it was stated that employers or work unions cannot refuse or continue to employ a person because of their physical appearance, race, nationality or place of origin, this was probably stated because of the White People Job Position Domination in Nazi Germany during the War. Equal pay for female worker and a male worker was also mentioned in the Code that is applicable when there is a female worker and a male worker in the same working position but have a different pay.The rest of the code is about the Ontario Human rights commission, how it is applicable for everybody in case of a complain, and rules such as complaints must be submitted in forms will be written in forms of a letter mailed or delivered to the Office of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Essentially the whole matter about the Ontario Human Rights code is to father more reinforce the Human Rights for the people in Ontario, and an addition to eliminate sexual discriminated based on a traditional misconception that men are superior to women.Next is the Canadian Human Rights Act passed in 1977, this is an act that will establish the Canadian Human Rights Commission that will be assigned to justify and look into possible cases of Human Rights violation in Canada. The whole point of the Act is to ensure that everybody gets the equal chance and quality of employment with government positions unaffected by their race, sex, origin or any other personal traits all across Canada and not just Ontario. Canadians all have the same chance of employment as a civil worker in federal departments, chartered banks, airlines, radio stations, telephone companies and many others.And finally, there are policies established at a provincial level to each of the provinces in Canada such as the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission and many others following the Act. They specifically gave protection to human rights and work place equality to each of the provinces. In addition, since 2005, the government launched a programme called LEEP (Legislated Equality Employment Programme) to further more ensure equal opportunities to be employed in private companies registered in the programme.
In Conclusion, this Act gave all Canadians a guarantee of equality in government job positions. Last but not least, the Canadian charter of Rightswas introduced in Canada as part of the Constitution Act of 1982. The Canadian Charter of Rights is a combination, improvement and addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Canadian Charter of Rights is a Bill of Rights that lists political and civil rights to everybody in Canada. It came into effect along with the Constitution Act of 1982 and was signed by the Queen Elizabeth II of England.Under the Charter, every Canadian essentially has several rights. Such as Fundamental Rights, ranging from freedom of religion, conscience, thought, belief, expression, speech, assembly and press, Democratic Rights, such as right to vote in an election every five years.
Mobility Rights, rights to move in and out of Canada, LegalRightslike rights to be told why a Canadian is arrested and presumed innocent until proven guilty in court, Equality rights, equal treatment in courts and protection by the law.Language rights, rights to speak English or French in Canada no matter where you are and finally Minority Rights, people that are considered minority population in Canada has the rights to be educated in their own languages, that mostly is applicable to the Aboriginals. The Canadian Charter of Rights is a list of rights every Canadian is entitled to similar to the basic human rights, but with addition that will fit Canada better such as rights to speak English or French in any province in Canada.In Conclusion, Canada had done lots of effort to promote human rights, both locally and internationally after realizing the horrors of Holocaust during WWII and had done best of its ability to prevent another one. Gaining knowledge and experience over the matter over the years had made Canada a successful leader in human rights. Canada’s effort such as the participation in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was extremely important as it was the beginning of human rights. As a result, the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Charter of Rights were subsequently introduced to Canada and changed everything forever.
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