HUMAN RIGHTS 3

Sri.K.V.Kunhikrishnan: Last time I had mentioned that while introducing the subject I missed to mention an important point about the various conventions under the Declaration of Human Rights. It is about the International Criminal Court. One of the most important agreements among 80 Conventions and Covenants under the Declaration of Human Rights is the International Criminal Court established by what is called the Rome Statute in July 1998. When it came into force in July 2002 only 60 countries were signatory to it. Now there are 105 countries agreeing to it. India is not one of them. Instead, we have already our Human Rights Act of 1993, The National Human Rights Commission, the provisions guaranteed under the Indian Constitution, and the obligations under various other conventions entered into earlier. That was considered more than sufficient The U.S.A. was signatory to the ICC during President Clinton’s time. But Bush managed to withdraw/’unsign’ from it. If USA continued, some of their soldiers could have been punishable by the international Criminal Court. It was clearly to avoid such a contingency that Bush withdrew from the convention and pursued several unilateral policies like authorizing pre-emptive strikes against other countries, ignoring International Laws.
In the UN, the High Commissioner for Human Rights monitors violations and looks after complaints (The present High Commissioner is Louise Arbour). But all the international agreements are only obligations to be complied with and have no full force of any International Law. It is ‘pathetically un-enforceable’, as put by Srilankan Permanent Mission in Geneva recently. International conventions can be flouted by countries in special cases of change in circumstances. Such circumstances are not easy to concoct!
Actually the most effective instruments enforceable for any HR violations are sanctions of the Security Council.
The erstwhile Human Rights Commission of the UN is now, since March 2006 known as Human Rights Council established as a political body of members of the General Assembly for policy matters on Human Rights. It gets support from the Office of the High Commissioner for HR. As said earlier there are about 80 conventions and covenants to be monitored by the High Commissioner for HR. There are also many other organizations working for the cause of Human Rights. Some of the Major Organizations are,
Amnesty International
Committee to Protect Journalists
Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights
Human Rights Watch
Freedom House
Global Vision’s TV Channel ‘Rights and Wrongs’
Fourth World Documentation Project
The Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In spite of all this, human rights violations do take place with immunity because of the lack of a proper legal mechanism to strictly enforce even the existing laws. It is history that a sage like Osho could be attempted to be poisoned in the US, and hunted out without proper trial in spite of all the noise being made there about Human Rights violations by others. Only the influence of interested parties and organizations succeeded there against Human Rights. It appears that even Pentagon and White House had agreed and authorized the violations in Guantnamo and Abu Grieb. America’s own Newspapers have exposed this.

Dr. Abdulla: Most of the aspects of Human rights have already been discussed. I shall therefore confine myself to certain broad problems in a general way leading to a possible suggestion for a solution.
Everyday the newspapers illustrate incidents of human rights violations at the level of the local circles, at the national level or at the international level. Internationally, the Iraq and Afgan wars are still continuing endlessly. The newly found Chinese high handedness on Tibet is another violation. At the national level we have the problems in Maharashtra, Manipur and Delhi, where the migrants from other states face very serious human rights crises. At the local level, the adivasis are facing problems at Wynad and other places. There were violations in other states like Gujarat and West Bengal.
At the International level, we are now left with one super power. After the fall of the Soviet Union, USA has in some sense, taken on the role of a ‘De Facto World Government’, or that of an International arbiter. The high handedness of the Super Powers has proved one thing; that is, the new world order has completely failed to deliver, not so much for lack of means or materials as for lack of moral credibility. This has been proved undoubtedly right from Vietnam war of the 70’s, through the Arab Israel conflicts, to the Afghan and Iraq wars. The recent Chinese actions in Tibet only confirm what a big power can perpetrate in a region.
At the national level, the recent incidents in Maharashytra against migrants from other states pose a big question against the functioning of democracy itself. The hatred and violence against non-domiciles, non-locals particularly migrants, could constitute one of the main sources of hard core conservatism in contemporary India.
In a globalizing, liberalizing and ‘corporatising’ economy, we have been ignoring the substantial body of the labour force, and migrants, not allowing them the benefits of labour rights laws and the guarantees of the rights of inter-state migrants. Our Governments have no will today to turn the guarantees into practical and meaningful measures in order to respect, protect and promote migrant rights. But for a few trade unions and labor support groups there is hardly anybody working and campaigning to exert pressure on governments, employers and others to make the rights that are set out in the national and international laws into a reality for individual immigrants. This human rights crisis in this regard should really shame our conscience.
People’s welfare and quality of life are indices that measure human rights maintenance in a society or state. Improvements in infrastructure developments, growth of industry and agriculture output, more number of qualified youth through better educational institutions, are all important parameters in the progress of human rights. To achieve this, the governments have to protect the most basic rights of an individual, viz. the right to life, liberty and security. It is doubly sad that this is not being assured now. With the advent of globalization and with the mankind facing such insurmountable problems as climate change, global warming, atmospheric pollution etc, we need a effectively functioning world governance mechanism and structure that is not only participatory but trustworthy at the same time. The need for this is now felt more than ever.