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sardonic-caffeine · 5 years

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Human Rights: An Introduction

The Human Rights Act is a piece of legislation most people have probably heard of but there’s a lack of understanding about what it actually says and does.

For a start there’s a difference between the Human Rights Act and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The former is a set of laws from the 1990s based around the European Convention on Human Rights. The latter is a state from the UN just after the Second World War which was envisioned as a roadmap to a better, more humane world.

This is a brief introduction, I’m not a lawyer, going into the detail is beyond me and probably only useful for a very small minority of stories. Keep in mind that I’m UK based and the content and enforcement of human rights laws varies from country to country.

Behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a rather revolutionary idea: that everyone, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done, is entitled to a basic standard of treatment simply because they’re human.

I’m going to go through the Universal Declaration as a quick, bullet point list to give an idea of what people see as essential to human rights. I’m going to go through the articles of the Human Rights Act in more detail to give an idea of how countries turn the ideals into law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

All human beings are born free and equal.

Everyone is equal regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, politics or where they were born.

Everyone has the right to life and to live in freedom and safety.

Everyone has the right to be free from slavery.

Everyone has the right to be free from torture.

Everyone has the right to be recognised before the law.

We are all equal before the law.

Everyone has the right to seek justice if their rights are violated.

Everyone has the right to be free from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Everyone has the right to a fair trial.

Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Everyone has the right to privacy and freedom from attacks on their reputation.

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and to be free to leave and return to their own country.

Everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution.

Everyone has the right to a nationality.

Everyone has the right to marry and to have a family.

Everyone has the right to own property.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Everyone has the right to take part in government and to have equal access to public service.

Everyone has the right to social security.

Everyone has the right to work, to equal pay, to protection against unemployment and the right to form and join trade unions.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure.

Everyone has the right to a decent standard of living, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and social services.

Everyone has the right to education.

Everyone has the right to participate in and enjoy culture, art and science.

Everyone has the right to a social and international order where the rights in this Declaration can be fully realised.

We have a duty to other people and we should protect their rights and freedoms.

Nobody can take away these rights and freedoms from us.

The Human Rights Act

There are 14 Articles in the Human Rights Act. I’m not covering Article 1 and Article 13 because they effectively state that countries should apply the Human Rights Act and enforce laws protecting human rights. There’ll be a sentence or two about what each Article says and a little bit of unpacking what that means.

Article 2: Right to life.

This actually has quite a broad application. It does mean that nobody has the right to end another person’s life, but it also means that states have a responsibility to protect people’s lives and consider whether any action effects life expectancy. Making a hospital inaccessible to a group of people could breach their right to life if it means their life expectancy drops.

An exception is made for authority figures using ‘proportionate force’ in the course of arrest, escape from prisons or to prevent violence against other people.

Article 3: Right to freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.

This does what it says on the tin. It bans to use of deliberately inflicted pain (mental or physical) using the legal definition of torture. It then expands that to include the same acts in scenarios that wouldn’t legally be torture.

Article 4: Right to freedom from slavery and forced labour.

This Article defines and bans slavery. You can read more about modern slavery in this ask.

There are a couple of exceptions, the first is sentenced community service or prison labour. The next is state-sponsered relief efforts in an emergency. So if there’s an earthquake and your character is capable of taking part in relief efforts governments can require them to take part. It also doesn’t cover things that are classed as normal parts of being a citizen, such as jury duty.

Article 5: Right to liberty and security.

The idea behind this is individual protection from unreasonable imprisonment. Essentially it means that if you’re arrested you need to be told why and what the charges are. You need to be taken to court promptly, have a trial as quickly as is practical and be able to challenge your imprisonment in court if you think it’s unlawful.

It essentially means that a character can only be imprisoned by the state if there’s a clear, lawful reason for it, such as being found guilty of a crime or being sectioned under laws relating to mental health.

Article 6: Right to a fair trial.

This counts for characters charged with a crime and for characters who think state action has impacted their civil rights.

It means that cases need to be held in a reasonable time, by impartial decision makers. People involved are given all the relevant information and have access to lawyers and interpreters.

It also means that a character who is going to court should: be presumed innocent, allowed to remain silent, told what they’re charged with, provided with a lawyer, given time to prepare their case, given any relevant information, allowed to attend their trial, put forward their side of the story and question or call witnesses.

