Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Rights is a claim for human rights, and it protects humans from discrimination, but is it respected within countries? Discrimination is judging negatively based on a what community a person or group of people belong to. An example of discrimination would be assuming all Muslims are terrorists, or assuming that all black people are dangerous. Assuming that immigrants are the main reason crime rises, or that they effect the economy negatively is also an example of discrimination. We as humans often forget to put ourselves in the shoes of others and as a result we stereotype and discriminate which is a direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Rights.

People are judged and stereotyped every day because of their skin tone, sexual orientation, religion, financial status, the clothes they wear, and even the type of hair they have. There is even discrimination within different communities: light skin girls with curly hair are ideal within the black community, within the female community girls who are considered “ghetto” are discriminated against. Maybe you can even argue that people who are in the closet may be discriminated against in the LGBTQ community (no evidence of this to my knowledge, this is just a thought.)

Discrimination has always been prominent, but in this day in age it has gone to new levels. Trump’s ban on Transgenders from the military is a prime example of discrimination against a community. Will Trump be held accountable for that violation? Will the United States be held accountable for that violation? Even though the UHDR exists, countries are not always penalized for their violations and that is a weakness of the UHDR. Maybe if countries were held accountable and penalized for their violations, countries would respect the UHDR.

Something else to consider would be conditioning. As human beings, we have been conditioned to stereotype people and judge them before even getting to know them, yet we do not want to be stereotyped. We end up becoming or doing the very thing we despise due to conditioning. People are not born racist, nor are people born with the knowledge of discrimination. People are taught to be racist and discriminate. We see someone that may look dangerous, so we avoid them or keep an eye on them; that same person probably couldn’t hurt a fly. An example of conditioning would be that a society is conditioned to not be obese and because of this we look at obese people with disgust, making them feel disgusted with themselves.

My challenge to individuals and societies is to stand up against discrimination. How can we condition ourselves and others to be accepting of all people? How can we look past their race, religion, culture, color, social status, and so on? Can we make a change in the world by changing ourselves? Is it even possible to stop stereotyping and discriminating against people? Can anything be done?