Appraising Respect for Human Rights, an Exercise in Fulfillment and Despair Depending on the Choices and Climes

Abstract

Human rights have become a globally recognized and jealously protected standard of human
relations. Nevertheless, the actual extent of respect for human rights has remained a subject of
controversy. The aim of this paper was to appraise respect for human rights in the context of it
being an exercise in fulfillment or despair depending on the choices and climes. The doctrinal
method of research was adopted using the case studies of Nigeria and South Africa. The research
found that both States have strong constitutional commitments to human rights with binding
obligations to respect the said human rights. Furthermore, in both States, while there is evidence
to support a culture of respect for human rights, there are equally several cases of violations of
human rights. The researcher therefore argued that appraising respect for human rights will be
an exercise in fulfillment where the choice is to focus on cases of respect of the rights. Conversely,
it will be an exercise in despair where the choice is a focus on the cases of violations of the rights.
However, the paper concluded that because critical appraisal must necessarily cover both cases
of respect and cases of abuse of human rights, appraising respect for human rights will therefore
be an exercise of fulfillment and despair simultaneously irrespective of the clime since all climes
have cases of respect for the rights and cases of abuse.