There are restrictions on Article 6. In the UK there are exceptions under immigration law, tax law and laws to do with voting rights. People can also be restricted from accessing courts if they miss a defined time limit for bringing a case to court or if they repeatedly bring cases that are judged as a waste of time.

Article 7: No punishment outside the law.

This means that a character shouldn’t be charged with a crime if their action wasn’t against the law when they did it.

There is an exception for anything that is ‘against the general law of civilised nations’. What that essentially means is that if a character commits war crimes (ie genocide) they can be charged even if there isn’t a specific law on the books.

Article 8: Right to a private and family life.

This one is pretty broad. It essentially boils down to the idea that a state can’t tell you who to form a relationship with or how valuable those relationships are. The state also can’t dictate what your lifestyle should be, so long as you’re not harming anyone else.

The simplest part of this is characters having a right to remain in contact with their families. But it also means a right to developing a personal identity, covering things like figuring out sexuality, deciding how to dress, how to live and how to participate in society. In it’s broadest sense this means a state has an obligation to make sure all groups of people can participate in social, cultural, economic and leisure activities. It also means a state should make sure no one’s personal information is shared without their consent.

Interfering with a character’s rights under this Article need to be proportionate and there needs to be a good reason, such as preventing a crime or protecting the rights and freedoms of other people.

Article 9: Freedom of thought, belief and religion.

This Article protects the right to hold beliefs, change them and, to a certain extent, put them into practice. It includes no-religious beliefs, such as atheism and pacifism. But it does need to be sincere, serious and concern important aspects of human life.

The right to hold and change beliefs is regarded as absolute but the right to put them into practice can be suspended in order to protect public safety, health or the rights and freedoms of other people. Once again, this is supposed to be proportionate.

Article 10: Freedom of expression.

This covers public protest but it also covers the media, books, art, TV and the internet. It counts for the person giving and receiving information, so it doesn’t just cover the producers of a show but the audience as well.

It’s supposed to protect an individual if they want to criticise the government or other prominent individuals but it also covers fiction and the arts.

And once again there is an allowance for proportionate restrictions to prevent crime and protect other people. Which means that hate speech is not protected. Information can also be suppressed to prevent prejudicing judges and to prevent release of private information that was given in confidence.

Article 11: Freedom of assembly and association.

The crux of this Article is that people should be allowed to form and join peaceful groups and shouldn’t be forced to join any groups. The usual examples are political parties and trade unions.

Again, this can be suspended if it’s a proportionate response that’s necessary to prevent a crime or protect other people’s rights.

Article 12: Right to marry and start a family.

Restrictions on this right mostly come from national laws about things like the age of majority (legal adulthood) and what counts as incest.

Article 14: Protection from discrimination in respect to these rights and freedoms.

This essentially means that all the rights and freedoms defined in the act apply to everyone. It covers things like race, disability and religion but it also covers things that aren’t discussed as often, like ‘illegitimate’ births, trade union membership and linguistic minorities.

It also covers indirect discrimination. Which means that if a general rule disadvantages a particular group it’s going against Article 14.

In short-

Human rights are a powerful, levelling concept and regardless of whether your story is set in the modern era they can be relevant. Consider whether the cultures in your world have equivalent concepts and whether they prioritise the same rights. If you’re writing fantasy or sci fi consider whether these rights and broader conception of personhood are extended to any non-human groups.

The concept of human rights grew out of violations of them. This codified standard came from a background of war crimes, and that means that the factors deemed worthy of protection say something about the cultures and history which fed into them.

Do all these factors apply to your world? Do the same kinds of discrimination exist, historically or in the present? What do people deem ‘proportionate’? Did historical trauma feed in to the concept of dignity and correct behaviour? Did it pre-date them? Is there even an attempt at defining universal rights or is everything dependent on the local law and culture?

Most stories are not going to need you to go through and define an equivalent (or not) of the Universal Declaration. But a rough idea could help you sketch out ideals about right and wrong, it can help to make a world feel more consistent, deeper and richer.

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sardonic-caffeine · 5 years

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depressing but true.

this is also partly how I got into the habit of drafting short sections on my mobile. it’s hell, but at least it’s already digital and easy to upload. all I have to worry about is remembering to dry my hands before typing.

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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How on earth was Chuuya able to convince everyone to play or to sing Trash Candy and Deadly Drive with him will always remain a mystery.

