Human Rights Essay Question

Question 2:

“But it does raise a question ... whether human rights is a way of ‘doing social justice’ or merely a way of ‘masking social injustice’ in a rhetoric of pleasing aspiration. Why has the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, with its broad range of rights – its commitment to human dignity, to social justice and to a better life for all - not brought about a greater equivalence between aspiration and practice, between what we as a community of nations of peoples say what we want and what our laws and patterns of behavior bring about”. Conor Gearty, Doing Human Rights: Social Justice in a Post- Socialist Age” (Speech delivered 25 November 2008), p. 3.Do you agree with Gearty’s characterization of the broad gap between aspiration and practice? Critically analyze and provide reasons as well as examples in your essay.