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American Government

Americans constitution has enshrined the bill of rights which has ten amendments. All these amendments aim at protecting the rights of the Americans irrespective of the individual capacity or position. In case an individual is criminally indicted, he or she holds and enjoys all the amended rights as an individual and he or she has the right to demand them (Bodenhamer, 1993). This gives some of the amendments’ profile to the suspects than others. For example, freedom of speech, press, religion and petition, right of search and seizure regulated and the speedy trial, witness etc. These three amendments give the suspect a fair ground to deal with allegations that they have been faced with, without interfering with his or her personal rights.

Foreign policies


Some of the foreign policies in the American government that are connected to the human rights entail making sure that no human suffering is either very hard or has been implemented without fair trial to the suspect. Although Americans have been active in defending innocent foreigners, the rights of the suspects and the victims are adopted and respected. It is the duty of the nation to observe fairness. All the candidates that wish to lead the nation must be willing to respect and define human right recommendations that affect the nation directly or indirectly. As a super-power, America has the right to oversee human rights’ respect by all. It has therefore been a foreign policy for the nation to fund human rights bodies for them to help the needy and the helpless across in the world. This development has been appreciated by many, making the American government consider spending more on the human rights objectives in the recent past. The U.S. positions itself as the world’s leading promoter of human rights but frequently objects to scrutiny of its own implementation techniques. This is their most importanthuman rightsforeign policy agenda. To meet this objective, Americans make sure that the world is free from danger and all risk elements are eliminated before they cause damage to the human beings irrespective of the nationality. U.S. has gone to an extent of signing treaty that conserves and respects human rights with other players in the world. One of this was to reduce the nuclear warheads substantially with an intention to make the world safer for human beings. This is a major contribution to the human rights of all living beings in the world.

Human Rights Policies


Freedom of speech, press, religion and petition amendment is a basic one, mainly because it gives the victim the right to speak-up the truth concerning the allegations without fear. Also the right to religion gives all Americans the right to worship without discrimination within the religion’s divisions. The main intention of this amendment is to give Americans the power to speak-up, hence reducing the inhuman acts of oppression by the powerful few. Right of search and seizure ensures that one’s privacy is ensured even if that person is a criminal suspect. Human dignity is embraced by this amendment where houses and other private lives of a criminal suspect are maintained. The last amendment that is embraced by criminal suspects is the right to speedy trial, witness and others (Bodenhamer, 1993). This amendment gives the suspect the right to push for the speedy trial hence making him or her seek justice on time and in the right manner. The speedy trial cause ensures that the time between the date of presentation of the case and the date of beginning of the trial is minimized. In the American law, in New York, this time is 6 months. If the speedy trial clause is violated, it leads to dismissal of the case.

The purpose of these three amendments is to ensure justice and fair trial to any criminal suspects in America. It is also understood that all human beings are equal and they should be treated fairly. With this reasoning, these amendments streamline the justice process in America, hence ensuring that all are fairly heard and tried. These amendments affect the judiciary system and the investigation systems in America where both sides are bound to adhere with the suspect rights strictly. Without ensuring that the above bills of rights are met, the judgment delivered is said to be fraud and cannot withstand in the eyes of law within the America territory (Vile, 2010).

The three amendments are important because they act as a guideline within the legal systems in American territory. At the same time, these amendments create a sense of respect within the social settings in America. Beside of all these, everyone has the right to express themselves and seek for fair hearing in court. This makes all Americans equal and therefore makes America as a nation a country that respects her people’s rights. A person accused of committing a crime can use the freedom of speech amendments to give him or her the right to express himself in the court and to the investigators with little or no limitations. The right to speedy trial gives the victims the right to be free or know his or her fate on time hence making the two important. When interrogating a suspect, police should be upheld by a policy where all should first respect the rights of the victims and they should be allowed to give there evidence freely (Vile, 2010). This policy should only be used to the civil criminals but not to the terror crime suspects. Terror suspects are said to have committed crimes of bigger magnitude hence causing non-compliance to some bill of rights requirements. The rationale of the policy is to make sure that crimes of bigger magnitude are stopped and some rights should not apply to the victims, hence discouraging the crime occurrence.