Using my sneaky research skills, here follows the 100% accurate account of what went down:

On a slow day in the mafia headquarters, Chuuya, strolling by the men’s shower rooms, hears a familiar voice singing something that sounds suspiciously like Reason Living. Seconds later, Tachihara’s shower curtain is ripped to the side, and Tachihara proceeds to scream, and several shattered windows are replaced that day. It is all at no cost to Tachihara, since, understandably, anyone would scream if they were assaulted in the shower by Chuuya with a manic gleam in his eyes demanding asking, “OI TACHIHARA WANNA FORM A BAND?”

After Tachihara has put on some clothes and no longer has to fight for his life with a shampoo bottle, he finds himself in the lounge listening helplessly to a torrent of excited words from Chuuya, most of it consisting of “band” and “rock” and “ultimate cool” and “taking Yokohama by storm”. Gin makes the mistake of entering the lounge in search of tea and figs, and she finds herself seated next to Tachihara under Chuuya’s appraising gaze. Akutagawa then makes the mistake of searching for his sister, who had offered to bring him some tea and figs but had apparently been kidnapped, and Higuchi has an Akutagawa-radar.

Chuuya, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet, asks, “Who can play an instrument?”

After a very long moment, Higuchi says, brightly, “I can play the triangle!”

Keep reading

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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Height comparison site!

FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS WHO NEED IT IT’S AMAZING

I know some of you need this! (you don’t need to have giant or tiny characters either. it’s a great ref for everyone!)

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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when there's two sets of information in a fantasy setting, one for what's actually going on and one for what people believe (e.g. a certain trait that people believe shows that whoever has it is divinely blessed when it's just rare genes), and the narration is third person limited, AND there isn't a different country with conflicting beliefs, how can it be communicated to the reader that what the narrator thinks might not actually be what's true? is it even necessary to communicate that?

It is relevant when it affects the narrative.

It may be that for a very long time, the focalising character’s assumptions about how the world works go unchallenged. They may have no reason to even question these assumptions, after all they are accepted by their culture, they are the framework through which the character understands the world and how it works.

But there may come a time where the events of the story lead the focalising character to the point where their pre-existing assumptions are challenged, where they have to rethink their knowledge of how the world works.

So what circumstances could make this gap between received wisdom and reality relevant? What problems could it throw up? How will it affect the character going forward? Will they lose trust in their religion? Their elders? Will they question their place in the world? Their mission? Will they try to rationalise it? Or will they refuse to acknowledge reality? Or will they throw out their old ideas and embrace the new?

The example of the divine blessing: What happens when the thing that is predicted or foretold to happen, doesn’t? What do the tenets of their belief hold their deities do with ‘blessed’ individuals? What material proof will people be expecting? How will they react when it doesn’t happen? What will their explanation for this lack be? How will society change, or how will it attempt to remain the same?

I think a book that plays very interestingly with received wisdom is George Orwell’s 1984, the characters are expected to alter their understanding of the world at the whim of the authorities, to the level of the very language they use. Here we have kind of the reverse of what you’re talking about, where the character knows that nothing that he is meant to believe is true, but there is a great lack of alternatives. He has no resources save that which the party gives him, until he begins seeking knowledge on his own.

This is a bit of a complex question, but I hope this helps! Please do ask again if you’d like clarification.

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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Height comparison site!

FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS WHO NEED IT IT’S AMAZING

I know some of you need this! (you don’t need to have giant or tiny characters either. it’s a great ref for everyone!)

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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Chapter 66 - CORRECTION

Thanks to @arashidono for bringing this to my attention! We messed up this line the first time around (even our native Japanese speaker proofreader didn’t catch it… too much rushing around) but I’ve double-checked and so please note:

[Spoilery since as @arashidono pointed out, this is a big event in Yosano’s history, but if you have read the chapter, PLEASE click the Read More!]

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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Grown-ups are lonely people. Even if we love each other, we must be careful not to show it publicly. And why all this caution? The answer is simple: because people are too often betrayed and put to public shame. The discovery that you cannot trust people is the first lesson young people learn as they grow up into adults. Adults are adolescents who have been betrayed.

