by Maha Baig
What are Human Rights?
Human beings have no control over the traits they acquire through inheritance. Therefore, any bias invoked based on an apparent quality acquired through birth cannot be the merit to determine how a human being should be treated.
Human rights are inalienable and universal, afforded to us because of our sheer humanity. They safeguard everything that is fundamentally human in us. Regardless of religion, color, caste, race, and language, the only perfectly unbiased representation that is both a voice and identity of a human being is the right they hold because of their inherent humanity.
One thing that is very important to remember is that human rights are not privileges; they cannot be granted or revoked. Each and every single human being is born with rights and remains deserving of rights even if their lifestyle does not conform to capitalist society.
History Of Human Rights
The significance of human rights can be aptly imagined with what unfolds in a situation where they are not upheld. For instance, the utter debasement and downright contempt for human rights during World War ll finally awakened people’s collective conscience, and the war became a definitive turning point in internationalising human rights. Following World War II and with the creation of the United Nations, a Charter was put forward and drafted to serve the sole purpose of reaffirming “faith in fundamental human rights, and dignity and worth of the human person.”
However, the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany were realised after the war. The UN Charter alone was hardly sufficient; there was a necessity for a universal declaration that officially specified individuals’ rights to execute the Charter’s provisions on human rights. Keeping this in mind, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights in 1948 in a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Universal Declaration Of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of human beings. The Declaration frames an individual’s “basic rights and fundamental freedoms” and affirms their universal nature as inherent, immutable, and applicable to all human beings. It consists of 30 articles that establish the basic concepts of dignity, liberty, and equality, individual rights, such as the right to life and the prohibition of torture and slavery. The rights of the individual towards the community include freedom of movement, the right of property, and the right to a nationality. The so-called “constitutional liberties” include freedom of thought, opinion, expression, religion, and individual’s economic, social and cultural rights.
● The Story of Magna Carta
In 1215, under the dictatorial rule Of King John, Magna Carta was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government were not above the law. It was signed by the barons tortured by the King’s relentless exploitation of power to limit the royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself. Among the Magna Carta’s provisions were clauses providing for a free church, reforming law and justice, and controlling the behavior of royal officials. The Magna Carta further went on to become the inspiration behind the Universal Human Rights Declaration.
International Human Rights Law
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights lays the foundation for modern international human rights law. International Human Rights Law is considered one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind. As each country has its law, there is no single international human rights law but a set of agreements and customs to guide global governance. These primarily include human rights treaties or conventions drawn up by the UN with individual countries that inculcate human rights in the country’s legal system. These treaties predominantly determine how governments treat specific individuals to nip discrimination, be it on any basis, i.e., race, gender, religion, etc., in the bud.
Why is International Human Rights Law Not Upheld?
International human rights law is not a complex law but a set of treaties or binding statements that a sovereign state chooses to uphold of its own volition. Were it to go against the said law, the repercussions it faces would, at most, amount to international sanctions on trade, export, and import but nothing substantial that can prevent the abuse of human rights in the said state. Since the international community works under state sovereignty, IHRL is not enforceable. Moreover, signing a treaty or convention does not make the treaty binding for the state, it only shows a general agreement to the principles of the treaty. Only when a state ratifies the treaty does it become binding to it.
Human Rights Violations
Even though International Human Rights Law is evident in its declaration of the universality, indivisibility, and indefeasibility of human rights for upholding the dignity, and sanctity of the human person, countless incidents of human rights abuse are recorded by the minute. According to Amnesty International’s 2009 World Report, individuals around the world are:
● Tortured or abused in at least 81 countries
● Face unfair trials in at least 54 countries
● Restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 77 countries
In 2007, an estimated 6,500 people —nearly half being unarmed civilian deaths – were killed in an armed conflict at the hands of insurgents in Afghanistan. Hundreds of civilians were also killed in suicide attacks by armed groups.
On July 8, 2019, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a 43-page report on the abuse of human rights being carried out in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The allegations range from mass killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape, and sexual abuse to suppression of freedom of speech and bans on religious gatherings.
On 31 August 2022, a long-awaited report by the (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.
Since 1967, Israel has imposed an apartheid regime on Palestine in the worst case of human rights violation. It started first by illegally occupying Palestinian land, demolishing their homes, and expanding settlements to eventually killing countless defenseless Palestinians in the process just because they choose to speak for their rights, of expression, of property, of speech, and finally, of life.
Alleged human rights abuse in the southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan, points to enforced disappearances targeting students, activists, journalists, and human rights defenders, which continues to this day.
In Uganda, 1,500 people die each week in internally displaced person camps. According to the World Health Organization, 500,000 have been killed in these camps.
All of the above factual data indicates how authoritative regimes abuse human rights because doing so simply helps dictators exercise, expand, or retain their power. And it is because human rights, in their most generic meaning, preserve human dignity, disenfranchise the nefarious means of those who yield power, and promulgate freedom in its true sense that they are abused most vehemently.
Why are Human Rights Necessary?
To appropriately explain the necessity of human rights, we must allude to the epochs of greatest human failure, where we see a blatant contempt for human rights.
● Holocaust:
The Holocaust was Adolf Hitler’s plan to “cleanse the world” of Jews and communists. It was one of the most barbaric and brutal forms of targeted systematic oppression.
● Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA):
For 18 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas of northern Uganda had been kidnapping boys to train them as soldiers and girls to turn them into sex slaves of the commanders. In 2002, as many as 20,000 children were controlled by the LRA.
● Jim Crow Laws in the U.S. South:
These laws enforced racial segregation in the southern United States by marginalizing African Americans – denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education, or other opportunities.
Suffice it to say that human rights are the very foundation on which the esoteric value of human life is preserved, without which the following would become the norm:
● People wouldn’t have the confidence or the trust in each other or society to work in conjunction.
● Ethical and moral boundaries would be frequently overstepped in the most heinous ways.
● People would have no freedom to live, express their thoughts, or be their person.
● Marginalization, discrimination, and systematic oppression would become the only reality.
● All legal, political, and social systems would collapse, resulting in utter upheaval and havoc.
Conclusion
In conclusion, human beings cannot coexist in harmony if there is no proper implementation of human rights as framed in a legal system. No implementation would translate in a complete disregard for life and the marginalisation of many.
In Pakistan, most people are not even aware of their rights, let alone speaking against the infringement of these rights. In a time of great political and social polarisation, it is all the more imperative for us to understand the significance of human rights. Our shared humanity is the only basis to bridge our religious, political, racial, and regional differences and help preserve the society and peace of this generation and the generations to follow.
خدمت نامہ 