The 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their application to men (part 2)

###Article 21: Right to partake in public affairs

Everyone has the right to take part in their country’s political affairs and equal access to public service. Governments should be voted for regularly.

Public services are often designed for women and exclude men
The women’s lobbying industry seeks to exclude men and men’s human rights issues from public discourse and government decision making processes
There are very few government arms anywhere in the world (including at the U.N.) dedicated to the health and wellbeing of men

A great example of this is the public research funding bias that focuses on women’s health, as well as medical services that are not offered to men, despite men being in poorer health and not living as long as women. Another example are victims services which in many cases simply do not exist at all for men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We should not forget about men when proposing and implementing publicly funded services
We need to establish government offices that focus on male issues and concerns

###Article 22: Right to social security

Society should help individuals to freely develop and make the most of all advantages offered in their country.

As noted in several previous sections, men are often excluded from public services and benefits
Gender stereotypes against men prevent them from participating in many important areas of society, including domestic life, education, childcare, and public discourse

Men are often limited to their role in constructing and maintaining society, but are not included in the benefits that this construction and maintenance affords to others.

####Proposed policy recommendations

Efforts should be made to better include men in publicly offered benefits and services
Efforts should be made to include men in all aspects of society instead of limiting them to predetermined roles consisting of labor, construction, and maintaince

###Article 23: Right to work

Everyone has the right to work in just and favourable conditions and be free to choose your work with a salary that allows you to live and support family. Everyone should receive equal pay for equal work.

Men work in less favorable conditions than women and make up well over 90% of occupational deaths and occupational related injuries and health conditions
Men work longer hours than women in order to support themselves and their families

This one has obvious relevance to existing men’s rights discussions around working conditions and work-life balance.

The second bullet point intersects with the active transfer of property from men to women that was discussed in previous sections.

Even if we ignore the human rights questions around alimony and child support, this article would still be relevant because a man should be able to earn enough money to pay for those obligations to support his “family” and also support himself. Many men who are forced to transfer property to women live in abject poverty despite earning decent incomes on paper (a problem that creates biases in statistics and research about poverty).

Many separated fathers want to voluntarily provide support for their children, and be involved to a greater degree than society currently allows. But the economy often prevents them from being able to contribute financially. What makes this worse is that many child support and alimony laws were created decades ago when the economy allowed for a single parent to support an entire family, which means that child support obligations at the time did not create as large of a burden for separated fathers as they do today.

Anther note is that the ability for a single parent to be able to provide for an entire family seems to be a human rights issue on it’s own according to this article.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to improve working conditions, pay, and work-life balance

###Article 24: Right to leisure and rest

Each work day should not be too long and everyone has the right to rest and take regular paid holidays.

Men spend less time outside of work than women do
Men spend less time relaxing, less time taking naps, and less time sleeping than women do
Men have less time for leisure and rest even when you include domestic work and childcare

Much like Article 23, this implies that we need to pay people better so that we can spend less time working.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to work on reducing the amount of time men spend laboring to support themselves and their families

###Article 25: Right to adequate standard of living

You have the right to have what you need so that you and your family do not go hungry, homeless or fall ill.

Men are significantly more likely than women to be homeless, hungry, and destitute
Men receive less funding and care for their health than women do at basically every level of society
The amount of labor men perform for other people often prevents them from taking care of themselves and receiving preventative medical treatment
Men die younger than women and are in worse health in almost every nation on the planet

This is another article that has obvious relevance for many traditional men’s rights issues.

The pressures to work longer hours at jobs that provide less time off makes it difficult for men to take care of their health and receive preventative medical care. Governments also spend much more money on women’s health than men’s health, despite men being in poorer health and dying younger than women.

Men are also more likely to be homeless and destitute.

One interesting thing I saw in this article is a statement granting special status for women and children:

Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.

I have not looked at the original declaration or studied the theory behind it, but I imagine this is because pregnant and nursing mothers do actually need special care and assistance for biological reasons, as do children.

The only place where a note like this was included was in this article, so the context is specific to this article. It does not establish that women and children are more important than men or that their human rights supercede a man’s human rights. I think at most this implies a need for general welfare specific to women and children that do not otherwise apply to men, and is not meant to affirm traditional gender roles from men towards women such as providership or protection. Since those gender roles frequently get abused to infringe on the human rights of men, we need to work on dismantling them instead of making excuses for them.

Moreover, if this article is used to justify the enforcement of traditional male gender roles, I believe that Article 29 (discussed later) would impose complementary gender roles and obligations onto women as well. This mirrors conversations that question the relationship between rights and obligations.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to work on safety nets and make sure that men aren’t falling through the cracks
We need to work on facilitating better health, wellness, and support for men, women, and children in society

###Article 26: Right to education

You have the right to go to school, continue your studies as far as you wish and learn regardless of race, religion or country of origin.