Dazai Osamu, Tsugaru

(via bsd-bibliophile)

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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My self-imposed rule to stop caring about food contained an escape clause for crab. I love crab. I don’t know why, but I do. Crab, shrimp, squilla, I like only light fare. And then there’s another thing I’m very fond of, and that’s alcohol. Ah! No sooner are we on the subject of eating and drinking that the apostle of love and truth, who we supposed not to give a damn about such things, reveals a glimpse of his inborn gluttony.

Dazai Osamu, Tsugaru

BSD Wan! Chapter 38.1 translated by akatsukijg

(via bsd-bibliophile)

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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Bungou Stray Dogs Dead Apple | “I was able to create this massive volume of fog, large enough to engulf the whole city. But how did you gather all that information?”

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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BSD Wan Dark Era Edition 30 Dec 2016 (web ace)

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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Translation: Asagiri’s Comments on the Staircase Story Character Panels (Ikebukuro Flagship Animate Store)

Hi everyone! You might have already seen the pictures of Asagiri’s comments and Harukawa’s illustrations on twitter, so this is just a translation of Asagiri’s comments on the staircase story side panels~! I might include some of my own photos but once again, if you’d like photos (only for your own use and not for posting/uploading anywhere else), please privately message me.

Please DO NOT repost or re-translate into another language without my permission.

Please note some DEAD APPLE spoilers in Asagiri’s comments and in my translation notes.

Enjoy!

(Previous Translation)

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sardonic-caffeine · 6 years

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This is an ultimate masterlist of many resources that could be helpful for writers. I apologize in advance for any not working links. Check out the ultimate writing resource masterlist here (x) and my “novel” tag here (x).

✑ PLANNING

Outlining & Organizing

For the Architects: The Planning Process

Rough Drafts

How do you plan a novel?

Plot Development: Climax, Resolution, and Your Main Character

Plotting and Planing

I Have An Idea for a Novel! Now What?

Choosing the Best Outline Method

How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method

Effectively Outlining Your Plot

Conflict and Character within Story Structure

Outlining Your Plot

Ideas, Plots & Using the Premise Sheets

✑ INSPIRATION

Finding story ideas

Choosing ideas and endings

When a plot isn’t strong enough to make a whole story

Writing a story that’s doomed to suck

How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers

Finishing Your Novel

Finish Your Novel

How to Finish Your Novel when You Want to Quit

How To Push Past The Bullshit And Write That Goddamn Novel: A Very Simple No-Fuckery Writing Plan

✑ PLOT

In General

25 Turns, Pivots and Twists to Complicate Your Story

The ABCs (and Ds and Es) of Plot Development

Originality Is Overrated

How to Create a Plot Outline in Eight Easy Steps

Finding Plot: Idea Nets

The Story Goal: Your Key to Creating a Solid Plot Structure

Make your reader root for your main character

Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense

Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot

The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations

Adding Subplots to a Novel

Weaving Subplots into a Novel

7 Ways to Add Subplots to Your Novel

Crafting a Successful Romance Subplot

How to Improve your Writing: Subplots and Subtext

Understanding the Role of Subplots

How to Use Subtext in your Writing

The Secret Life of Subtext

How to Use Subtext

Beginning

Creating a Process: Getting Your Ideas onto Paper (And into a Story)

Why First Chapters?

Starting with a Bang

In the Beginning

The Beginning of your Novel that isn’t the Beginning of your Novel

A Beginning from the Middle

Starting with a Bang

First Chapters: What To Include @ The Beginning Writer

23 Clichés to Avoid When Beginning Your Story

Start Writing Now

Done Planning. What Now?

Continuing Your Long-Format Story

How to Start a Novel

100 best first lines from novels

The First Sentence of a Book Report

How To Write A Killer First Sentence To Open Your Book

How to Write the First Sentence of a Book

The Most Important Sentence: How to Write a Killer Opening

Hook Your Reader from the First Sentence: How to Write Great Beginnings

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing and the Red Hering

Narrative Elements: Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing and Suspense

Foreshadowing Key Details

Writing Fiction: Foreshadowing

The Literary Device of Foreshadowing

All About Foreshadowing in Fiction

Foreshadowing

Flashbacks and Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing — How and Why to Use It In Your Writing

