So little mention is made of specifically oppressed Ethnic groups or Women, in the "universal declaration of Rights", that one wonders if these rights were ever intended to be Universal at all.
To Americans:
“That some desperate wretches should be willing to steal and enslave men by violence and murder for gain, is [more] lamentable than strange. But that many civilised, Christianised people should approve and be concerned in the savage practice is surprising… It has been so often proved contrary to the light of nature, to every principle of justice and humanity, even good policy, by a succession of eminent men…
Our traders in men (an unnatural commodity) must know the wickedness of that slave trade if they attend to reasoning or the dictates of their own hearts. [But they] shun and stifle all these [and] wilfully sacrifice conscience and the character of integrity to that golden idol…
The managers of [the slave trade] testify that many of these African nations inhabit fertile countries, are industrious farmers, enjoy plenty and lived quietly, averse to war, before the Europeans debauched them with liquors… By such wicked and inhuman ways, the English are said to enslave towards 100,000 yearly, of which 30,000 are supposed to die by barbarous treatment in the first year…
So monstrous is the making and keeping them slaves at all… and the many evils attending the practice, [such] as selling husbands away from wives, children from parents and from each other, in violation of sacred and natural ties; and opening the way for adulteries, incests and many shocking consequences, for all of which the guilty masters must answer to the final judge…
The chief design of this paper is not to disprove [slavery], which many have sufficiently done, but to entreat Americans to consider:
1. With that consistency… they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hold so many hundred thousands in slavery and annually enslave many thousands more, without any pretence of authority or claim upon them.
2. How just, how suitable to our crime is the punishment with which providence threatens us? We have enslaved multitudes and shed much innocent blood in doing it, and are now threatened with the same [by the English]…
3. [Should] all not immediately discontinue and renounce it, with grief and abhorrence? Should not every society bear testimony against it and [consider] obstinate persisters in it bad men, enemies to their country, and exclude them from fellowship, as they often do for much lesser faults?
4. The great question may be: What should be done with those who are enslaved already? To turn the old and infirm free would be injustice and cruelty; those who enjoyed the labours of their better days should keep and treat them humanely. As to the rest, let prudent men, with the assistance of legislatures, determine what is practicable for [their] masters and best for them…”
Tom Paine, Published March 1775
2. The failure to provide and legally enshrine or apply the specific Rights of Woman, while defining those of Man.
Olympe de Gouges, 15 September 1791Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
For the National Assembly to decree in its last sessions, or in those of the next legislature:
Preamble
Mothers, daughters, sisters [and] representatives of the nation demand to be constituted into a national assembly. Believing that ignorance, omission, or scorn for the rights of woman are the only causes of public misfortunes and of the corruption of governments, [the women] have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of woman in order that this declaration, constantly exposed before all the members of the society, will ceaselessly remind them of their rights and duties; in order that the authoritative acts of women and the authoritative acts of men may be at any moment compared with and respectful of the purpose of all political institutions; and in order that citizens’ demands, henceforth based on simple and incontestable principles, will always support the constitution, good morals, and the happiness of all.
Consequently, the sex that is as superior in beauty as it is in courage during the sufferings of maternity recognizes and declares in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following Rights of Woman and of Female Citizens.
- Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility.
- The purpose of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of woman and man; these rights are liberty, property, security, and especially resistance to oppression.
- The principle of all sovereignty rests essentially with the nation, which is nothing but the union of woman and man; no body and no individual can exercise any authority which does not come expressly from it [the nation].
- Liberty and justice consist of restoring all that belongs to others; thus, the only limits on the exercise of the natural rights of woman are perpetual male tyranny; these limits are to be reformed by the laws of nature and reason.
- Laws of nature and justice proscribe all acts harmful to society; everything which is not prohibited by these wise and divine laws cannot be prevented, and no one can be constrained to do what they do not command.
- The law must be the expression of the general will; all female and male citizens must contribute either personally or through their representatives to its formation; it must be the same for all; male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honors, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents.
- No woman is an exception; she is accused, arrested, and detained in cases determined by law. Women, like men, obey this rigorous law.
- The law must establish only those penalties that are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one can be punished except by virtue of a law established and promulgated prior to the crime and legally applicable to women.
- Once any woman is declared guilty, complete rigor is [to be] exercised by the law.
- No one is to be disquieted for his very basic opinions; woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum, provided that her demonstrations do not disturb the legally established public order.
- The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of woman, since that liberty assures the recognition of children by their fathers. Any female citizen thus may say freely, I am the mother of a child which belongs to you, without being forced by a barbarous prejudice to hide the truth; [an exception may be made] to respond to the abuse of this liberty in cases determined by the law.
- The guarantee of the rights of woman and the female citizen implies a major benefit; this guarantee must be instituted for the advantage of all, and not for the particular benefit of those to whom it is entrusted.
- For the support of the public force and the expenses of administration, the contributions of woman and man are equal; she shares all the duties and all the painful tasks; therefore, she must have the same share in the distribution of positions, employment, offices, honors and jobs.
- Female and male citizens have the right to verify, either by themselves or through their representatives, the necessity of the public contribution. This can only apply to women in they are granted an equal share, not only of wealth, but also of public administration, and in the determination of the proportion, the base, the collection, and the duration of the tax.
- The collectivity of women, joined for tax purposes to the aggregate of men, has the right to demand an accounting of his administration from any public agent.
- No society has a constitution without the guarantee of rights and the separation of powers; the constitution is null if the majority of individuals comprising the nation have not cooperated in drafting it.
- Property belongs to both sexes whether united or separate; for each it is an inviolable and sacred right; no one can be deprived of it, since it is the true patrimony of nature, unless the legally determined public need obviously dictates it, and then only with a just and prior indemnity.
Postscript
Woman, wake up; the tocsin of reason is being heard throughout the whole universe; discover your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudice, fanaticism, superstition, and lies. The flame of truth has dispersed all the clouds of folly and usurpation. Enslaved man has multiplied his strength and needs recourse to yours to break his chains. Having become free, he has become unjust to his companion. Oh, women, women! When will you cease to be blind? What advantage have you received from the Revolution? A more pronounced scorn, a more marked disdain. In the centuries of corruption you ruled only over the weakness of men. The reclamation of your patrimony, based on the wise decrees of nature — what have you to dread from such a fine undertaking?
#MeToo & #BlackLivesMatter today, spring from the Historical fact that the "Revolutionary" movements of their time, saw fit to shun, exile and execute these two voices, while maintaining as much of the preceding social structures of ownership and oppression, as was possible.
To Markets, an individuals race, or sex, doesn't matter. A limited range of particularity is recognized, and tailored to in a range of commodities, but under the law of the Market every one is a potential customer, everyone is equal. All you need are numbers.
Your numbers determine your access, place in line, and for what commodities you are queuing.
However. the Markets don't recognize structural, social & cultural factors, unless they are programmed into it's architecture & valuing mechanisms, ergo commodities aren't cheaper for someone with fewer numbers, even though they may have personally produced some of them, or need them more.
The actual human individual who generates all the numbers, is irrelevant in the eyes of the Market, regardless of their age, race, sex or ethnicity. In this manner equality is achieved, without redressing the multiple imbalances of power, wealth and information, or tackling the fundamental antagonisms at the basis of our cultural, political and economic lives.
