How the legal system has failed to protect diverse populations

Constitutional Law - Rights

THE CHALLENGES OF DIVERSITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY

Upon the request of the Tagg Elders, the following analysis is humbly offered to assist the Tribunal chart a future course for this society. Specifically, the purpose of this review is to provide a retrospective view of some of the most egregious mistakes made by other human societies throughout the course of recorded human history so that Tagg society might avoid similar mistakes. It is hoped that this analysis will enable the learned Elders to establish principles of law and social order that will benefit all who inhabit the Island, according all the rightful respect and consideration to which they are due.

The Medieval Crusades and Religious Inquisitions:

During the period referred to historically in the Western World as the Medieval and Early Modern Ages, religious leaders with tremendous social authority under that of the great Monarchs initiated wars that lasted for centuries and which destroyed the lives of generations of human beings on two diverse and far-removed continents. Beginning in the late 12th century, the Christian Church initiated a war on foreign soil against peoples who bore no threat to the Western World primarily to capture lands referenced in a Bible of dubious origin, at best. For several centuries, Western warriors wrought savagery and murderous rage against men, women, and children in the Middle East, culminating even in a Children's Crusade toward the end of that period. In fact, the peoples of Arabia had committed no crime against the West, but merely differed in their religious beliefs.

During the same general period, the Churches also enacted a campaign of terror in many lands in the West during which they compelled innocent members of diverse religions to bear false witness against themselves and to recant their own religious traditions through excruciating physical torture and under the penalty of death for resisting.

The Institution of Human Slavery in the New World:

Despite the fact that one of the most fundamental reasons that settlers left the shores of Europe for the uncertainties of the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries was to establish a society free from the religious excesses and state-mandated religious affiliation and freedom, those earliest societies in the Free World succumbed to some of the worst human failings in the realm of respect for diversity and the human rights of all people (Equiano, 1789). Specifically, for approximately three-hundred years, the white men of the New World America enslaved millions of fellow human beings, wrenching them by force from their families and societies, transporting them in the most brutal conditions imaginable, and abusing them like working animals (and sometimes worse).

This horrific abuse was predicated on the superficial physical difference of skin color, and again, with significant input from the Church and its definition of "human being."

In time, that same society eventually recognized the errors of its ways and with great pains that included a devastating Civil War that pitted brother against brother, finally rectified the abominable situation, although it required nearly another century and a half to fully resolve the remaining social inequalities and injustice caused by American Slavery. Today, even as that great society celebrates the election of a black African as its president, significant elements of that society still reflect problems whose roots are traceable to the historical period it now considers an utter embarrassment (Friedman, 2005; Nevins & Commager, 1992).

Religious Persecution in the Modern Era: In the middle of the 20th century, the modern world experienced the worst episode of horrific abuses of political power and mass social manipulation that enabled a nation that had established itself as the world's center of art, music, and culture to devolve into a murderous society in which an entire nation of people either stood by passively or (more frequently) ravenously supported policies that called for the literal extermination of an entire race of peoples, nearly succeeding after destroying approximately half the world's Jewish population in approximately half a decade (Guttenplan, 2001).

In that regard, perhaps nothing illustrates the absurdity of racial prejudice than the fact that the world's greatest savior during that period still fielded a segregated army in which black soldiers were prohibited from fighting with white soldiers. After that great war, the black soldiers of the very nation that liberated Europe and Asia from murderous dictatorships returned home to social rules that prohibited their sharing water fountains and food services next to the white majority (Nevins & Commager).

Civil Rights as a Fundamental Social Value:

Before respectfully issuing my recommendations to the Elders as requested, I would like to outline the most important principles that I believe the history of human societies on earth have made clear in the realm of social rules as pertains to diverse populations. First, the true measure of human society is not how well its most privileged and powerful members live; rather, the true measure of any society is the homogeneity with which all members of society are incorporated into it and the minimization of differences between opportunities available to all persons. Second, government authorities have a legitimate justification and motive for regulating conduct and behavior that directly affects other human beings. Conversely, government authorities have no justification for regulating purely personal matters such as religious choice, sexual preference, or lifestyle, provided only that none of those choices affect others adversely.

Third, if human societies are to benefit from the last millennia of recorded history, and in particular, the unfortunate record of unnecessary human atrocity, they must recognize and establish an affirmative duty to preserve the rights and privileges of all members of society equally.

Respectful Recommendations for the Island of Tagg:

In light of the foregoing, I would first like to express my gratitude for having been solicited by the Elders to assist with perhaps the most important decision in the future history of the Island of Tagg. I am humbled by the opportunity. It is hereby recommended that the Elders draft an constitutional document that outlines the most important elements of moral principles, ethical rules, and formal guidelines to guide future generations in the same manner that modern America is served by its Constitution authored more than two centuries ago. Ideally, that document should address principles, particularly in the area of the relationship between the government and the people of Tagg as well as the fundamental equality of all human beings in every respect capable of being regulated by the state.