Policies in Other Nations


United Kingdom is another human right crusader nation that is believed to respect human right activities and freedom policies ranging from freedom of expression, religion and other rights. To mention, there are many human rights policies adopted and defined by the United Kingdom law, right to life, freedom of expression and conscience, right to personal privacy, right to free assembly, no arbitrary search or seizures, right to property, right to personal liberty gender recognition among other stipulated rights are enshrined in the constitution (direct.gov.uk, 2012).

The specific component of the policy is mainly based on the need to protect the lives and the personal right to live comfortably as well as helping the society to live in peace and harmony. To make sure that all are given an equal and a fair share in the United Kingdom, this Bill of Rights and policies must be respected by all always, irrespective of one’s personal position. Freedom of expression is one of the main policies. The reason is, this is the basic ground that will help citizens to express their rights and at the same time take the right action by handing over their grievances to the right people in the society. This concept enhances democracy, a foundational concept to any growing nation that respects people’s basic human rights. The right to own property also gives the citizens the right to work and achieve, hence creating no limitation or discrimination to the citizens (direct.gov.uk, 2012).

Right to personal privacy is another recommendable policy that the UK provides its people. The people of the United Kingdom have the right to preserve their integrity and their personal privacy. This means that personal privacy is a constitutional right that should not be violated. In a country that preserves and safeguards personal privacy, citizens feel protected and embraced. Their dignity is maintained and they grow up with a sense of responsibility and become productive citizens. Right to religion is also another highly appreciated right for the people of the UK. This means that the citizens of the country have the right to join any religion of their choice. This helps the nation to have a multi-religion spirit and the sense of accommodating others. United Kingdom is a successful multi-religion country where people can pray and worship without intimidations of any sort. This not only makes the country more open to non-natives, but it spreads a feeling of acceptance among people. Positive feelings among the people help in the development and progress of the country’s social and economic status.

United Kingdom policies are effective, both by nature in which they are implemented and by the nature they are observed by the locals. Human rights are not an obstacle in the United Kingdom where all citizens are treated equally and fairly. This makes the citizen’s rights a priority to the government hence making the nation’s rights effectively implementable. In the court of law, basic human rights are always observed irrespective of one’s position in the society and this makes it possible for everyone to feel protected. Any action that does not support human rights requirements is not regarded as rightful in the eyes of the law and someone who violates this can be forced to pay or face a trial for this crime. Mostly, legal charges that violate human rights do not see the light of the day because they are all dismissed with a reason of not observing basic human rights concept while enforcing the law. This makes the human rights policy a basic cause that must be observed by all. For example, when a wrong doer is presented in the court of law, the court administration first observes the environmental reason and the humanitarian factors that might be violated before making him or her face a trial. The rights of the suspects must be preserved with all means possible. To confirm this, all administrative offices and other police personnel must adhere to the basic human rights preservation for them to serve the intended course.

To avoid possible weaknesses or loopholes in the legal system, this policy should classify crimes of big magnitudes and those crimes of small magnitude. This will help the law enforcers to follow the law as well as observing the rights of the victims accordingly (Vile, 2010).

Work Cited


Bodenhamer, D. J., & Ely, J. W. (1993). The Bill of Rights in modern America: after 200 years. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Vile, J. R. (2010).Encyclopedia of constitutional amendments, proposed amendments, and amending issues, 1789-2010 (3rd ed.). Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.

http://www.fpif.org/reports/human_rights_and_us_policy. 13, 02, 2012.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/07/halperin_testimony.html. 13, 02, 2012.

http://www.bihr.org.uk/13, 02, 2012.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/governmentcitizensandrights/yourrightsandresponsibilities/dg_4002951. 13, 02, 2012.

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