It's not often here in Australia, a first world country, that people realize just how many civil liberties they actually are entitled to. Within Australia's constitution, rights like freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial are included. However, there are also our implied rights, such as freedom of political expression, which are supported by the High Court of Australia. In addition to these rights, we have assumed rights like free education before tertiary level and many of these assumed rights are included in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. But how far should our civil liberties extend? Do we deserve more rights or should restrictions be placed on our liberties? The truth is, we have more than enough rights and they are already in writing.
Throughout the past 100 years in particular, civil rights across the world have been expanded for all groups in society.
Eleanor Roosevelt and United Nations Universal Dec...
English: Eleanor Roosevelt and United Nations Univ...
English: Israeli stamp marking the 10th anniversar...These rights have changed not only for women, disadvantaged groups and the impoverished members of society but rights have also been expanded so that everyone can enjoy the same opportunities and benefits. Yet despite these developments and improvements some people still want a bill of rights. People want to have their rights written down in our Constitution so that no politician can ever take their rights away. But one must also consider that if we want our rights written down like this, which rights do we want? Some people want the right for complete freedom of expression, however this may interfere with another person's right to have no discrimination. It would be almost impossible to ever come to an agreement on a certain number of rights that we want entrenched in our constitution. If America can be used as an example, let me reflect on one certain...
Is a bill of rights wrong?
A well-argued argument.
I live in the U.S.A. and I just wanted to make a point...the right to bear arms...even though it is a good right...it is very often misused (might or might not be due to the bill of rights). But who knows what it is that causes this abuse? It isn't neccessarily the bill of rights...maybe just the evil-intented minds that carry guns are the ones that abuse the right.
Overall...a well-written essay-but the format could be changed to include a couple of paragraphs instead of one long one...it would help with the organization.
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