Crowdsourcing is a way of letting the public participate, the everyman, the everywoman. Hence, Julian Assanges was able to get the goods on a whole lot of diplomatic cables. He and his organization, Wikileaks, were able to give fresh everyday views on what nations do to cooperate with each other, to position themselves.

But he was also able to view the underside of the diplomatic cables. This is the side which does trample on human rights at times, to secure positions deemed favorable. Crowdsourcing could yield no proper opinion on such positions, unless one was to take the view that diplomacy has no professionals.

These professionals are the diplomats who have chosen and polished careers. They are the obvious, visible features of a country’s representatives. They do not operate without the invisible professionals, the spies and the secret technocrats. It is thought that Wikileaks exposed some of them, too. But has it been harmful? Has it been damaging?

No, it has not. Julian Assanges has given the United States a good call. He has shown some of the professionalism of diplomacy, its necessity. He has also exposed some of the apparent human rights violations, the murder of an Iraqi family and children by U.S. soldiers. The point is that the incident was on diplomatic record and is simply now part of the world Internet record. The Assanges effort did this.

With the Internet, Wikileaks lets the world know that leaders will no longer be able to hide grievous secrets of inhuman policies. Assanges’ effort is a quasi-organized one. Were he and his organization to go, crowdsourcing – the power of the people – will pop up another one just like it.

The 54 year-old artist whose biography includes working on the iconic Beijing National Stadium that was used in the 2008 Olympics, was detained on April 3 on his way to Hong Kong from Beijing.

Ai Weiwei’s troubling arrest and disappearance.
According to police in China, Ai Weiwei was arrested in connection with economic crimes, though no details have been released officially on what exactly those crimes might have been. Reports in government-owned newspapers suggest that he was arrested in connection with a failure to pay taxes. Weiwei has not been seen since his arrest, leading to international concern over his well-being and health.

China’s most famous artist and architect
Ai Weiwei, who lived in the U.S. between 1983 and 1991, is easily one of the country’s most well-known artists, documentary film makers and architects. His impressive biography includes exhibitions at the Venice Biennale show, the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia and the Liverpool International in 2008.

Outspoken critic of human rights violations
In addition to his artistic endeavors, Weiwei is also an outspoken critic of China’s communist government and of its human rights abuses. In interviews and commentaries both domestically and internationally, Weiwei has blasted his country’s intolerance for free speech and democratic values. In 2008, Weiwei withdrew from the team that was helping to build the Olympic stadium saying the government was using the Olympics for patriotic propaganda purposes instead of focusing on free speec and democracy. It is these actions and this aspect of his biography that no doubt resulted in his arrest in Beijing and subsequent disappearance.

Despite, widespread calls for his release, especially from western government’s the Chinese government itself has so far given no indication that it plans to release, or even bring Weiwei to trial anytime soon.

Aung San Suu Kyi left her family and returned home to care for her sick mother in 1988. During this time, she became active in bringing democracy to the Burmese people. Her mother soon passed away and shortly after, she was placed under house arrest for her role in the politics of Burma. She was unable to see her husband and children for most of the next twenty-one years.

She was under house arrest for the majority of that time. Aung San Suu Kyi’s husband died of cancer during her time under house arrest. She knew she could not leave, or she may not be allowed back in the country to continue helping the Burmese people. Suu Kyi’s most recent arrest came in 2009. She was finally freed in November of 2010.

In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Prize. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for her continuous fight for human rights. Suu Kyi did not keep the prize money for herself. She used the money she won from the Nobel Prize to help the Burmese people. In 2009, she won the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award. Amnesty International had been familiar with the case of Suu Kyi for many years. The Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award is Amnesty International’s most honorable award. It honors those who have gone above and beyond to protect the rights of others.

The gap between first world countries and developing countries began as an uncrossable schism, and has worsened with time. In many third world countries, military juntas or cabals change hands frequently, destabilizing the entire government apparatus and with it, education. This has an exacerbating effect– the education of the population cannot take place in such dangerous environs, and an uneducated population is more susceptible to revolution and oppression.

Is education a human right?
When we consider what falls under the scope of human rights, it is hard to see how education– the steady maturation of a population’s intelligence, capacity for critical thinking and ability to behave humanely– does not qualify. The twentieth century proved this to be unequivocally true– whether Cuba, North Korea, a host of African nations or others, the degree to which education of the population is withheld is proportionate to the amount of oppression, control, despotism and human rights violation.

What role does education play?
Education is not an accidental participant in this exchange; even in Russia and China, textbooks were rewritten to color nationalism positively and tarnish the image of rebels. Education is the key to giving third world nations a first world chance. It allows populations to reform and regulate themselves from within, using their own cultural and social prerogatives to achieve peace instead of imposing imperialistic or anachronistic ideologies from well-intentioned first world strangers.

It allows a population to develop and exercise critical apparatuses like newspaper, radio, tele-media, and the internet much more effectively. In total, education augments the lives of human beings, and the lack of it deprives them of the ability to function at a basic level in the modern world. As such, education must be considered and is a human right.

Why is food insecurity such a problem on a global scale? Basic human rights include the right to adequate food and the United Nations has set up the Millennium Development Goals that include cutting the world’s hunger by half by the year 2015. Yet, today human rights are violated as hunger increases in the world.

Hunger in America has risen by 46 percent since 2006, with 26 million suffering from hunger on a domestic front. It is not only the homeless and the indigent who go hungry. Food banks battling hunger in America report that 37% of the food distributed goes to families with one person working a full time job. Hunger in America now affects one in eight people.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that only $30 billion per year, invested in farm production and infrastructure, could erase the base causes of food insecurity in the world by the year 2025.

Not only would the programs address food insecurity and hunger, they would eradicate them by promoting long term commitments and involvement in agriculture in developing third world countries, as well as developing countries introducing the small-scale farmers into markets and stopping the mandating of bio-fuels.

Countries and nations have an obligation to preserve human rights by respecting, protecting and fulfilling the need for adequate food for all people, directly if necessary, and appealing to global communities when they cannot provide this basic human right.

Globally, governments must be held accountable for any human rights violations when it pertains to keeping people free from hunger and food insecurity in the world. They must enact legislation that prevents starvation, ensures a basic social protection and prosecutes any human rights violation that occurs.