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2007年VOA标准英语-Human Rights Advocates Agree on Principles, Dis

时间:2007-05-28 06:54:46

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By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
21 March 2007

Most nations subscribe1 to shared concepts of human rights, such as the right to free speech and free practice of religion, and the right to shape the decisions of government. But as Mike O'Sullivan reports, discussions on human rights can also be divisive.

 
 
When private groups and government agencies issue reports on human rights, they point to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a global standard. Adopted by the United Nations in 1948 following the horrors of World War II, the document speaks of the inherent dignity and equal rights of all members of the human family. The declaration lists essential rights in 30 sections or articles, which deal with such matters as the right to choose one's job, the right to a fair public hearing in the face of criminal charges, and the right to an education.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other private organizations publish annual reviews, often pointing to the same egregious2 abusers of human rights, such as North Korea. The U.S. State Department issues its own report, usually concurring3 on key points.

 
Larry Cox
Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, says precepts4 of human rights are clear and widely agreed upon.

"All members of the United Nations have agreed in principle to live up to the standards of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and there have been treaties that spell out in great detail what those obligations are," said Larry Cox. "So yes, virtually all governments have agreed that they should live up to these standards. The problem, of course, is that most governments do not."

He says the offenders5 today include the United States. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned7 some aspects of the U.S. war on terrorism, including the detention8 of people designated enemy combatants without access to civilian9 courts. The groups also point to Abu Ghraib scandal, and say the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody10 in Iraq suggested a pattern of mistreatment and cruelty.

The Bush administration responded angrily to the charges, saying the United States is at war, that those in detention are treated humanely11, and that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated12.

 
Joshua Muravchik 
Conservative analyst13 Joshua Muravchik of the American Enterprise Institute believes the two human rights organizations have a political bias14.

"I think that groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch both have kind of a leftish ideological15 slant16 that puts a twist on some of their reporting, and that makes them sometimes hypercritical of the U.S., and also makes them very biased17 against Israel," said Joshua Muravchik.

The two groups criticized Israel's invasion of Lebanon last year, saying Israel indiscriminately attacked Lebanese civilians18 and so committed war crimes. Muravchik says the war was sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, and that the denunciations are selective, based on limited evidence and questionable19 testimony20.

In fact, the two human rights organizations also criticized Hezbollah, which they said committed war crimes by targeting Israeli civilians. Amnesty's Larry Cox says his organization applies the same standards from country to country. He acknowledges that assessing the facts is difficult.

"It is also very difficult because, or course, when a government is attacked or criticized, its first defense21 is to say that you are biased," he said. "So in the old days when we used to attack the Soviet22 Union for its violations23 of human rights, we were often told that we were lackeys24 of capitalists. And in the same week, we might be told that we were communists by right-wing governments. And that still happens."

Joshua Muravchik says, in his opinion, terrorists pose the biggest threat to human rights today, and that in a democracy, these issues can be debated.

Muravchik and Cox note there are areas of agreement across the ideological spectrum25, and that human rights advocates of all political stripes condemn6 the ethnic26 killings27 in Darfur, repression28 in North Korea and Burma, and human rights abuses in a number of other countries.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 subscribe 6Hozu     
vi.(to)订阅,订购;同意;vt.捐助,赞助
参考例句:
  • I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
  • The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。
2 egregious j8RyE     
adj.非常的,过分的
参考例句:
  • When it comes to blatant lies,there are none more egregious than budget figures.谈到公众谎言,没有比预算数字更令人震惊的。
  • What an egregious example was here!现摆着一个多么触目惊心的例子啊。
3 concurring 39fa2f2bfe5d505a1a086e87282cf7dd     
同时发生的,并发的
参考例句:
  • Concurring with expectations, the degree of polymorphism was highest in the central. 正如所料,多型性程度在中部种群中最高。
  • The more an affect arises from a number of causes concurring together, the greater it is. 同时凑合起来以激起一个情感的原因愈多,则这个情感将必愈大。
4 precepts 6abcb2dd9eca38cb6dd99c51d37ea461     
n.规诫,戒律,箴言( precept的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They accept the Prophet's precepts but reject some of his strictures. 他们接受先知的教训,但拒绝他的种种约束。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • The legal philosopher's concern is to ascertain the true nature of all the precepts and norms. 法哲学家的兴趣在于探寻所有规范和准则的性质。 来自辞典例句
5 offenders dee5aee0bcfb96f370137cdbb4b5cc8d     
n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 );犯规者;罪犯;妨害…的人(或事物)
参考例句:
  • Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
  • Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。
6 condemn zpxzp     
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑
参考例句:
  • Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他,而有些人谴责他。
  • We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。
7 condemned condemned     
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
  • The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。
8 detention 1vhxk     
n.滞留,停留;拘留,扣留;(教育)留下
参考例句:
  • He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
  • He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。
9 civilian uqbzl     
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的
参考例句:
  • There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
  • He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。
10 custody Qntzd     
n.监护,照看,羁押,拘留
参考例句:
  • He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
  • He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后,他立即被押了起来。
11 humanely Kq9zvf     
adv.仁慈地;人道地;富人情地;慈悲地
参考例句:
  • Is the primary persona being treated humanely by the product? 该产品对待首要人物角色时是否有人情味? 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
  • In any event, China's interest in treating criminals more humanely has limits. 无论如何,中国对更人道地对待罪犯的兴趣有限。 来自互联网
12 isolated bqmzTd     
adj.与世隔绝的
参考例句:
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
13 analyst gw7zn     
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家
参考例句:
  • What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务?
  • The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。
14 bias 0QByQ     
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见
参考例句:
  • They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
  • He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。
15 ideological bq3zi8     
a.意识形态的
参考例句:
  • He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
  • He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作,对我有很大帮助。
16 slant TEYzF     
v.倾斜,倾向性地编写或报道;n.斜面,倾向
参考例句:
  • The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
  • The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。
17 biased vyGzSn     
a.有偏见的
参考例句:
  • a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
  • The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。
18 civilians 2a8bdc87d05da507ff4534c9c974b785     
平民,百姓( civilian的名词复数 ); 老百姓
参考例句:
  • the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
  • At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后,至少有300名平民下落不明。
19 questionable oScxK     
adj.可疑的,有问题的
参考例句:
  • There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
  • Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。
20 testimony zpbwO     
n.证词;见证,证明
参考例句:
  • The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
  • He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。
21 defense AxbxB     
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
参考例句:
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
22 Soviet Sw9wR     
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
参考例句:
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
23 violations 403b65677d39097086593415b650ca21     
违反( violation的名词复数 ); 冒犯; 违反(行为、事例); 强奸
参考例句:
  • This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
  • These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。
24 lackeys 8c9595156aedd0e91c78876edc281595     
n.听差( lackey的名词复数 );男仆(通常穿制服);卑躬屈膝的人;被待为奴仆的人
参考例句:
  • When the boss falls from power, his lackeys disperse. 树倒猢狲散。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The singer was surrounded by the usual crowd of lackeys and hangers on. 那个歌手让那帮总是溜须拍马、前呼後拥的人给围住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
25 spectrum Trhy6     
n.谱,光谱,频谱;范围,幅度,系列
参考例句:
  • This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
  • We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成,我们已了解不少。
26 ethnic jiAz3     
adj.人种的,种族的,异教徒的
参考例句:
  • This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏,这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
  • The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
27 killings 76d97e8407f821a6e56296c4c9a9388c     
谋杀( killing的名词复数 ); 突然发大财,暴发
参考例句:
  • His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
  • The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
28 repression zVyxX     
n.镇压,抑制,抑压
参考例句:
  • The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
  • This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

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