Do you think there are circumstances where human rights MAY be curtailed?

According to wikipedia's definition, human rights are the basic rights and freedom to which all humans are entitled to. Human rights have many branched categories such as politics, social, culture, education and basic commodities. These different categories are subjected to various external and internal stimuli. In response, some of these categories might have to be limited and be subjected to control by the government. As a matter of fact, there are already situations whereby human rights (e.g. freedom of expression) have been limited. In my opinion, there are circumstances where human rights may be curtailed. The factors that affect the circumstances are the abuse of human rights and the exposure of the country to the world.


As mentioned earlier on, freedom of expression is a form of human right. However, we can see that the right to freedom of expression is not absolute in some countries (e.g. communist countries). This is because the extent of freedom of expression is very hard to control. Weak control of it might result in people crossing over the moral boundary. An example in this context is the defamation of political figures. It is no doubt a form of free expression, however, this right is done at the expense of another's reputation. This will call for government intervention set restrictions to freedom of speech in order to prevent the proliferation of such practices in the country. Another example is housing. Every human is entitled to have a shelter over their heads. However, if this right is abused such that people demand condominiums for basic housing (at the expense of the country's financial stability), then this human right might be curtailed for the good sake of the country. Hence exploiting of human rights may eventuallylead it being curtailed.



There is also a futuristic circumstance whereby human rights may be limited- degree of exposure of a country to the world. Current technology advancement has provided us with much more insight and information of the outer-world than we can ever imagine. Short Message Service (SMS) has reduced the time taken for the exchange of information from days by written letter to seconds. This fast and unprecedented access to information has resulted in the amplification of one's worldly desire as one would be overwhelmed by the wonders of the outside world. An ongoing example is the fashion bandwagon in Singapore. Because of the easy accessibility to information of the outside world, we get to familiarise ourselves with the latest fashion trends in Japan and Hong Kong. We will then start to import more and more foreign goods hence inevitably neglecting our local economy. At this point, the government will have to intervene by vigorously promoting local goods or limit imports. If the latter is considered, then Singaporeans would have been denied their rights to purchase their preferred goods. Human right in choice of consumption would be curtailed. So, what more to think when future technologies further enhance communications? The possibilties of a country being increasingly exposed to the world would be infinite. Thus, the degree of exposure to the world will create a circumstance where there may be a possibility that human rights may be curtailed.



Hence after examining the various factors mentioned above, there are circumstances where human right may be curtailed.