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If we are forced to patronize a bank, does that violate Art.20 of the UDHR?
(links.hackliberty.org)
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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Philosophy
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Philosophy (from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, 'love of wisdom') is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language.
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I guess it probably depends on what the alternatives are. Is it possible to opt-out? What are the repercussions for failure to comply?
Forcing a person born on a particular landmass to be documented or jump through any number of other hoops that enroll them in organizations or institutions could also be construed as compelled association, but the courts and governments of the world clearly don't see it that way.
That gets into the distinction between the legal and the philosophical though, and I don't claim expertise in either field.
It would be nice if I could predict how a court would view it but I have about zero confidence in being able to make that prediction. Often when a case escalates through the court system there is a discussion over what law makers intended when they wrote something. That is what I’m after here. I don’t know if Article 20 ¶2 was written by the UN or drafted by an org that influences the UN. But the question is, how broad was the author’s intent? Were they just thinking about Jewish registries and the like, or essentially all cases where people might be forced to associate to each other? The wording is quite vague (though perhaps rightly so if broad interpretation is the intent).
I think international human rights laws like this are rarely ever enforced & mostly symbolic. Thus I don’t suppose there would be any kind of case law to give clarity on this.
I wish I could discuss the details of the particular situation at hand but that would be unwise ATM. I will give some other examples though:
several countries in Western Europe have banned cash payments above a certain amount (I think roughly €1-5k, depending on the country and residency status). So an unbanked wage earner is essentially forced into a shit-pay scenario IF they are lucky.. I’m not sure the gov wouldn’t look at the whole contract value anyway (e.g. a year salary). Obviously a worker could collect payment on a daily basis and easily get below the limit, but the law likely exists to block cash wages & a court would laugh at such an attempt.
the city offers public services such as public parking. But the city has recently shut down over-the-counter service and forced everyone to use their website which does not accept cash payment.
Example 2 more closely resembles the situation at hand but the public service involved is much more critically essential than parking.