So … we are almost through two thirds of the movies. While we recognize that this is a movie, it also is a statement about many social and cultural issues both in developing countries as well as developed - like the US. Your task is to do this: Answer the following question regarding the movie at this point. Second, post a question you have about the movie related to conflict diamonds, the diamond market, child soldiers, the role of the world media in terms of what is 'reported' through the media outlets, etc. Here is the question:
1. What human rights issues were illustrated in the film? What international laws are in
place to stop or prevent those abuses?
2. Ask a question that you have regarding the above.
1. Almost every single one of the human rights articles were violated in this movie. Some violated articles that really stood out were: freedom from slavery, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, freedom from arbitrary arrest and exile. International laws that were put in place to prevent the R.U.F from creating further damage was a to deploy the national military force and international military forces. Guarded refugee camps were made for the civilians of Sierra Leone until a cease fire was made with the rebel forces.
ReplyDelete2. Even though the children were taken away from their loving families in order to work as child soldiers and kill innocent lives, were their lives much safer than the civilian children?
1.) Many human rights issues were illustrated in this movie, such as enslavement, the employment of child soldiers, violence/derogatory behavior towards humans, and the lack of free trial for imprisonment. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) would attack nations in Africa and enslave these nation's people to harvest diamonds illegally. This force would also capture children, teaching them how to use guns and to push their emotions and judgment aside when attacking other African nations in order to secure more diamonds. The RUF would use torture and rape as a means of terrorizing and taking control of these nations, teaching the child soldiers similar techniques to establish fear in the minds of the people. In order to combat this reign of terror, government security forces would try to capture these enslaved people, arresting and incarcerating them into towns, such as Freetown, that were under their control. Private armies were contracted to attack and stop the RUF. Journalists would also try to expose these lack of human rights organized in these nations of Africa (as well as the corrupted system of trading diamonds) to nations unaware of these conditions (such as the USA) and try to gain support from its citizens, so as to acquire money and/or food for Africans in need. Lastly, refugee camps were organized for African civilians that were cast as homeless and hopeless due to RUF forces.
ReplyDelete2.) How successful were journalists and other media outlets in securing support and aid from civilians living in nations like the USA?
1) This movie exhibited countless human rights abuses. When I read through the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, nearly every point was violated at some point during parts of the movie we have seen so far. Here, however, are some of the worst violations. The attack during the beginning of the movie, in which RUF soldiers shot, maimed, and raped many innocent civilians before destroying their homes, most notably violates Article 3 and Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantee all people "the right to life, liberty and security of person" and the right to not be "arbitrarily deprived of... property." The RUF's cruel use of child soldiers violates large chunks of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which guarantees children the right to education, security, and time to play. In one particularly striking sentence from Article 6, the document declares, "He shall, wherever possible, grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security; a child of tender years shall not, save in exceptional circumstances, be separated from his mother." What an appalling contrast from the brutal damage to Dia Vandy (the son), both physically and psychologically, as a result of his time spent as a child soldier! The refugee camps also struck me as a violation of human rights. Although they provided security to the huge numbers of people fleeing violence, people were forced to stay within the camps, which were squalid and unsanitary. This runs contrary to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees all people "the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services." International human rights law is based upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which intend to prevent the violation of the abuses they outline and serve as the basis for legal arguments if the RUF or the government was brought before a court of international law.
ReplyDelete2) It seems to me that the RUF and the government of Sierra Leone could potentially be brought before an international court of law, such as the ICJ or ICC, but could diamond executives such as Van de Kaap be tried as well?
1. There were many issues about rights in these countries, the biggest issue, that most stuff fell under, was that the men and children were put into enslavement. It is illegal for countries to commit acts of terror against their people.
ReplyDelete2. I wonder why they use small children anyway, they wouldn't be strong enough do much. Was it because it was easy to reshape their conscience?
