Human Rights in Belgium and India - Introduction Women’s Right Death Penalty Children’s Right LGBT Rights Prepared By: Nirbhay Singh Submitted to: Prof. Katrien Verelst Intoduction: Human rights are the right to all humans, regardless of nationality of a person, its residence, gender, nationality or ethnic origin, color, religion or other condition. All are equally entitled to human rights without discrimination. These rights are interconnected, interdependent and inseparable. In India, there are many ways to protect human rights. The Parliament and the Executive have been entrusted with the creation and implementation of law in the country whereas the judiciary secures its execution. Apart from these basic things, there are other bodies of institutions that make the existing system strong and prosperous. In fact, dedicated government agencies, socially dedicated NGOs, local community groups and international cooperation agencies work to protect human rights worldwide. The Basic Concept Behind Human Privilege The modern concept of human rights developed after World War II. The phrase "human rights" is relatively modern. His intellectual base can be traced through the philosophy and concepts of natural law and freedom. Respect and understanding is essential to attaining the human rights culture, which is sensitive to the basic needs of every human being. It respects the needs of social, economic and political justice for everyone and provides fair and equal opportunities for the growth and development of each and every group of people. It protects every one from the state's power and its arbitrary use by its agencies. The United Nations and its members have formed international humanitarian law and international human rights law after several rounds of negotiations with legal bodies. Human Rights Act, 1993 India has made the establishment of commissions for the protection of human rights at the union and at the state level by making the Human Rights Defense Act, 1993. Due to this act, the establishment of state human rights commissions at the level of the National Human Rights Commission and at the level of the states has become legally necessary. This commission is responsible for resolving human rights and related issues. In Belgium generally all the rights were protected because of the secularity of the state. The protection and promoting of theses human rights are priority for Belgium in their own territory and also in relations with the other countries as well. But some rights are also been violated like banning of full face veil due to terrorism in Belgium. Further we will compare some rights which are fully or partially implemented both in India and Belgium or some other’s which are violated in India only or in either nations. Women Right or Gender Equality: Women Right is one of the important fundamental right that is established by the United Nations 70 years ago for every human being in this world. It states that every women has the right to live free from violence, discrimination and slavery. Every women or girl has the equal rights as men or boys. They all have right to basic needs, education, employment, etc. In India In Article 14, 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution, every citizen of the country has been given the right to equality. Equality, freedom and justice have been given equal rights to both men and women. Any kind of discrimination is considered unconstitutional in both physically and mentally, males and females. Right to freedom and equality: In Article 19, women have been given the right to live independently in any part of the country, they can live. The choice of business can be done independently. Due to being a woman, refusing them for any work will violate their fundamental rights and if they do, they can take help from the law. Law of Domestic Violence: Domestic Violence Act, 2005, under which all women, who are treated with domestic violence in any way, are harassed, they can go to all the police stations and register an FIR, and the policeman will respond without losing time. Right to Job / Self-occupation: Article 16 of the Constitution expressly states that every adult girl and every woman have the right to receive salaries in exchange for work, as is the equivalent of men. Being female only, denying employment, disqualification for a job will be considered as gender discrimination. Right to life and physical freedom: - Article 21 and 22 provides the right to material freedom. The fundamental right to live with respect to every person has been provided by the Constitution. Protecting your body and soul is the fundamental right of everyone. In Belgium The rights for women are consistently same as we talked above in the part of India but in different view. Belgian women’s have right to education, employment, vote, or in decision-making etc. They are active in politics. Gender act 2007 has been established by the Belgian government for women’s right. In 2014 the Gender Act was modified in order to equate discrimination on the basis of ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression’ to discrimination on the basis of gender. Another modification in 2014 was aimed at making sexist behaviour prosecutable. Comparison between India & Belgium In India most of the women’s rights were violated because every second women in India has suffered domestic violence till today which is just opposite in Belgium. In my view by visiting Belgium I have seen that women’s