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Human Rights
Human Rights are, the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.
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Children's Rights
- Over half-a-billion children in developing countries are struggling to survive on less than $1 per day.
- About 2 million children in developing countries die every year from a lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities.
- Over 110 million primary school age children worldwide are not enrolled in school.
- 500,000 children under 15 years of age died from AIDS in 1999, and 3.8 million died since the beginning of the epidemic.
- 11 million children die each year from largely preventable causes.
- More than 33 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, placing them at risk of blindness and death from such common diseases as measles and diarrhoea.
- An estimated 250 million children aged 5 to 14 are working around the world.
- Close to 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts during the past decade.
Specific problems facing children
-Street children are killed or tortured by police
- Children as young as seven or eight are recruited or kidnapped to serve as soldiers in military forces
-Sometimes as young as six years old, children are forced to work under extremely difficult conditions, often as bonded laborers or in forced prostitution
-Refugee children, often separated from their families, are vulnerable to exploitation, sexual abuse, or domestic violence
-For many students, life in and outside of the classroom is intolerable--at the hands of peers and teachers, many children suffer under acts of discrimination, abuse, sexual violence, and harassment
-Children are discriminated against in education because of their race or ethnicity
-Children orphaned or otherwise affected by HIV/AIDS are discriminated against and often are left to fend for themselves
World Poverty
About 15% of Brazilians are extrememly poor, based on a $1 a day poverty line. THe incidence of extremely poor is higher among blacks and the rural population. THe northeast has about 30% of the country's population, but 62% of the poor. The incidence of poverty is till as high as it was in the late 1970s. Despite a reduction form about 21% in '94 to about 15% in '97. The main reason is the persistence of very high inequality. New policies are needed to reduce inequality. Also to spur faster growth. The unequal distribution of social spending is a major factor in maintaining inequality and poverty. Education, health, social security, social assistence and labour benefits the middle classes and the rich only. The persistence of poverty in Brazil over the past 20 years is undoubtedly due in part to mediocre growth, the most important explanation is the highly concentrated distribution of income, worsened by inequitable social spending.
Disarmament
- In 1945, only one nation possessed a nuclear bomb. Today, there are five officially recognized nuclear weapons States, and three nuclear-weapons capable States.
- World military expenditures peaked at over $1 trillion in 1989. After a period of decline, it has begun to rise, reaching $780 billion in 1999.
- More than 35,000 nuclear warheads are still stockpiled, many on high alert, ready to be launched on warning.
- Today, 80 per cent of the worlds spending on armaments is on conventional weapons and weapons systems.
- Industrialized countries account for about 80 per cent of global military expenditures.
- The United States accounts for almost half of the worlds total arms production: France and the United Kingdom for 10 per cent each; and Germany, Russia and Japan for roughly 4 per cent each.
- Arms transfers to developing countries are estimated at some $30 billion a year.
- The countries affected by landmines are the least able to deal with the situation because of socio-economic difficulties.
- About 500 million small arms are in circulation worldwide.
- Strengthening the UN to promote peace and security
-I dis-agree because i think that the world will never be in peace.
2. Eliminating battlefield nuclear weapons; encouraging all nuclear-weapon countries to endorse a no-first-use policy
- I dis-agree because you will win with bigger weapons.
3. Halting the production of all unsafeguarded weapons-useable nuclear materials
-I agree, because you don't want to kill everyone in the war because then we won't HAVE anyone to WIN the war!
4. Preventing arms race in outer space.
-I dis-agree because there shouldn't be weapons in outer space.
5. Promoting "disarmament for development"
-I dis-agree and agree because weapons are dangerous yet protective.
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