1.The movie Blood Diamonds illustrated many human rights violations. The African people didn't have any Freedom from slavery, torture, or life. In the movie the slaves were tortured to find diamonds and forced to turn them over to the diamond smugglers or else they were killed on site. Also kids were taken from their homes and used as child soldiers, which goes against article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all child abuse and protection laws. By taking these children and attacking their homes and killing innocent people, the movie breaks the most important human rights of all which is life, liberty and security. One of the main characters also was arrested with out any form of a trial, which breaks Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All of these human rights are taken away in the movie and that just shows how some people don't care about other human beings.
ReplyDelete2. How are all of these horrible things happening world wide and people don't know anything about them?
1) There were many human rights issues that arose during the movie Blood Diamonds. The most prominent of these issues is freedom; freedom from slavery, freedom from torture and the freedom to be granted the natural born human rights of life, liberty and security. In Sierra Leone, African people were taken from their villages, stripped of anything they had including their family and were inducted into slavery in order to search for diamonds. This violates Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." In addition to that, these men that were forced to search for diamonds were subject to torture if they tried to escape or take a diamond for themselves in hopes to make a living for themselves or their family. This inhumane torture that the African men had to endure is a violation of Article 5 which states " No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." It is not only the men however, the children of the villages are taken to RUF camps, and are taught with groups of other children their age to forget their families, pledge absolute loyalty to the RUF, fire weapons, and to kill without shame. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is put in place to prevent these terrible things from happening, however, in places such as Sierra Leone, no one complies with these rules because they do not benefit the diamond businesses.
ReplyDelete2) Why was it that journalists were allowed to go wherever they wanted in order to get their stories and they weren't killed? Did the RUF not realize that the journalist were just going to disclose all of the information they found when they were there to the public?
1) It seemed to me that all human rights are violated there. People were slaves, they were forced to work, the slaves were treated unfairly. War was going on during the time, so many innocent people were also being shot and killed. Children were given guns because they were told that people would fear them, as long as they had that weapon in their hands. So in a sense, they were also being controlled like slaves, because it wasn't their intention to go kill people that didn't listen to them. No other country in the world does this. They weren't teaching kids how to handle guns, they were teaching them how to be terrorist. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made on December 10th, 1948. This was made to help enforce equal human rights across international countries.
ReplyDelete2 ) Was there any possible way for the African slaves to escape from the unfair treatment that they got stuck in?
1. I only watched part of the movie (the first day it was shown), so I'll base my answer off what I already know about blood diamonds/conflict minerals. From the little off the movie, I already witnessed human rights issues. Firstly, the RUF forced adults and children to mine for diamonds, which is slavery. In slavery, human rights are non-existent, which shows places like Sierra Leone (and other African countries such as Congo for Colton) have a corrupt government and offers citizens very little in terms of human rights. In fact, you can say Sierra Leone's government worked against its people by supporting the RUF ( by trading weapons for diamonds.) This was such an atrocity that its president actually went to trial for crimes against humanity, in which he was found guilty and is serving a huge prison term. To prevent blood diamonds from entering the market which could make the problem less of a problem in these societies, there is the Kimberly Process which was passed by the UN General Assembly. Although it is questionable of how effective the Kimberly Process is, it is at least an attempt of many nations to regulate and lower the amount of blood diamonds that enter the market.
ReplyDelete2. I wonder what the De Beers ( who basically hold a monopoly in the diamond industry) had in thought while this was happening. Did they try preventing blood diamonds, or did they encourage it because it was better for business? Did they play a huge role in blood diamonds?
1.) A lot of Human Rights were violated in this movie, mainly people's right to live and their right to freedom. People were enslaved and forced to mine for diamonds, and children forced to be soldiers and kill civilians. One quote from the movie that really got to me was "I know its hard to become a man" one commander said to Dia after Dia had just killed someone. The UN should be helping, but what are they doing?
ReplyDelete2.) Why hasn't the UN brought in any troops yet?
