Global Citizenship and Human Rights

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GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS In the last few years there has been a lot of talk about „global citizenship“, but what exactly does it mean to be a global citizen? It means understanding humanity and it´s values, identifying with a „global community“ rather than with a nationality or a geographical area, sharing a set of agreed upon ethics and morals, respecting human rights and freedoms. While being a global citizen comes with many freedoms, it also entails a lot of responsibilities. In this essay, I have decided to focus on a specific right from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the „right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. As stated in the Declaration, this right includes the freedom to change one’s religion or belief, and the freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest a religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance“ (Article 18), and the responsibilities arising from it. If we are all entitled to these universal rights, does that not mean that we also have a responsibility to respect them in the lives of others? I believe that even though this question has been dealt with many times over the last few years and was successfully resolved, the implementation of this privilege, which is such an important part of global citizenship, into daily life, is still far from perfect. We should also never forget that having a right- any right- or freedom automatically comes with certain responsibilities, which are not always clearly defined. The essay is mainly intended for my generation, as an orientation of values, saying that the priorities of human rights have to be followed consequently. I see it partly as a problem that our generation has no distinct national or cultural background. We were born at a time when the world was beginning to change rapidly, from a bipolar into a
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