What are myrights and responsibilities in communities, cultures and economies?

A Wikipedia writer suggested Active Citizenship can be seen as an articulation of the debate over rights versus responsibilities.The implication is that an active citizen is one who exercises both theirrights and responsibilities in a balanced way. A problem with this concept isthat although rights are often written down as part of law, responsibilitiesare not as well defined, and there may be disagreements amongst the citizens asto what the responsibilities are. For example, in the UK,citizens have the right to free healthcare, but voting in elections is notcompulsory, even though many people would define this as a responsibility.

Writing a clear definition ofresponsibilities for an active citizen is much more problematic than writing alist of rights. Active citizenship can be considered a buzzword by some, due to its ambiguousdefinition. Some examples are things like volunteering, donating, recycling andeducation until 16.

Many educational institutionsand corporations have developed significant programs to promote and exerciseactive citizenship.

Chinese Australian Forum believes active citizenship is relevantat the community level in Australia.In 2008 the Forum took an active part in a workshop conducted by the ParliamentarySecretary for Defence on promoting a greater participation of AsianAustralians.

http://www.caf.org.au/

Chinese Australian Forum provided a submission on Citizenship Testarguing for Upgrading English Language Training for new migrants and testing onmore practical knowledge and living skills rather than esoteric knowledge oncricket scores in the earlier 1900’s. CAF was delighted that the board’srecommendation to the Government was almost identical to our submission.

http://www.caf.org.au

In 1997 Chinese Australian Forum hosted a seminar on climatechange aimed at informing young Chinese Australians and promoting youthactivism on carbon emission and its potentially devastating effect on globalwarming.

http://www.caf.org.au

Currently CAF is working with ICAC to develop an education programto inform new arrivals that offering of money to school teachers of Councilplanners constitute bribery and is illegal. The program will instead providepractical advice which may include the importance of balanced childdevelopment, the selective school admission process, council planning processand issue escalation procedures.

http://www.caf.org.au