1.) Throughout this film, Human Rights are violated strongly. Many of the people become workers for the R.U.F. and find diamonds but if they smuggled diamonds and were hiding it from the R.U.F. they would be killed on the spot. The R.U.F. would kidnap children and make them soldiers of the R.U.F. It is extremely chaotic and expresses the rights that are being violated as these children just kill civilians as if it was nothing to them. This reveals the essential rights being violated and how there voice can not be heard and if it was heard they would be killed on the spot.
ReplyDelete2.) Why isn't the U.S. not engaged in this situation as they are always engaged in every conflict in the world?
1. Although I only had the chance to watch the middle section of the film I witnessed countless violations to The Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR.) The movie Blood Diamond is an inside look at the atrocities preformed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone. Although the main characters have different agendas in Sierra Leone, the film depicts the violations that occurred during Civil War and the characters become soon aware and conscious of the monstrosities around them. Countless violations were detailed in Blood Diamond; starting from the very beginning of the UDHR; Article One states that all humans are born free and should be treated with "...the spirit of brotherhood." this is immediately violated by the RUF who rape, kill and kidnap fellow countrymen regardless of any emotion or consideration. Another article in the UDHR that stood out to me was Article Four, which states: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Unfortunately the RUF kidnapped and converted children into a form of modern slavery by dehumanizing them, stealing their innocence and forcing them to brutally preform murder. The issue of Child Soldiers can also be paralleled to Article 5, stating: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The UDHR was adopted by the United Nations on the 10th of December, 1948; Fifty-one years before the official start of the Civil War in Sierra Leone and the inhumane behavior of the Revolutionary United Front. These obscene violations were declared over in 2002 when the British in compliance with the United Nations sent in peacekeepers and a renewed mandate of peace.
ReplyDelete2. My question regarding an issue depicted in Blood Diamond is if the LEGAL exportation of diamond after the end of the war helped to reunify the nations economy? I would imagine after the government and/or private sector gained control of the previously RUF controlled mines the nation would have a fairly easy time to rebuild its economy.
During the movie Blood Diamond, there were many human rights violations. One of them was the fact that many child soldiers were used as militants. This is very illegal, and most of these children were kidnapped and forced in top this. Another human rights violation was forcing men, women, and children into work camps to mine diamonds. Families were separated, and lives were destroyed. Those child soldiers who were forced to slaughter families will never be the same children they were.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, Why doesn't the United States provide aide?
In the movie blood diamond human rights were being violated every second of the movie. people were forced to work without pay as slaves, many were killed if they decided not to work, as well as the fact there houses and homes were burned to the ground merciliously.
ReplyDeleteThroughout this film civilians were forced to become slaves and encourage the illegal acts of the rebel army. The rebel army was the epitome of human rights violations. They force children to become cold blooded killers. Killing civilians without a reason. Kidnapping children and turning them into killing machines. They would ransack villages and burn peoples homes to the ground. The UN's universal declaration of human rights was put into place to protect the basic rights every human being are entitled too.
ReplyDeleteMy question is how do we enforce basic human right in countries such as Africa
In the movie blood Diamond the R.U.F took away every human right that the citizens had from taking away their children making them soldiers to burning down their houses. Also, enslavement was torture for the people. The R.U.F was almost like saying join us or die/enslavement. Mu question is what did the R.U.F hope to gain from doing what they did to these people?
ReplyDeleteHuman rights violations that occurred in this movie include, Slavery. The RUF came into towns with guns and other weapons and cut off the hands of people to signify that voting in a democracy is not what the RUF wants. They also took them and made them mine for diamonds. Kidnappings also occurred parallel to child soldiers. Abusing children and making them do horrible things including killing and taking drugs. People lost pretty much every right, the right to vote, freedom of screech nd even the right to live. The Un has made international laws such as the declaration of human rights and the clear diamond trade act was singed in 2003 by the usa in participation to the kimberly act to try and stop blood diamonds.
