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Social Determinants of Health: Thesis
Social Determinants of Health: Thesis
Arguments in the declaration of independence
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Abraham Lincoln once stated, “Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail.” Upon the foundation of this country, a person’s basic rights are granted under the Declaration of Independence. Our democratic political system is constructed to ensure every citizen their rights are protected by this document. The founding fathers of this country formulated this document to keep this nation together and establish a sense of freedom, justice, and liberty. Race, gender, economic and political status, and types of communities are various factors that come into play when deciding means of action on a national and local level. Social determinants constrain and predict the quality of living in particular geographic locations. In many struggling communities, equal opportunities are not made available for residents compared to a community where they are not deprived of resources because of their social status. Although there are an ample amount of federally funded programs offered throughout the country, the process of gaining access and acceptance into these programs complicates the situation on many people. With such tight regulations on who is eligible to apply for government assisted programs, it increases the numbers of victims of poverty. Imagine being denied because your income does not meet the criteria or getting denied because you were previously evicted due to lack of funds. It is unjust for people to be put under this type of stress if they are potentially falling into the lines of poverty and homelessness.
Without the accessibility of basic necessities, the issue draws parallels between accessibility and discrimination. Poverty and inequality exists in every developed country and...
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..., but scarce supply. Insufficient housing assistance means that most poor families or individuals seeking assistance will be placed on extensive waiting lists. The average waiting period for a Section 8 voucher is currently between 26 to 28 months (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2002). In the waiting time period, people must remain in inconvenient living arrangements, reside in shelters, or even living on the streets until a spot is available for them. Considering the large amounts of people who apply for housing may be very time consuming, however the people’s needs and safety are being placed on the back burner. The federal housing policy does not respond nor adhere to the needs of low-income households, meanwhile they are disproportionately benefiting the wealthiest Americans. Contrary to the popular opinion, welfare assistance does not provide relief from poverty.
One of the most prominent concerns of Evicted is the issue of inescapable financial instability as it relates to eviction. In the very first few pages of the book, Desmond reveals that the majority of poor renting families in America spend over 50% of their income on housing, with an even more astonishing one in four spending over 70% of their income on it (4). When families are spending the majority of their already meager income on housing alone, it is no surprise that they have little money left for savings or self-betterment programs such as a college education. Compounded with this is the fact that some welfare systems are constructed in a way that discourages long-term financial responsibility. For example, Supplemental Security Income, a program that provides monthly stipends for low-income elderly or disabled individuals, is revoked if individuals have too much money in their bank account (217). For
Since poverty affects a wide array of people, poverty has evolved into a very complex issue. And even though the government has passed legislature to try to ameliorate the situation, many of these means-tested measures like food stamps, have only been able to help the surface of poverty and fails to rip out the long roots poverty has grown throughout history. Poverty’s deep effects are seen especially in minorities as they struggle much more to leave a current situation that has been created by historical process. Even though government assistance like food stamps do help alleviate some of poverty’s burden, these measures fail to recognize the reality that many of the impoverished minority have undervalued homes or no homes at all and even if they can rent, that rent can be high enough to take up more than fifty-percent of their paychecks. Overall, poverty in America is a vastly complicated issue rooted throughout history. And even though the government has attempted to pass legislature to help provide relief from poverty, America still has yet to provide measures that target the roots of poverty and until then, the government assistance it does provide will only be superficial and fail to provide long-term solutions to a complicated
In order to be radical about poverty, we need to understand the difference between wealth and income. Income is a transfer of money by working or by gifts. On the other hand, wealth is more of a total of accumulated assets that has been stored for a period of time (Conley, pg. 253). Wealth is not distributed equally among the public. (NCH, 2016, http://nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/). Declining wages has also caused a lot of stress and increase people’s inability to pay for their housing or other needs. If there are affordable housing, it’s usually in an unsafe and polluted environment or it’s extremely overcrowded that people have a higher chance of being homeless or inadequate housing arrangements than getting their applications accepted (Why Are People Homeless Research, 2016, NCH). Also, privatizing housing will increase the accumulation of wealth of the power elite or those that own property and lands by their pricing in rents. Most people go through depression because of loss of home, jobs, or a sense of self. Often times, the lack education about health and they don’t receive adequate support for medical care if they are homelessness. Poverty is also treated as a criminal offence and if people were to ask for public assistance, they have to prove their eligibility. If they have a criminal record, they are
According to Thomas Jefferson, all men are created equal with certain unalienable rights. Unalienable rights are rights given to the people by their Creator rather than by government. These rights are inseparable from us and can’t be altered, denied, nullified or taken away by any government, except in extremely rare circumstances in which the government can take action against a particular right as long as it is in favor of the people’s safety. The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America mentions three examples of unalienable rights: “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. I believe these rights, since they are acquired by every human being from the day they are conceived, should always be respected, but being realistic, most of the time, the government intervenes and either diminishes or
Sidney, Mara S. 2003. Unfair Housing: How National Policy Shapes Community Action. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.