Men have been falling behind in all levels of education for decades
Education has been reformed over the years to cater to women and this has been partially responsible for male underachievement
All levels of the education system have been demonstrated to discriminate against men
Men receive lower marks for identical work
Men are more likely to be punished for identical behaviors
Men have been shown to suffer from a stereotype bias in education
Men do not receive male specific affirmative action or support for these shortfalls, and many people continue to believe that it is actually women who need extra help

This is another big one that men’s activists have been talking about for a really long time.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to investigate male underachievement and enact positive policy reform on these issues
We need to care about male underachievement and acknowledge that work needs to be done here
We need to put an end to systemic and institutionalized discrimination against men in the education system which only make these problems worse

###Article 27: Right to take part in cultural, artistic and scientific life

You have the right to share the benefits of your community’s culture, arts and sciences.

Men are stereotyped as not being creative
Masculinity and masculine hobbies are stereotyped as boring, uncool, and sometimes as dangerous and harmful
Men are stereotyped in media representations as ignorant, incapable, selfish, malicious, and villainous

I don’t see many issues here despite the list of bullet points. The main issue is probably that women are the biggest consumers of art (mainly through television and social media) so they get catered to the most. As noted earlier, men have less time for themselves than women do so they have fewer opportunities to participate in culture and the arts, especially as consumers.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We should work on better media representations of men
We should put an end to sexism directed towards men in popular media and on social media
We should work on work-life issues affecting men so that they can better participate in the consumption and utilization of culture and the arts

###Article 28: Right to a free and fair world

To make sure your rights are respected, there must be an order that can protect them. This order should be global.

There are very few efforts to protect men’s human rights in society
This is especially true when men’s issues are gendered and not shared closely with women
Men’s human rights are not taken seriously by many people and many organizations
Many people wrongly believe that men’s human rights are already protected

Of note here is that this comes from a human rights proposals created by the U.N. but the U.N. does not have a specific branch to address the concerns of men in this world.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to affirm that men’s human rights concerns are valid and do not come second to women’s rights
We need to establish governing bodies that are tasked with protecting men and addressing men’s issues in society

###Article 29: Duty to your community

You have duties toward the community within which your personality can fully develop. The law should guarantee human rights. It should allow everyone to respect others and to be respected.

Men are commonly seen as protectors and providers who help others, but should not receive help in return
Many men do not believe that their roles in society are properly respected and compensated
According to time use studies, men spend more time and labor contributing towards society than women do
Modern culture and gender discussions encourage women to take from society, but to not contributing back in kind. Instead of being seen as selfish, it is instead seen as an empowering and worthwhile goal to strive for.

This one is interesting because it affirms a duty for individuals to work towards a better society. This is of course what the traditional male role is, and this is sometimes compensated by female roles as well. We have gotten rid of many of these obligations for women but have kept our obligations for men. So in some ways this article could be seen as affirming that women need to step up and either take on traditional masculine roles in society or take on complimentary feminine roles.

I do not believe that gender roles are a good thing, but I do think this point needs developed to be fair to this article.

Of course we could also say that men need to step up in traditional female roles as well, but this is in fact what we already see happening in society, and is something that we are actively improving. What we haven’t seen are complementary changes to hold women equally responsible for the maintenance and progress of society. I do not think it is fair to encourage men to take on a larger role in society while women are only expected to do their part if they want to.

It is also the case that men currently spend more total time and labor contributing towards society than women do, and this is still true when you include childcare and housework. A possible implication of this article is that women need to do more so that men can have more time, energy, and resources to engage in rest, leisure, preventative medical care, and the consumption of culture and the arts.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to make sure that society is properly supported by everyone
We need to make sure that everyone is doing their part so that human rights can be universal to everyone and not restricted to specific groups of people or genders
We need to make sure that we are not sacrificing or ignoring men’s human rights because it is convenient to do so

###Article 30: Rights are inalienable

No one, institution nor individual, should act in any way to destroy the rights enshrined in the UDHR.

We have numerous examples of this happening already, and I’m sure the list could be expanded upon

I’m not going to emphasize this point very hard because I think it’s important to look for solutions instead of complaining. I was however surprised by just how many of these articles were relevant to men, and how often they are overlooked when they apply to men. Men are human beings with thoughts and feelings. Men can suffer, and love, and therefore deserve all of the same compassion and care that we give to women in society. Human rights are supposed to be inalienable and do not stop mattering just because they apply to men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

We need to remind individuals and institutions that human rights do in fact apply to men because men are human
Men’s rights are human rights