Human Rights! Celebration or Observation?
By Kashoo Tawseef
27 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Hostility seems never ending in today’s day and age. Bombing, shooting and countless other acts, will the violence ever end? Will peace and stability ever come? The answer is perhaps more complicated than the conflict in itself. What is that which turns these common citizens into killing machines and there is no regard of their basic, fundamental, inalienable and inherent rights called the human rights. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” The subject of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issue and also one of the most sensitive and controversial one in contemporary world. During the recent decades, this problem was more political than either ethical or legal. Although the influence of political motives, rivalries, and other considerations have made difficult, the correct formulation of this problem , but this should not prevent thinkers of the world and genuine humanists from probing into this problem and ultimately obtaining a good solution. As Noam Chomsky once said, “the most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.”
In the West, though the issue of human rights was raised by the thinkers of the post-renaissance period, it is only since the last two hundred years or so that it became an issue of prominence among the political and social issues of the Western society and an issue of fundamental significance. Perhaps, when we examine the causes of many social changes and political upheavals, we will find the inscription of its presence and its principle ideals. During the last couple of decades this emphasis reached its pinnacle in the West. With the formation of the United Nations Organization after the Second World War and the subsequent drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10th of December 1948. A concrete model came into existence as a result of this emphasis that can serve as a criterion and basis of our judgment. Analysis of the ideals voiced in regards of human rights during the last two hundred years and especially in the last few decades made such judgment fair. It gave the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal, basic, fundamental, and inalienable rights of all members of the human family and it was the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. The Muslims, of course, know it very well that if the Western world and the Western civilization have paid attention to this matter in the recent centuries. Islam has dealt with it from all the various aspects many centuries back. The idea of human rights as a fundamental principle can be seen to underlie throughout the Islamic teachings.
The reports by the various human rights organizations like US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International documents the systematic human rights abuses carried in the various nations across the world including Jammu Kashmir with the protection of the command and legal system. These reports are truly an eye opener for those who pretend to make us believe otherwise. But they forgot the prophylactic words of first president of America Abrahim Lincon that you can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you can not fool all the people all the time. Addressing with hollow slogans can’t do anything. Since every year we mark “Human Rights Day” on 10th of December, but the question remains, that do we “celebrate” human rights day for human rights violations through out the present globalized world or do we really mean dealing the problem that is to get this appalling juggernaut stopped for once for ever. As Noam Chomsky said, “if we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”
It is high time that the concerned institutions of human rights must realize their responsibilities as Chomsky points out that states are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions. Instead of working on other trivial issues let them think about the basic core issue of human rights. How can institutions help to resolve it peacefully otherwise it is going to craft distances among the hearts of the people rather than amalgamating them. History is awaiting the political leadership of world to take decisions in this direction to move forward. We can hope for the better outcome as it’s only this hope left; we now can bank on and leave better future for future generations.
Bottom-line: In the words of Abraham Lincoln no man is good enough to govern another man without his consent.
Born in conflict area, Kashoo Tawseef is a student of Media Studies and political science. His articles and essays have appeared in the Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Times, Rising Kashmir, Etalaat and in other media journals. His paper about the resolution of a Conflicts and a way forward won a journalism and research award in the United Kingdom.