On the cultural challenge for universal human rights, some claims historical root of human rights in Europe and America, where there are several declarations of rights and revolutions to claim a tradition of struggling for the right. Hence, the fulfill of universal human rights in other areas may come up with a significant challenge. (Kühnhardt 1991) Universal human rights also are seen as a newly formed capitalism and would intervene state sovereignty.1 Another middle approach is to search a reconciliation through cross-cultural or intercultural dialog and recognition of plurality. (Etzioni 2010; Yu 2005; An-Naim 1995), an even universality of human rights should be reached by cultural dialog.(Donnelly 1984) Back to the construction of United Nations and the tuning point of drafting the UDHR, it is a deep reflection to inhuman atrocities and moves forward to considering how to intervene states overpower to violate human rights. However, while debating human rights within cultural diversity, the issue of human wrongs disappeared.(Chen 2010) Either jumping into a linear historical prospect or
First question which needed to be answered from where do universal rights begin. And where does term women’s human rights came from? What it mean? “The term "women's human rights" has served as a locus for praxis, that is, for the development of political strategies shaped by the interaction between analytical insights and concrete political practices.” From the 1980s and 1990s, women's movements round about the world formed system and alliances to give greater perceptibility both to the problems that women face day to day and to the centriole of women's experiences in political, social, economic, and environmental issues.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a crucial document in our society. Being able to understand and uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is important, as it governs and controls every aspect of our lives. But most importantly, it protects the individual from the state, from conducting unlawful acts, such as unreasonable search and seizure (Government of Canada, 2017) (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2013). However, who should be left in charge of upholding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in our society? Some individuals may think that it is a law enforcement officer’s duty to uphold or support the charter in our society; whereas others may believe it is the governments or the courts role to support or control the charter. Now, this depends on many factors, such as an individual’s personal beliefs, a communities
An alternative to the concept of rights is capabilities. While human rights are said to be “entitlements” that all human beings have (Nussbaum, 1997, p.273), capabilities realistically look at what opportunities individuals have and what they are actually able to do or be in their situations or contexts (Nussbaum, 1997, p.285; Whiteside & Mah, 2012, pp.923-4).
Unfortunately this statement of the international human rights law stays in theory most of the time. In practise some people see themselves as freer and superior to others and treat people according to this kind of attitude. Therefore, millions of people struggle with discrimination almost in every turn in their daily lives. They fight against discrimination to have a peaceful life, and to do this they form organizations or they attempt to international organization’ specialized human rights offices which are supported by governments, institutions or individuals. In this sense, as a powerful and leading organization United Nations has the biggest role to deal with this issue of discrimination. Starting on human Rights day 2009, and continuing next year 2010 the UN human rights office draws special attention to the discrimination issue. Like all other international organizations which focus on human rights and violence against it, the UN human rights office’s purpose is to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights in the dignity and worth of the human rights without considering people’s race, language, sex, religion or any other features. However, sadly, millions of people get hurt due to their differences of skin colour, sexual orientation, nations, disabilities, gender identity and so on -this list can be varied in the proportion of people’s narrow mindedness. In this essay of mine, I will mainly focus on the discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and international organizations’ role in this subject, especially the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that works under the United Nations.
Black South Africans while under the Apartheid period and black Bahamians before Majority rule had to protest for their freedom. Desmond Tutu, a man who played an important position in bringing about an end to Apartheid writes, “ In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights” (Par 2). This quote means that during Apartheid, blacks labored against Apartheid and all the negative things it entailed for the black people of South Africa which was most, if not all, of their human rights. During Apartheid, educated black Africans attempted to cooperate in an attempt to go against white rule, but because of the high numbers of uneducated black Africans, and the lack of necessary funds, their efforts were weakened. South Africans also protested Apartheid though peaceful protestations but the penalties for these protest were harsh. In addition, black Africans also received help from the United Nations whom established a...
The Founding Fathers were inspired by the Enlightenment and the ideas of natural rights. In the Constitution Thomas Jefferson writes about “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” which was taken from John Locke who wrote “Life, Liberty, and Property”. However, when the Founding Fathers spoke about natural rights they were only applying to white men. Now when people talk about natural rights, more people recognize them as something for all genders. Women are now allowed to attend school and vote. I find that this is a great improvement from treating one demographic as the superior. To me natural rights means that everyone deserves basic human rights, no matter what gender.
Since the late twentieth century, the world has experienced a vast transformation with regards to world economies, culture, and politics. The great advancements in technology and communication since the late twentieth century has served a catalysts for what is known today as globalization. The ambition to develop a single global economy along with a universal culture are the promises of globalization. Perhaps the clearest evidence that demonstrates globalization is a reality is the fact that at this point in time very diverse cultures form around the world closer to each other than ever before. That being said, when it comes to the spreading of democracy and human rights, having world cultures closer to each other can prove to be beneficial
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, etc.” (textbook citation). The right to be free from discrimination based on sex is a very important part of this universal human rights legislation, as it is also outlined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR citation). When this specific portion of these human rights legislations is read, the majority of individuals will think of the rights of women. This is because for much of history, women were not given all the rights and freedoms set forth in universal legislations simply because of their sex, and articles had to be implemented into universal human rights legislations to ensure that this form of discrimination did not happen again. The human rights of women are an extremely important subsection of international human rights. Women have been placed as second-class citizens for much of human history, and although women are not overtly discriminated against in human rights legislations anymore. Women face gender-specific violations of their human rights in society, and governmental bodies often neglect to give women the justice they deserve for the violations they have faced (India rape test article). Much of the time choices are taken away from women and they are easily victimized within society. Every society in the world has faced some sort of gender-specific discrimination at some time in human history, and in some countries the violations of women’s human rights are ongoing and extreme. For this reason, the human rights of women are an extremely important topic, as the struggle to have th...
The United Nations, in 1948, adopted a list of Human Rights. The United Nations calls this the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and states that they are the outline of the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world” (HRWeb, 1997) Basically, this means that everyone on the planet earth is entitled to certain basic rights just by being live. They are inherent rights and are not gained through the constitution of the country in which they live or any other law, human rights are a right of birth. A constitution or country or government cannot withhold these rights because each individual has these rights simple by being alive. These rights include “right to life, education, fair trail, protection from torture and freedom of expression.” (HRWeb, 1997) This means that no matter where a person lives, they have these rights. The United Nations adopted these rights after uncovering the full horror of Nazi Germany in the Nuremberg Trials. Human rights are the same all over the wo...