Poll: Human Rights Laws a License for Criminals

By Wendy Wright | April 17, 2012

The Daily Mail reports on a new poll finding an astonishing 72% of Britons agree with the statement “human rights have become a charter for criminals and the undeserving.”

It takes a heap of bad publicity to get this kind of strong public rejection. In this case, it is well-deserved.

Britons have seen their country become a haven for alleged terrorists who fight extradition by appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.

In addition to siding with terrorists over innocents, the European Court of Human Rights has trivialized its mission by seriously entertaining a lawsuit by an irate passenger over a bus seat that did not fully recline. (I wrote on this in The Trivialization of Human Rights.)

But this widespread public reaction signifies an understanding that goes beyond a few cases or one court. It shows that elitists who have taken over the human rights regime – from Amnesty International to international bureaucrats – have overplayed their hand.

Originally a noble cause, human rights is too often used now as a cloak to challenge norms, undercut the rule of law and impose the opinions of self-styled superiors upon the less entitled.

Abortion advocates claim the deadly deed of killing an unborn baby is a human right. UNFPA asserts that family planning is a human right. Provocateurs argue that children and people infected with AIDS have a right to sex without limitations.

True human rights, however, respects the dignity of all. Exercising a valid human right will not deprive others of their rights.

But those who besmirch the cause of human rights focus on the selfish demands of those demanding their contrived rights while ignoring the innocents who are harmed.

In the old days, this respect for human dignity was called morality. Or the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

For elitists, human rights is a substitute for morality, an obscene word in their view. And like most cheap knock-offs, it’s falling apart at the seams.

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