In Defense of Human Rights… for All Humans

The theme for this Parliament Convening, “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom and Human Rights,” provides an opportunity to ask some defining questions. If we are defending freedom and human rights as a matter of conscience, it would seem appropriate to have an agreed-upon standard of identifying a human and answering a few questions. Should all humans have human rights, or should they only be awarded to humans that kings, governments, religious leaders, or some other authority deems worthy of human rights? Should human rights be based on being human, and if so, how is that measured? Is it determined by location, where one lives? Or is it based on age, perhaps too young or too old? Is it based on a human’s ability to care for or provide for themselves? Is it based on their ability to contribute to society? These questions transcend culture, religion, and nationalism, in this interactive session.