ReplyDeletemy question is would the majority of people be less eager in their diamonds purchases/wishlist if they were made aware of how diamonds are not rare or is this tradition too engraved in the minds of the majority?
1. Child soldiers. Article 8 of the Rome statue of the international criminal court makes the use of child soldiers illegal. The conditions in which the miners were working in(slave labor, being watched over by men with guns) were also human rights abuses, which are declared illegal by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
ReplyDelete2. Is the Van de Kaap in the movie based on the De Beers cartel? If so are there no international laws like the Sherman Anti Trust Act that apply to such a monopoly as the De Beers cartel?
1. There were several issues illustrated in this film such as genocide, child soldiers and slavery. Innocent people as well as children were killed just because of diamond trading. The RUF army attacked and burned villages in Africa and forced the people to harvest diamonds. Also, children were turned into soldiers by the Revolutionary United Front. They gave them alcohol and taught them how to use weapons to kill unarmed civilians. A Kimberly process, passed by the United Nations general assembly was put into action to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the market. However, majority of consumers aren't aware of this process and thus, the effectiveness of this process is questionable.
ReplyDelete2. If United Nations and other major countries were aware of this situation then why didn't anyone take any effective action to stop the rebels and terrible violations?
1) There were many Human right violations within the movie, "Blood Diamonds". Some of the major rights breached was the fact that all these poor people were stripped from their homes,killed or kidnapped, and were taken to a camp where they were slaves to Rebels, R.U.F. Forced to mine diamonds for the "right" to live. If they talked back, denied or tried to take the diamonds they were brutally maimed. Hands and arms chopped off as punishment. Children made into mindless killers, forced to kill innocent people in order to earn their keep within the Rebel society, and if they fail to do so, are killed. Once this was discovered within the States, they attempted to pursue the Kimberly process to try to stop the struggle with conflict diamonds. But sadly this war didn't end from that.
ReplyDelete2) How could we, the "mentor" for the world, just sit around and "watch" this happen? why didnt they try to stop it sooner? we could have just brought troops in or some sort of help and captured the rebels and make them the captive.
The disregard for Human Rights is very evident in this movie. The citizens of Sierra Leone are never able to feel safe, this is due to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The RUF went from town to town, killing all the people except for men that would be useful as slaves in their diamond mines and the young boys that could be easily influenced into joining the RUF army. This clearly goes against many international laws, one of which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This law was established by the United Nations on December 10, 1948 with its main purpose being to spell out basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all human beings should enjoy. But sadly the United Nations never really forced this law in Sierra Leone, they sat around and allowed the rebels to take part in a 5 year civil war.
ReplyDeleteMy question from the film is, why was more help not sent to Sierra Leone? In the final battle scene of the movie one armed helicopter was able to take out an entire mining camp without losing any men. If it really was this easy to overpower the rebels, It should have been done at the start of the war.
The human rights issues that came up in this movie is shown in the first scene. Men, women, and children are massacred by a militia. They do this for control and to build a slave labor force to help find diamonds in the land. The son Dia was captured and forced to take drugs and turned into a child soldier; he was told his family was dead. The UN passed a declaration of human rights but it is hard to enforce because Sierra Leone is its own sovereign nation.
ReplyDeleteMy question is how are these violations of human rights stopped by the UN and/or the rest of the world?
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ReplyDeleteMany human rights violations were depicted throughout the movie. Child soldiers in Sierra Leone are basically slaves to an army. They are taken from their parents at a very young age and forced to join RUF forces and in most cases, kill innocent people. RUF troops strip these children of all freedom they once knew. These soldiers are also guilty of raiding villages of peaceful citizens; raping, pillaging, and burning until there is nothing left. The international community has sent in a military force that brought many villages into camps were they were told they must remain. There was a cease fire with the RUF forces, but the soldiers still exist and tensions remain high.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know if there are any child soldiers that decided to join by choice, possibly to escape living in complete poverty or because they faced starvation.