When
Rights And Rules Collide
By
Mary Shaw
03 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
In
my work as a human rights advocate, I am frequently asked about what
we should do in cases where human rights conflict with religious or
civil laws.
This question
comes up most often when we see press reports about the victims of Sharia
law, like those horrific cases of adultresses being stoned to death
in the public square. This is definitely cruel and inhuman punishment,
forbidden by international law -- but it is allegedly in line with Islamic
law.
Two cases
have come to light in recent weeks that exemplify this kind of dilemma.
The first
is the case of a rape victim in Saudi Arabia. She had gotten into a
car with a former boyfriend in order to get a photo that he had promised
to return to her. Then the two were jumped and raped. And so she now
faces 200 lashes and six months in prison, because she entered a car,
unsupervised, with a man who wasn't her relative.
When I was
young, I was grounded for getting into cars with boys. But this young
woman is going to jail. And she is going to be tortured with 200 lashes.
Can a woman even survive 200 lashes? How is that not cruel and inhuman
punishment?
The other
recent case is of a teacher, a British national, who got into trouble
in Sudan for enabling her students to name a teddy bear Muhammed. She
got sentenced to 15 days in jail, luckily avoiding a possible 40 lashes.
Wait a minute.
Muhammed (or any of the many variations thereof) is a very common name
in Islamic countries. But kids can't give that name to a teddy bear,
lest their teacher be punished?
Why then
do they let Muslims name their children Muhammad, or some derivation
of that name?
After all,
one of the 9/11 hijackers was named Mohamed Atta, which name can be
translated into "Muhammad 'Ata as-Sayyid".
That's OK,
but giving a beloved teddy bear a common name is not?
Again, it's
a cultural thing, but that doesn't necessarily make it right.
I don't want
to offend anybody, but human rights always trump religious or civil
laws. After all, anyone can start a religion or a civil entity and make
up all kinds of misguided rules for his followers. See Jim Jones. See
David Koresh. See Warren Jeffs. And see any number of ridiculous dictatorships
around the world.
See also
the U.S. Military Commissions Act of 2006, which abolishes the right
of habeas corpus. See also the use of torture by the U.S. government.
On the other
hand, human rights are universal. In the wake of World War II, the United
Nations assembled a committee, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, to develop
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which would define a worldwide,
inter-cultural set of non-derogable human rights.
It wasn't
an easy undertaking. There was a lot of fighting, a lot of arguments.
But, in the end, this inter-cultural group, representing virtually all
regions and cultures of the world, agreed on the 30 articles set forth
by the Declaration.
These rights
were determined to be the fair universal standards required to ensure
the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members
of the human family, which is the foundation of freedom, justice, and
peace in the world.
The cultural
diversity involved in developing this Declaration is a testament to
its universality and lack of bias.
Therefore,
it clearly trumps any arbitrary religious or civic law.
Human rights
are always foremost.
No excuses.
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist.
She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning
human rights group Amnesty International, and her views on politics,
human rights, and social justice issues have appeared in numerous online
forums and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Note that the ideas
expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with
which she may be associated. E-mail: [email protected]
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