Our 18th Century Bill of Rights Needs Revising

[unhappycamper]

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31510-our-18th-century-bill-of-rights-needs-revising



Our 18th Century Bill of Rights Needs Revising
Saturday, 27 June 2015 00:00
By Judith Blau, Truthout | Op-Ed

There is no denying that the Bill of Rights was progressive at the time it was written - in 1791 - advancing civil and political (and property) rights. Along with the Declaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789), it promised to safeguard citizens against arbitrary power; to protect freedom of speech and freedom of religion; and assured citizens that their property could not be taken for public use without compensation.

Both the Bill of Rights and the Declaration provided protections to ensure that anyone accused of a crime had the right to a fair trial. Thomas Jefferson played some role in influencing the drafting of both. And certainly the ideas of major Enlightenment philosophers, such as Montesquieu and Rousseau, provided the intellectual framework for assumptions about individualism, freedom and equality.

But the similarities end there. While France and other European countries have updated their constitutions to include economic, social and cultural rights (with some including environmental rights as well), the US has not ventured beyond civil, political and property rights, and the Bill of Rights has only been gingerly expanded, chiefly to abolish slavery and expand voting rights for Black people and women.

Without constitutional protections, the US lags behind many countries, including poorer ones, such as Malaysia and Colombia, in providing labor protections to workers. Compared with the 33 other member states of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development), the US ranks consistently at the bottom on health indicators and has the second highest child poverty rate (exceeded only by Romania). Of all these OECD countries, the life expectancy in only three countries - Hungary, Mexico and Turkey - is lower than that in the US, and only Mexico has a higher homicide rate. Also, compared with these countries, the US has the greatest concentration of wealth, as measured by the share of the wealth held by the top 1%.