Speakers' corner 

In Speakers' corner you can find independent comment and opinion on equality and human rights issues. Join the debate by contributing your reactions to the articles here, though please have a quick look through our moderation guidelines before you do so.

The right to respect

14 July 2008

The latest article on Speakers' corner deals with the way we treat each other. As Michael Parkinson prepares to go on a national 'dignity tour', Frances Butler looks at whether we have the right to have our dignity respected and what exactly that might mean in legal terms. See below to read this and other articles and to add your comments: join the debate!

When words are not enough

Elderly hospital patient

Do we have a mechanism to require people to respect the dignity of others? Do we in fact have a right to dignity?

 

Frances Butler looks at whether the concept of dignity could be legally enforced

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One for all

Coins

A citizen's basic income would increase people's real freedom - their ability to control their own lives

 

Britain's welfare system is failing those who need it most, argues Chris Dillow

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Strength in numbers

Young boy holding a ball

Blame is directed at those living in poverty, whose conduct is seen as needing correction, rather than at social structures

 

Kate Green calls for a new alliance to end child poverty

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Mind the gap

Houses of Parliament, London. By Alex Mc

Respecting people's human rights is about far more than avoiding the worst abuses

 

Human rights protection must apply to those who need it most, argues Katie Ghose

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Progressive parenting

Father and child's hands

Is the childcare men and women provide indistinguishable? And if not, are there any consequences for their kids?

 

Elizabeth Washbrook looks at whether men and women are equally good at caring for young children

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Action against internment

Wire fencing against the sky

It is high time that we moved from the language and analysis of 'civil liberties' to one of post-Second World War universal and fundamental 'human rights'

 

There is no excuse for longer periods of pre-trial detention, argues Shami Chakrabarti

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The curse of sensitivity

Shadow hands

Political and other leaders and opinion-formers, if they can help it, shy away from what are cast as inter-cultural controversies, for fear of appearing to favour one group over the other

 

Zia Haider Rahman warns that liberal values are undermined by misguided attempts at neutrality

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The ties that bind

Human shadow

We need a conversation about the idea of identity itself, because if there is one lesson to be learned from the current insistence on defining identities, it is that they have a great power to be divisive

 

AC Grayling examines the perils of identity politics

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Beyond bias

Road markings

What our research demonstrates is that good intentions are not enough. Each of us needs to accept that we are biased and then take action to address our personal prejudices

 

Binna Kandola looks at how to overcome the prejudices we hide even from ourselves

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All in the mind

The back of a man's shaven head

Negative expectations about aspects of our identity such as race, sex, age, sexual orientation and social background can have powerfully self-fulfilling effects

 

Assumptions about us made by others can have powerful effects, regardless of their accuracy, argues Cordelia Fine

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