right are fully implemented in this country because women are engaged in all types of jobs and they can go out in night without any fear of being molested whereas in India the laws are only written in papers and aren’t implemented fully because there always a fear for women of being molested whether it’s a day or night, women are prohibited or ignored in most of workplace due to male dominant society. The written are laws are up to date and is enforced by law but it’s yet to be adapted by citizens of India but it’s totally adapted by the Belgian citizens. Death Penalty Death Penalty or Capital punishment is a type of sentence in which a crime committer has been put to death by hanging, shooting or injecting poison into the body, different countries uses one of these or either way to punish but there are some countries which think this type of punishment is inhuman and disrespect life dignity and they vice versa abolish the death penalty. Most of the countries are from Europe. And Belgium is one of it who call its merciless and inhuman act. In letter and spirit, we abide by Article 3 of United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” We do not take this stand in a casual or condescending manner but with utmost honesty and conviction. But unlike Belgium, India is still in practice of this punishment and order this penalty under different crimes. This sentence is also make a reference in the Indian Constitution. According to the data currently there are 477 individual who are under death row but still doesn’t executed. On average the supreme court of India confirms three or four death sentences in a year. Offences for which there is a mandatory death penalty? No, there are no such mandatory death penalty for any crime and also the supreme court of India ruled this as unconstitutional. The death penalty should only be applied for the most heinous offenses (“the rarest of the rare”), illustrate that application of the death penalty is, while not always predictable, still highly restricted. In December 2000 the supreme court of India ruled that death penalty has been abolished for crime committed by juvenile whether it’s heinous or not to abide the human rights in India. In my opinion death penalty is wrong if we take human rights with us. I really appreciate the decision of Belgium that they abolished it and called it inhuman. But if anyone commits a crime which is not acceptable in the society then they should be life imprisoned forever instead of death row. Children Rights Due to high economy and standard of living in Belgium the children rights are fully restored and is in force but unfortunately there are some issues like child abuse by family or any other person and one third of this abuse sexual. But if we compare it to India then the Belgium government is doing excellent work to protect children’s rights. In 1992, India ratified that all the children are born with fundamental rights according to the United Nations convention on the rights for children. Some of the rights are below: Right to Survival – to life, health, nutrition, name, nationality Right to Development – to education, care, leisure, recreation, cultural activities Right to Protection – from exploitation, abuse, neglect Right to Participation – to expression, information, thought, religion. And a right to achieve these dreams. Even though India’s children account for more than one-third of its population, the ir interests have never been given priority. And their rights have been violated every single day. In Belgium we don’t heard anything about Child labour, female foeticide (abortion of girl child), child marriage, malnutrition, poverty etc. but if we to India then it can be seen anywhere in any part of the country. In my opinion the child rights are made for welfare of the children. And these children are the future of this world and they require equal treatment irrespective of class, country, gender or religion. These child rights should not be violated and keep in running for better society and future. LGBT Rights India lacks LGBT rights because it’s illegal to be in relationship with a person of same sex and it is punishable under Indian law whereas Belgium is the second country to legalise it in 2003 after Netherlands. India does not recognize any other gender expect male or female but they also recognize one more gender known as Hijras as a third gender but only in two states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Person falling in this categories has been given equal rights as a normal person has like social inclusion, employment, service in military and adoption & family planning in Belgium. But it’s totally the opposite in India peoples falls into this category aren’t accept by the society and they are socially excluded, didn’t get employed, banned from military service, can’t start their own family and even spared from medical healthcare. In my opinion everyone has the equal right to live in this world without knowing their sexual orientation. India should recognize these rights for their development in the society. Conclusion: Human rights are the basic rights given to every person. To be universal, these rights are protected by law, however, unfortunately many times it is violated by states, individuals or groups. Disadvantaging a person with these basic rights is inhumane. This is the reason that many organizations have been set up to protect these rights. 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