More Fictitious Human Rights

The Dominion Post have announced on their front page today, a hitherto unknown basic human right, specifically for incarcerated crims to hug their children. Is it written in the law? The Dom didn’t say.

The Human Rights Commissioner will be green at this treading on their territory of inventing human rights, nevertheless they chimed in with their endorsement, a spokesperson commenting, “people in detention have a human right to have contact with their whanau and loved ones.”

They have no such bloody thing. It might be desirable or humane but it’s not a natural human right, rather they just made this up. And being the lightweights they are, their unthinking racism in lapsing into Maori carries the obvious inference the unhugged prisoner is Maori when in fact there’s only a 50% statistical chance. That’s as clear a case of racism as one could ever see. The Race Relations Office, another nonsense outfit, should prosecute them. They won’t though, not the least because they share premises, sadly lowering the tone in one of my buildings.

Also chiming in was Dr Tony Ellis who describes himself as a human rights lawyer. Not to be found wanting he added his creative contribution of yet another imaginary human right, specifically, “the right to a family life.”

I met Tony once when he called me to help out when he was getting nowhere over a disgraceful episode involving the Police and a young Maori lad. “Cut out the human rights fiction,” I told him. “What do you want?”

“$20,000 and a written apology,” he replied. I sorted that out that evening over a bottle, or more likely two, with a senior detective, and without reference to imagery human rights, for the very good reason they don’t exist.

The United Nations prescribed natural human rights list is infantile. They’re simply a wish list of desirable objectives. So too legal rights. The law says you have a right not to be murdered which doesn’t stop buggers murdering people.

The reality is you don’t even have the right to breathe, merely the capability, but even then, only so long as someone doesn’t take it from you (murder again), or you die.

Does all of this matter? Yes, it does. Making up natural human rights leads to entitlement expectations by the weak.

For example, when the Human Rights Commission in full imaginary flight announced a year back that it’s a natural human right to have a warm home, a clamour arose demanding mug residential landlords ensure this happens. In short making up natural human rights induces a lack of self-responsibility and a demand by the burgeoning no-hoper classes for everyone else to deliver these.

That said, it would be fun to “work” in the Human Rights Commission creating these rights. Some off-the-top examples; the right for me to have it off with Miss New Zealand each year sounds a good start.

Or the right for me to declare myself a woman and use women’s toilets. Oh hang on; that one’s already covered. I give up.

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