Life and Liberty: The Foundations to Family
The ability to love is universal. We are all free to love who we want without any consequence right? Wrong. In many places in the world, love is free, but only for some, and just as long it falls under the rules and regulations. This basically means that love is not free, but imprisoned. We tend to laugh at all the cliches about love and life, we take it for granted, but there are many communities in the world who are not given the right to love and be with who they want.
Apartheid in South Africa hasn’t been completely wiped away,
traces of its cruelty can still be found the in laws and the actions of South African
society. In Trevor Noah: Born A Crime, the right to Marriage, Article 16 of the
Human Rights Declaration, was compromised. Trevor retells the story of his
mother and her relationships, most notably her and Robert, Trevor’s father. His
parents could never be together because South African laws prohibited mixed races
to be married and have a child. He describes his parents’ relationship in a
very sad way, “they couldn't walk together, couldn't eat together, couldn't travel
together, couldn't sit together on the bus. They couldn't even be in love.".
This was all because they were of different races. Two people who share a
connection cannot express their love or marry.
In South Africa, the right to marriage has been a difficult road.
Under the Immorality Act, set in 1927, it was illegal for white people to marry
people of any other race, and for people of different races to engage in sexual
relations or live together as a couple, which continued until the end of
Apartheid in 1994. Additionally, to Article 16, Article 3, the right to life
and liberty, is also violated. The connection between these two articles is
that they are the foundational rights to starting a family. The novel Born a
Crime describes these human right violations in the title. Trevor explains that
his parents could never marry, therefore never legally have a kid, yet he was
born, born a crime.
According to the Amnesty Report, the right to life and
liberty is currently being violated. In South Africa, there is an increase of
9.8% in child murders and an overall increase in nationwide shootings. That
mixed with limited access to reproductive aid, leads to a population on the
brink of collapse. Women, children, and families are being oppressed by these
corrupt laws and policies. They are unable to receive the care they need and
are not free to be who they want to be. South African society needs to stress
the importance of individual freedom and value the importance of life and
liberty.
Media outlets need to continue to cover these violations and
give a platform for suffering families to make real changes. Government allocation
of resources needs to improve, and by providing more aid and concern to reproductive
rights, technology, and distribution, South Africa can take steps to an
improved nation, a nation that can foster the creation of families and protect
them.
Works Cited:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cznOmh8_ijrUZeyWuBmgYtGm66JOK4UG/view
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime. John Murray, 2017.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/report-south-africa/
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