Human Rights Violation - Essay Example

November 18, Human Rights Violation Right to Life, Liberty and Security Countries or sovereign nations are governedby constitutions which categorically define the citizens’ rights to various issues that are of importance to their lives. One of the rights that citizens have is their right to life. It is important to have this section in the bill of rights so that the lives of individuals can be guarded from policemen, soldiers and also from fellow citizens who can decide to terminate other peoples’ lives on various unconfirmed basis. The constitution also goes a step further to stipulate the definitive judgments that should accompany cases where an individual decides to end another’s life. Over the years there have many reported cases of genocide and excessive police brutality which include massacres where these rights are totally violated. This essay will look at the Palatine case where military officials were accused of committing grave human rights violations. It’s in this region that dozens of youth were killed by the military officials who were later dismissed from service by the Colombian President Uribe. The youths killed were in guerilla dressing and though they could have posed a threat to the security of the nation killing them in cold blood did not qualify as the only solution to the problem. Police Brutality The police are mandated with the role of enforcing law and order in the society, keeping peace, and protecting the lives and property of the people in a given society or country (Activists Rights Organization). Police and the military are not allowed to use excessive force in arresting an individual if the individual is not armed or not resisting the arrest. On top of this they are not supposed to use live bullets on a given person or suspect if the person does not pose a threat to their lives or the lives of other people at the given time. This is the reason why police brutality which was witnessed in Palatine was highly condemned since it was not established beyond any reasonable doubt that the youth who were killed posed any immediate danger to the military who terminated their lives. As indicated earlier everyone has their right to life. This right is however compromised in situations where a court of law is able to establish that the person had infringed on another citizens rights and the penalty for the offence as stipulated in the laws of the land demands for the termination of their lives. On top of that in certain cases, the suspect may decide to open fire to the policemen in their bid to arrest them and this can prompt the policemen to retaliate in defense. Such exceptional cases are defined well in the legal documents and the need to have a witness to prove it is vitally important in case a legal suit is erected in line with the act. It is therefore a breach of the individuals’ rights to have an act such as the one in Palatine and the results clearly show that the individuals though being suspects of crime had their rights which needed to be guarded by the constitution (Stetser, 2001). Police brutality is not just subject to the physical attack that an individual maybe subjected to in the hands of the police. It is also tied to verbal attacks or psychological torture and intimidation that some people go through while in the hands of the unprofessional police officers (Gonzalez & Goodman). According to Loree, (n.d), many incidences of police brutality go uncovered or unaddressed since one has to go through the same docket while presenting his or her grievances. In many cases, the evidence is altered and the truth underlying the circumstances remain unearthed. In a democratic nation, people should be allowed to exercise their rights without being intimidated. Such rights include their freedom of expression. This may be done in form of peaceful demonstrations to push for a given purpose. However, it is common to see the police officers using excessive force to stop people while they are demonstrating peacefully and this often ends with the loss of a number of lives in the process. In the Palatine killings, dozens of youth were recruited in Bogota slums and later were reported killed by the army far away from the region. Unfair Detainment and Treatment of Civilians According to Lindsay-working with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network in the region, over the past few months the situation in Colombia has been worsening. This is not the first case where the police officers had violated the rights of the citizens. Human rights organizations in the region have covered more than 500 extrajudicial killings which were done by the army in the past one year. This has been worsened by attacks on the human rights defenders who have gone to the region in their bid to champion for the rights of the poor citizens. The army and the police therefore should not be immune to the law and the dismissal of the twenty five military officials who were involved in the killings should serve as a warning to the others who are committing the same offences but often go unreported. In the regions where military officers have been deployed, cases of rape and other human abuses are common an act that should be accorded the resilience it deserves. Cases of Genocide Genocide involves mass killings in cases where more often involves clashes between conflicting communities in a region. A good example is what happened in Rwanda a country in East Africa in 1994 when two communities rose against each other in political conflicts and what ensued was one of the worst cases of genocide to have been reported in history. Such cases are as a result of a continuous brewing trouble mainly a tribal one that either goes unnoticed or the people who have the ability to address it do not seize the chance to do so. The result is seen when people rise against each other and many lose their lives. Genocides cases are a violation of human rights as many people kill the others therefore infringing on their right to live. The people who are involved in such cases rarely face the punishment for their actions as there is little evidence to convict them. Solution to the Problems The problems addressed earlier in the essay are harbored by the society we live in. Since any sovereign country is governed by a constitution that does not give any individual the right to end another one’s life, then such cases should be handled serious and perpetrators made to face the law. The military and the police officers should be made to understand that they are not above the law and infringing on other peoples’ rights as they try to restore peace and order is both unacceptable and uncalled for. The military officers who were involved in the extrajudicial killings in Palatine are just examples of the happenings that would have gone unnoticed if the human rights defenders could not have intervened. They should therefore be made to face the arm of the law and in case they are proved guilty the punishment accorded to them should be proportional to the atrocity they committed. This should therefore serve as a warning to other military officers who take advantage of their positions to commit crime against humanity. In cases of genocide where mainly the civilians are the ones who rise against each other, the root of the problem should be established. Some leaders instigate such fights for their selfish gains and to ensure that they remain in power. An example is the recently convicted John Taylor from West Africa who ensured that the fights goes on so that he could remain in power. Works Cited Activists Rights Organization. Role of Police in the Society. Web. Available at. Gonzalez, Juan. & Goodman, Amy. Police Brutality. A Daily Independent Global News Hour. Web. Available at. Lindsay, John. Urgent! Military Officials Commit Grave Human Rights Violations in Colombia! Chicago Religious leadership Network on Latin America. n.d. Web. Available at. Loree, Don. Corruption in Policing: Causes and Consequences. Research and Evaluation. n.d. Web. Available at. Stetser, Merle. The Use of Force in Police Control of Violence: Incidents Resulting in Assaults on Officers. New York: LFB Publishing Press. 2001. Print. Read More