Setting

Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life

Write a Setting for a Book

Writing Dynamic Settings

How To Make Your Setting a Character

Guide for Setting

5 Tips for Writing Better Settings

Building a Novel’s Setting

Ending

A Novel Ending

How to End Your Novel

How to End Your Novel 2

How to End a Novel With a Punch

How to End a Novel

How to Finish a Novel

How to Write The Ending of Your Novel

Keys to Great Endings

3 Things That End A Story Well

Ending a Novel: Five Things to Avoid

Endings that Ruin Your Novel

Closing Time: The Ending

✑ CHARACTER

Names

Behind the Name

Surname Meanings and Origins

Surname Meanings and Origins - A Free Dictionary of Surnames

Common US Surnames & Their Meanings

Last Name Meanings & Origins

Name Generators

Name Playground

Different Types of Characters

Ways To Describe a Personality

Character Traits Meme

Types of Characters

Types of Characters in Fiction

Seven Common Character Types

Six Types of Courageous Characters

Creating Fictional Characters (Masterlist)

Building Fictional Characters

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Character Building Workshop

Tips for Characterization

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills

Males

Strong Male Characters

The History and Nature of Man Friendships

Friendship for Guys (No Tears!)

‘I Love You, Man’ and the rules of male friendship

Male Friendship

Understanding Male Friendship

Straight male friendship, now with more cuddling

Character Development

P.O.V. And Background

Writing a Character: Questionnaire

10 Days of Character Building

Getting to Know Your Characters

Character Development Exercises

✑ STYLE

Chapters

How Many Chapters is the Right Amount of Chapters?

The Arbitrary Nature of the Chapter

How Long is a Chapter?

How Long Should Novel Chapters Be?

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Section vs. Scene Breaks

Dialogue

The Passion of Dialogue

25 Things You Should Know About Dialogue

Dialogue Writing Tips

Punctuation Dialogue

How to Write Believable Dialogue

Writing Dialogue: The Music of Speech

Writing Scenes with Many Characters

It’s Not What They Say …

Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Speaking of Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Interrupted Dialogue

Two Tips for Interrupted Dialogue

Show, Don’t Tell (Description)

“Tell” Makes a Great Placeholder

The Literary Merit of the Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Bad Creative Writing Advice

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do

DailyWritingTips: Show, Don’t Tell

GrammarGirl: Show, Don’t Tell

Writing Style: What Is It?

Detail Enhances Your Fiction

Using Sensory Details

Description in Fiction

Using Concrete Detail

Depth Through Perception

Showing Emotions & Feelings

Character Description

Describing Your Characters (by inkfish7 on DeviantArt)

Help with Character Development

Creating Characters that Jump Off the Page

Omitting Character Description

Introducing Your Character(s): DON’T

Character Crafting

Writer’s Relief Blog: “Character Development In Stories And Novels”

Article: How Do You Think Up Your Characters?

5 Character Points You May Be Ignoring

List of colors, hair types and hairstyles

List of words to use in a character’s description

200 words to describe hair

How to describe hair

Words used to describe the state of people’s hair

How to describe your haircut

Hair color sharts

Four Ways to Reveal Backstory

Words Used to Describe Clothes

Flashbacks

Using Flashbacks in Writing

Flashbacks by All Write

Using Flashback in Fiction

Fatal Backstory

Flashbacks as opening gambit

Don’t Begin at the Beginning

Flashbacks in Books

TVTropes: Flashback

Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: Flashback Techniques in Fiction

3 Tips for Writing Successful Flashbacks

The 5 Rules of Writing Effective Flashbacks

How to Handle Flashbacks In Writing

Flashbacks and Foreshadowing

Reddit Forum: Is a flashback in the first chapter a good idea?

Forum Discussing Flackbacks

P.O.V

You, Me, and XE - Points of View

What’s Your Point of View?

Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid “Stepping Out of Character”

How to Start Writing in the Third Person

The Opposite Gender P.O.V.

LANGUAGE

How To Say Said

200 Words Instead of Said

Words to Use Instead of Said

A List of Words to Use Instead of Said

Alternatives to “Walk”

60 Synonyms for “Walk”

✑ USEFUL WEBSITES/LINKS

Grammar Monster

Google Scholar

GodChecker

Tip Of My Tounge

Speech Tags

Pixar Story Rules

Written? Kitten!

TED Talks

DarkCopy

Family Echo

Some Words About Word Count

How Long Should My Novel Be?

The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

Writer’s “Cheat Sheets”

Last but not least, the most helpful tool for any writer out there is Google!

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