Human and Civil Rights

One of the first things that struck me while reading these documents on human rights was the number of times that God was mentioned, especially in the earlier documents. While I understand and am happy to recognize that the time period most of these documents were written in was one where God was placed above everything else in society, I do not see the logic or necessity of including "Him" in some of the more recent documents. Take for example our own Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, written a mere 29 years ago. At the very beginning it declares, "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law" and then continues to list the various human rights awarded to all Canadian subjects. This inclusion of God simply bothers me for some reason. It's like saying, we as Canadians have been granted these so-called undeniable human rights, not by our government, but by God, some elusive, intangible being. And then, the very first article under the fundamental freedoms of Canadian citizens is, "a right to conscience and religion." Really?? Then why is there a mention of God not two sentences before? What if, God forbid, someone is agnostic or an atheist? Then the mention of God, in their charter of rights and freedoms, seems kind of hypocritical. It reads to me that there IS freedom of religion, as long as you pick one--none of this atheist, non-believer nonsense. The inclusion of God, in a legal document, seems so unnecessary and even discriminatory as not all people believe in God. So then, are these nonbelievers not deserving of the same rights and freedoms as the good worshipping folk? I guess what really bugs me is that we, as a society, have claimed to have established a separation of church and state and yet some of our most important documents still have mention of God and simply assume that everyone has a faith (whether it be Christianity, Islam, Judaism Buddhism, Sikhism etc.) when this is simply not the case.

Another point I wanted to think about, which, as I skimmed briefly through some of my peers responses they also seem to be questioning, is what is the point to drawing up these documents? What actual purpose do they serve? It's all very nice and comforting to write a series of declarations, trumpeting the various "fundamental" or "unalienable" rights we enjoy as human beings. But to what avail? Sure as a society we pat ourselves on the back, and commend ourselves for being an enlightened nation that cares about not only Canadian, but other nationalities' human rights as well (as our inclusion in the UN and the resulting Universal Declaration of Human Rights we adhere to). But then what? After those papers are signed and then given to the public to read, does that really change anything? Is reading about the clauses of non-discrimination going to change a racist person's outlook on people with different skin color? Probably not. I believe these documents aren't going to affect the way anyone thinks or acts towards other people. Maybe I'm hugely cynical and not giving other people a fair chance, but I'm trying to be realistic and from what I've seen, it takes a lot more than a document promoting human rights to change how people act towards others that are different from them. 

Now, having ranted and raved about the shortcomings and peculiarities I see in these documents, I want to clarify that I don't think they are useless or without purpose. I think they give (especially the UN Universal Declaration of Rights) something for us, as a global community to strive for. I can't say I disagree with any of the human rights laid out (at least the ones from the 20th century) although i would include a few things (sexual orientation? a right to NO religion?). THese documents are admirable goals but I think we all know we are kidding ourselves if we think that just the shear acknowledgement of such rights necessitates that they are actually being adhered to. We've got many miles to go before we have actually attained "universal" human rights around the globe (or even within our own country).